Khadi row: Centre enhancing 'brand Modi' with 'expensive brand' Mahatma, says Tharoor

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Sunday said the replacement of Mahatma Gandhi picture with that of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's on the calendar of the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) is an effort of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government to enhance the latter's brand.

"It is some sort of marketing logic that has been attempted by the government to enhance brand Modi with expensive brand like Mahatma," said Tharoor.

Tharoor said that the efforts made by the ruling BJP-led NDA government to make Prime Minister Modi a face of Khadi Calendar are futile.

"Honestly I don't think that anybody can replace Mahatma Gnadhi's place both in the creation and propagation of Khadi and of course in the nation's imaginations on this subject," he said.

Earlier on Thursday, in a major development, Mahatma Gandhi's picture weaving khadi on a simple charkha, wearing his trademark cloth has been replaced by Prime Minister Modi's picture in the same classic pose as that of the former in the KVIC diary and calendar.