New Delhi: Union Textiles Minister Smriti Irani on Wednesday jumped in the defence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who had become a target of a controversial meme posted by the Youth Congress magazine Yuva Desh, evoking a sharp reaction from the ruling BJP.


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The firebrand BJP leader hit back at the Congress party for making the 'chaiwala' barb at the PM, saying, ''India's credit rating rose under the same 'chaiwala'.''



Slamming the Congress party over several scams and cases of corruption, Irani said that it is under the leadership of PM Modi that the ease of doing business ranking has gone up.


The reactions from Irani came a day after Yuva Desh tweeted an objectionable meme showing Prime Minister Narendra Modi in conversation with US President Donald Trump and UK Prime Minister Theresa May. 


The word clouds indicating a conversation between the three leaders showed UK PM Theresa May yelling at PM Modi, "You go and sell tea."


Interestingly, in 2014, senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar had made fun of PM Modi and even invited him to "distribute tea" at an All India Congress Committee convention. PM Modi was then the NDA's prime ministerial candidate.


The Congress leader's barb backfired and BJP under PM Modi registered a landslide victory in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. 


In view of a massive outrage over its controversial meme, Yuva Desh later deleted the 'chaiwala' meme after Amarinder Singh Raja, the National President of the Indian Youth Congress, said that his organisation did not approve of such humour.



"Despite political differences with the BJP and having suffered everyday abuse from their leaders, we respect the Prime Minister and all political opponents," he said.


The meme was severely criticised by a section of Congress leaders, several top BJP ministers and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah.   


Hitting back at Congress, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that it seems that the Grand Old Party hadn't learned any lesson till now.


All this happened just days after Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi told over 2,200 young campaigners in Gujarat's Ambaji not to cross the limits of decency and insult Prime Minister Narendra Modi, no matter what the provocation.