Smriti Irani targets Rahul over report on Vadra

NEW DELHI: Information and Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani on Monday night targeted Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi after a media report claimed that absconding arms agent Sanjay Bhandari had “booked tickets” for his brother- inlaw Robert Vadra.

“Eagerly awaiting Rahul Ji’s poetic explanation for #VadraTicketGate,” Irani tweeted.

The minister’s tweet came after Times Now channel claimed that “the absconding arms dealer Bhandari (had) booked business-class tickets for Vadra in 2012.”

Vadra’s reaction to the report was not available. Times Now said Vadra and his lawyers had earlier denied having any links with the absconding arms dealer.

Irani’s swipe at Gandhi, asking for his “poetic explanation”, came two days after the Congress leader targeted the government over the Global Hunger Index by citing a poem in a tweet.

Gandhi had tweeted a news report on the Global Hunger Index along with a Hindi couplet by poet Dushyant Kumar which read: “bhookh hai to sabr kar, roti nahi to kya hua, aajkal dilli mein hai zer-e-behas yeh mudda.”

Hitting back, Irani had tweeted: “Ae satta ki bhookh, sabr kar, aankde sath nahi to kya, khudgarzon ko jama kar, mulk ki badnami ka shor toh macha hi lenge (hey hunger for power, be patient, what if you don’t have the numbers, you can collect selfish people, noise can be made to malign the country).”