During discussion on price rise in parliament, Rahul Gandhi took a jibe at BJP lawmaker Poonam Mahajan.
In his speech on rising prices, replete with jibes at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his policies, Rahul Gandhi today also took a dig at BJP lawmaker Poonam Mahajan, who sat right opposite the Congress vice president in the government benches of the Lok Sabha.
"When someone goes to the market...well you wouldn't be going to the market, someone else would do that for you," Mr Gandhi said to Ms Mahajan, 35, the MP from Mumbai North Central and the daughter of former union minister and BJP leader Pramod Mahajan.
While the ruling party largely made an effort not to disrupt the Congress leader's speech, some lawmakers were moved to ask when Mr Gandhi, 46, a member of the Congress' first family the Gandhis had last been to the market.
When asked if he knew what the prices of goods were in the market,
Mr Gandhi reeled off a rate list for pulses and vegetables, alleging a 300 per cent inflation in the cost of some. "There is a new slogan doing the rounds, Arhar Modi, Arhar Modi, Arhar Modi," he said, referring to pulses or dal, the prices of which have spiralled in recent months.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who took notes as Mr Gandhi spoke, in his reply to the debate made a strong counter to the Congress leader's attack on the Prime Minister and the government, pointing out that the previous Congress-led UPA government had "left double digit inflation. And now you have a government that is taking a step by step approach to fix everything."
The government, Mr Jaitley said, was making a lot of efforts in the rural sector and that he was "confident that the high prices of dal is being looked into seriously, and will be taken care of in the time to come."
With a smile he also referred to Mr Gandhi's comment about Ms Mahajan, when he said, "Everyone is claiming to go to the market every day."