The Congress party on Tuesday took a dig at Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for charging five rupees as admission charges to attend Narendra Modi's rally in Hyderabad city.
The BJP had announced that they would donate the money raised from Modi's Hyderabad rally to help in the relief and rehabilitation of Uttarakhand flood victims.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari on Tuesday took a jibe at BJP for deciding to benchmark its own value.
"You have baba's (spiritual leaders) charging anywhere between a 100 rupees to a lakh of rupees for their pravachans (speech). You go to see a movie these days good, bad or ugly, you pay 100 rupees for a ticket. Good theatres charge 1000 rupees also or rather expensive theatres and then you have a political party deciding to benchmark its own value," Tewari said.
"Is this the market discovery that they have been able to come up with? But I guess that still does not detract from the fundamental question; and the fundamental question is this the method or is this the manner in which democracy should be monetized?," he added.
Meanwhile BJP leader Vijay Sonkar Shastri slammed Congress for making a joke over ticketing of rally.
"It is not that we are regularly charging five rupees for the rally and if we charge five rupees for the contribution to help those affected in Uttarakhand floods; then it is sad that the Congress is making a joke out of it. This is a joke on the poor, on the victims who have lost their homes and are rebuilding their lives. I think that people like Manish Tewari should carefully consider what they say," said Shastri.
The Lal Bahadur Stadium in Hyderabad, which can accommodate 30,000 people, has been booked for the speech, but the BJP expects a lakh to attend.
Earlier in June, Narendra Modi was chosen to head the BJPs campaign in 2014 general election, which led to exposed rifts within BJP.
