Rahul Gandhi's "toffee" comment today triggered a war of words, with Narendra Modi comparing him to a child but the Congress leader hit back by saying the Gujarat Chief Minister had given land at throwaway prices to industrialist Gautam Adani.
Addressing rallies in Jharkhand and Bihar, Modi took a jibe at Rahul, saying he has a "childish mindset" and thought only about balloons and toffees, instead of focussing on important issues confronting the country like price rise and unemployment.
"I hoped a serious debate between BJP and Congress on the issues facing the country would happen but am disappointed. Don't know why Congress have brought to the fore a leader whose childish mindset ('balak mann') is immersed in objects of childhood," Modi said.
He said that for 15 days, Rahul was infatuated with "balloon" and like a child who got tired of playing with the same toy, was from the past two days speaking about 'toffee'.
"This 'balak mann' (childish mindset) is unable to come out of balloon and toffee. For them toffee is everything but our mission is getting new trophies for development of the country," Modi said.
He was responding to remarks by Rahul yesterday that Gujarat model of development was "toffee model".
After Modi's rallies today, Rahul took the 'toffee' remark further by saying that the Gujarat Chief Minister was favouring Adani.
Addressing a rally in Hingoli in Maharashtra, the Congress leader said he would "explain" why he described Gujarat model as "toffee model".
"In Gujarat, Adaniji is given land at the rate of Re one per square metre. For Re one, you get a toffee. This is why I say it is not Gujarat model but 'toffee model' of development," he said.
"Modiji, the leader of 'toffee' model, has given 45,000 acres of land to one industrialist. It is of the size of Aurangabad. Do you know for how much money it was given? Rs 300 crore. The whole Aurangabad was sold for Rs 300 crore," he charged.
