According to a report published in The Indian Express, Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi’s suit, sold in an auction in February 2015, has entered the Guinness Book of World Records as the ‘most expensive suit sold ever’.
The suit, that was worn by Modi during his meeting with US President Barak Obama, was sold to the highest bidder, Laljibhai Patel, a diamond baron and private airline owner based in Surat, Gujarat for an astounding Rs 4.31 crore. Some of the highest bids at the auction were made by owners of the Diamond Aeronautics Company, which charters planes to fly within Gujarat and to Mumbai.
Laljibhai had told the Indian Express that he was determined to buy the suit even if it exceeded Rs 5 crore. ‘The money does not matter,’ he had said. The base price of the suit at the auction was Rs 11 lakh.
The money received in the auction was to be used in the campaign to clean River Ganga. 800 other items received by PM Modi were also sold off in the auction.
The suit became a major talking point with leaders from opposition parties claiming that it was a symbol of narcissism. The term ‘suit-boot ki sarkar’, often used by Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi to attack the Modi government, was derived from the very same suit.
Businessman Ramesh Virani, who lives abroad, had claimed that he gifted the suit to PM Modi on his son’s wedding, which coincided with Obama’s visit on January 26 last year.