Rahul Gandhi said a prime minister has a particular way of behaving. (File Photo)
After Prime Minister Narendra Modi's cutting "tubelight" dig in parliament, Rahul Gandhi's rejoinder came a day later. PM Modi "does not behave like a Prime Minister", said the Congress leader.
"Normally, a prime minister has a particular status, a prime minister has a particular way of behaving, a particular stature, our prime minister doesn't have these. He does not behave in a prime ministerial way," he told reporters outside Parliament on Friday.
Yesterday, the Congress MP had said he would not respond to the barb and accused PM Modi of distracting India from the government's failure to lift the economy and the crisis of jobs.
PM Modi, while replying to the president's debate, had referred to Rahul Gandhi's comments at a rally for the Delhi election on "youth beating Modi with dandas (sticks) over the lack of jobs and throwing him out of the country".
As Rahul Gandhi appeared to be attempting to say something, the Prime Minister remarked: "I have been speaking for 30-40 minutes but it took this long for the current to reach. Bahut se tubelight aise hi hotey hai (many tubelights are like this)".
Today, the ruling BJP raised Rahul Gandhi's comments, made outside parliament, in the Lok Sabha, leading to a near-scuffle between BJP and Congress MPs.
As the Congress MP asked a listed question, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, instead of responding, raised Mr Gandhi's comments on the PM and said such "outlandish" remarks were unheard of and must of condemned.
Mr Gandhi told reporters: "We are being stifled and we are not being allowed to speak in Parliament. They have suppressed our voices."