Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Monday raked up the recent khadi calendar controversy, saying Prime Minister Narendra Modi projected himself as a pro-poor leader but wore expensive suits. “Look at the irony – he wears a Rs 15-lakh suit and spins charkhas,” he said in Rishikesh, Uttarakhand, showing party supporters his torn kurta.

The Congress scion added that Modi wanted to see his face on everything. “If things go on like this, you will find Ramleela actors wearing Modi masks from next year, instead of Lord Ram’s,” Gandhi said, once again accusing the prime minister of being biased towards the rich.

Advertisement

The 2017 edition calendar and table diary published by the Khadi and Village Industries Commission created a stir after it carried pictures of Modi spinning the wheel on the cover instead of Mahatma Gandhi’s. Commission chairman VK Saxena defended the move and said there was no such rule or tradition that only Gandhi’s picture could be used on their products.

Another senior KVIC official, however, had said that the decision to print Modi’s picture was made to “commemorate the historic moment” from October 2016 when the prime minister had distributed 500 charkhas among women in Ludhiana.

At the Rishikesh rally, Gandhi added that Modi’s radio programme Mann ki Baat also indicated that he wanted to silence voices of protest. “Modiji wants to control each and everything, wants every dissenter to vanish and quell every dissenting voice so that only his ‘mann ki baat’ is heard,” the Congress leader said.

Advertisement

The Bharatiya Janata Party dubbed Gandhi’s rally “a super flop” show, Hindustan Times reported. The Congress vice president criticises Modi because he has nothing to discuss, BJP leaders said.

Gandhi was in Rishikesh campaigning for the Congress ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections in the state. Uttarakhand will go to polls on February 15.