Rameshkumar Bhikabhai Virani, the man who gifted the suit to Prime Minister Modi, rubbished all speculation linked to the monogrammed suit.
Media reports have claimed that the price of the suit that Prime Minister Modi wore during his interaction with President Barack Obama at Hyderabad House last month was apparently Rs.10 lakhs.
However, in an exclusive interview given to ANI, Rameshkumar Bhikabhai Virani, the man who gifted the suit to Prime Minister Modi, rubbished all speculation linked to it.
Rameshkumar Bhikabhai said,” I am from Gujarat. I presented this suit to him (Prime Minister Modi) when I attended the recent Vibrant Gujarat Summit. I gave it while extending an invitation to him to attend my son’s wedding on January 26.”
“My son’s wedding was the first event our family was celebrating since my father’s death two years ago. I met him (Prime Minister Modi) and insisted that he attend the wedding as an elder of the family. While accepting the suit as a gift, he told me that he (Prime Minister Modi) was very busy for the next two to three days, but promised to wear it. But he also said that he will give the suit to charity. I said that his accepting the suit from me was a big honour in itself, and it wasn’t important for me as to what he did with it after wearing it,” Rameshkumar said.
“The fact is that Modiji wore this on the day of my son’s wedding on January 26. It was a blessing for us. There can be no price attached to this,” he added.
Prime Minister Modi’s suit is expected to be put up for auction in Surat. The auction will be on for three days. The proceeds from the auctioned suit will go to the Namami Gange Trust Fund, a programme for the cleaning of the River Ganga.
In the past also, the Prime Minister has been known to donate his personal gifts for a noble cause.
When Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat, he had raised over Rs 95 crores for girl child education in the state.