Modi’s suit goes under the hammer for Rs 4.31 crore

 

Surat, Feb 20, 2015, PTI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s monogrammed bandhgala suit that had kicked up a political storm was today sold off for Rs 4.31 crore at an auction that saw a scramble among the bidders on the final day for the two-piece ensemble.

 

The pin-striped navyblue suit that Modi wore for his Summit meeting with the US President Barack Obama on January 25, went to Surat-based diamond trader Lalji Patel and his son after intense bidding in the dying moments of the auction.

 

"The suit has been purchased for Rs 4.31 crore by Dharmananda Diamond Company’s Lalji Patel and his son Hitesh Patel," District Collector Rajendra Kumar announced at the close of the 3-day auction at 5 pm.

 

Chaos prevailed in the last one hour of the auction and bids flew thick and fast for the suit, which according to reports, was worth Rs 10 lakh. No base price was fixed for the auction of the suit.

 

The opening bid for the suit with Modi’s name in full-- Narendra Damodardas Modi-- vertically embroidered on the fabric to look like golden pinstripes was Rs 11 lakh on Wednesday.

 

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi used the suit, whose fabric was claimed to have come from United Kingdom, to attack Modi over his ’Make in India’ campaign and to show how alienated he was from the poor to have worn a Rs 10 lakh attire.

 

The party had called the auction a "damage control" and demanded that the exercise be stopped and the suit deposited with the ’Toshakhana’ (treasury).

 

"This is happening three weeks after the suit was worn by Modi... This is a damage control exercise. Damage control of his reputation," Congress General Secretary Ajay Maken had said after the monogrammed dress had been slammed by another party leader Jairam Ramesh, who called the Prime Minister a "Megalomaniac".

 

Citing the statute book, the Opposition also questioned the propriety of the Prime Minister accepting such an expensive gift from a person not related to him.

 

AAP too had ridiculed Modi over the auction of his suit. "Narendra Modi and the BJP have mastered the art of marketing. The sale of the suit is nothing, but marketing itself," senior party leader Ashutosh said.

 

"This is DCPR, Damage Control Public Relations, this has nothing to do with Ganga cleaning," TMC leader Derek O’Brien, MP, tweeted.

 

BJP weathered strident criticism from rivals with a brave face. "Probably, they are unable to digest that an ordinary person like Modi has risen to such a position and that is why the Congress is attacking him like this," its spokesman Sudhanshu Trivedi said.

 

Amid the swirling controversy over the suit, a NRI Gujarati businessman Ramesh B Virani had claimed he gifted it to Modi when he had gone to invite him for his son’s wedding.

 

"At that time, he (Modi) told me that he has a very busy schedule ahead and also that he will be donating the suit. I said there is no problem with that. I told him that I want him to wear the suit on the day of my son’s wedding as a blessing," Virani said, but parried questions about the cost of the suit as it had been bought by his son, who was abroad.

 

The suit was tailored by ’Jade Blue’ in Ahmedabad, a clothing chain that handles Modi’s wardrobe.