Rahul takes poetic dig at Delhi's smog situation, questions PM's silence

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Monday recalled lines from a Bollywood film song to take an apparent swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the toxic air in the national capital.

Gandhi gave a new twist to a couplet from a song in the 1978 film "Gaman", which looked at life in a city, and without naming Modi, indirectly referred to government inaction on pollution.

"Seene mein jalan/aankhon mein toofaan sa kyun hai/ iss sheher mein/ har shaks/ pareshaan saa kyun hai...(Pain in the breast, storm in the eyes/ why is everybody in the city so troubled)," he tweeted, in a clear allusion to the high levels of air pollution.

He added a new line to the words, bringing in a "Saheb" who remains quiet despite being in the know.

"Kya batayeinge Saheb, sab jaankar anjaan kyun hain," Gandhi said on Twitter.

He also posted with his tweet a picture of children wearing masks and a news report that said 18 lakh people died in India because of air pollution.

The Congress vice president has these days taken to Twitter with a series of one-liners, often using popular cultural idioms, to attack Modi, his ministers and the government.

In a recent tweet, he had drawn a comparison between the government's GST and Bollywood villain Gabbar Singh from the film Sholay.

Today's tweet comes in the wake of a toxic haze enveloping Delhi and surrounding areas, leaving people gasping for breath.