Punjab Congress' answer to Modi suit auction: Puts poor man's suit on block that fetches Rs 61k!

In an unusual protest against the auctioning of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's bandgala suit, a Dalit unit of Punjab Congress here put a poor man's suit on the block that fetched Rs 61,000, which the party intends to also use in combating the outbreak of swine flu.

The Dalit Unit of the party organised the auction in front of the district magistrate's office, which a welfare society bought for Rs 61,000, Punjab Congress Dalit Unit Chairman Rajkumar Chhabewal said.

"We are going to use this money to on different projects in Jalandhar. We are going to use the maximum portion of this sum in combating swine flu in Jalandhar," he said.

The auction of the "poor man's coat" which went parallely to an ongoing auction of Modi's controversial pinstriped bandhgala suit, which he wore during his meet with US President Barack Obama fetched nearly Rs 1.5 crore.

A Surat-based diamond trader offered Rs 1.48 crore, upping his earlier stake by Rs nine lakh and eclipsed the bid of Rs 1.41 crore of a Bhavnagar businessman.

Modi's Rs 10 lakh worth suit has attracted country-wide attention and also criticism from the opposition parties, with Congress dubbing the process as a "damage control exercise" through its auction "like that of the IPL players." Modi has made "mockery of the poor people in the country" by the pinstripe monogrammed bandhgala suit that he wore during US President Barack Obama's visit to India last month, Congress general secretary Ajay Maken had said on Wednesday.

When asked, who was the poor man, whose suit was being auctioned, Chhabewal said, "A poor man's suit can never be auctioned, but one Mohan Lal of Hoshiarpur has supported us in our cause."