Modi can even teach 'Madison Avenue' packaging skills: Ramesh

New Delhi, Feb 24: Congress MP Jairam Ramesh has dubbed Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a master of repackaging, marketing and branding who can even "teach" such skills to Madison Avenue.

Accusing the NDA government of "hijacking" several of the UPA dispensation’s schemes, he says it has done such "political branding and repackaging very aggressively".

Terming Modi as the 'guru of Madison Avenue' when it comes to packaging, marketing and branding are concerned, the Rajya Sabha MP says the Prime Minister can teach such skills to "Madison Avenue".

Though basically a north-south avenue in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, the term 'Madison Avenue' is often used metonymically for advertising. Ramesh says a lot of UPA government's programmes got repackaged. "The Nirmal Bharat Abhiyaan became Swachh Bharat. The Mission Clean Ganga – Nirmal Dhara and Aviral Dhara – became Namami Gange," he says. "We started Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan to end open defecation in India in 10 years time long before Mr Modi’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan.

Many people got upset when I said toilets are more important than temples. "Sixty per cent of Indian women are defecating in the open. This is a health issue, a social issue, a security issue and a dignity issue. There can be Swachh Bharat but if there is open defecation, they don’t go together," he says.

PTI