Cong slams Modi for putting suit under hammer

Congress leader Anand Sharma today attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the move to put up his controversial bespoke suit for auction and asked who had given him the "foolish idea".
"It is a very strange attempt by the prime minister to extricate himself from a situation of his own making. He had caused national embarassment by wearing the suit during the visit of the US President last month," said Sharma, the senior spokesman of the party.
Sharma, who is currently in Geneva on an official visit, told PTI that the Prime Minister by his latest action had offended intellectuals and the common man alike.

Stating that no prime minister of India had ever put his or her clothes under the hammer in their lifetime, he said that Congress expected the prime minister to speak and act in a manner that would earn respect for the country and not invite further ridicule.
Sharma recalled, as did Congress general secretary Ajay Maken at an AICC briefing here, how prime ministers like Lal Bahadur Shastri, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Nehru and Indira Gandhi wore only khadi.
A Surat-based textile businessmen bid a whopping Rs 1.21 crore at an auction today for Modi's controversial pinstripe monogrammed bandhgala suit that he wore during US President Barack Obama's visit to India last month.

The auction, in which 455 items received as gifts by Modi during his nearly nine-month long tenure as prime minister are to go under the hammer, is aimed at generating funds for the 'Clean Ganga Mission'.