The BJP on Wednesday paid Rahul Gandhi back in his own coinage by highlighting on Twitter that he had worn an “expensive” jacket at a concert in Meghalaya, where the Congress president launched the party’s election campaign on Tuesday. Rahul had repeatedly said in campaigns that Narendra Modi’s government was a “suit-boot ki sarkar” — implying that the central government likes the rich — after Modi supposedly turned up attired expensively at an event attended by then US President Barack Obama. On Tuesday, Rahul was seen in a black jacket with a plaid collar at the Meghalaya concert titled Celebration of Peace, organised by the party. A tweet on the @BJP4Meghalaya handle the same day said: “So @OfficeOfRG, soot (pun intended!)-boot ki sarkar with ‘black’ money fleeced from Meghalayan State exchequer by rampant corruption? Instead of singing away our woes, you could have given a report card of your inefficient govt in Meghalaya! Your indifference mocks us.” Below the tweet were two photographs — one of a model wearing a jacket with Burberry written at the top of the picture, the other of Rahul in Shillong, wearing a similar jacket. Burberry is a British fashion label. As of 11.39 pm on Wednesday, @BJP4Meghalaya had kept the tweet pinned on its page, meaning tweets made later would not appear ahead of this post on the page. The picture of the jacket gave a price — $995 (Rs 63,254). The price got inflated by the time BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav started tweeting about it. “Cong left NE poor n underdeveloped while their leaders roam around in 70K jackets,” he wrote. During an interaction with the media on Wednesday, when Rahul was asked about the BJP’s post, he said: “I am not aware (of it).” About the jacket, he said: “Somebody gave that to me.” Rahul targeted Modi again. He said he had never seen Modi hugging and talking to a poor man. “I have never seen him with poor people.. He had also criticised the Congress’s fundamentally pro-poor policies like MGNREGA and a farmer loan waiver,” he said. The Congress recently released a slideshow of of Modi hugging world leaders. The accompanying captions had mocked him.
