Rawal tweets on Modi meme, gets panned by Congress

The sparring over a deleted meme on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'chaiwala' past continued as BJP MP Paresh Rawal took a swipe at the Congress saying the "chai-wala is any day better than your bar-wala", only to get a cutting retort from the Congress today.

Rawal deleted his Twitter comment last night, saying it was "in a bad taste" and apologised for it.

On the backfoot over the meme put out by its youth wing's online magazine 'Yuva Desh' on Twitter yesterday, the Congress was quick to hit out at Rawal.

The party questioned the actor-turned-politician's integrity and demanded Modi to apologise and act against him.

The meme by the Congress' youth wing that unleashed a political firestorm contained a photograph of Modi, US President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May engaged in a conversation.

Modi is seen as telling the two leaders about the opposition's memes targeting him. He mispronounces the word as "mainmain". Trump corrects him, saying the word is pronounced as "meem", while May tells him to go and sell tea. The meme was deleted later with the Congress apologising for it.

Reacting on the issue, Rawal tweeted late night yesterday, "Our chai-wala is any day better than your Bar- Wala!"

He deleted it and said, "deleted the tweet as it's in bad taste n I apologise for hurting feelings."

Latching onto his tweet, Congress' chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala accused the MP from poll-bound Gujarat of resorting to cheapness.

Though it was not clear at whom Rawal's comment was directed at, Surjewala wondered "if it was the BJP's definition of respecting women".

"Modiji should apologise and take action. Whether Bhakt channels will show guts?" he asked, apparently asking a section of the media whether it will air the news.

Asked about Rawal's comment, senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal alleged that almost all the leaders in the BJP use such language.

"The prime minister (when he was the chief minister of Gujarat) would also speak such things. Now their Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister (Yogi Adityanath) talks such things. The BJP workers too talk like that. We don't do that," he added.