Rahul Gandhi 'congratulates' Narendra Modi for winning Philip Kotler Award, says it's 'so famous it has no jury'

Congress chief Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday took to Twitter to “congratulate” Prime Minister Narendra Modi for winning the first-ever Philip Kotler Presidential award, sarcastically pointed out the fact that the award has no selection jury or any repute to speak of. Mentioning that the award was backed by a little known “Aligarh company,” Rahul said the partners of the event were “Patanjali and Republic TV”. Patanjali is an Ayurved consumer goods company founded by the BJP’s one-time ally Ramdev, while Republic TV is primarily funded by BJP MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar.

I want to congratulate our PM, on winning the world famous “Kotler Presidential Award”!

In fact it's so famous it has no jury, has never been given out before & is backed by an unheard of Aligarh company.

Event Partners: Patanjali & Republic TV :)https://t.co/449Vk9Ybmz

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) January 15, 2019

Rahul shared a report carried by The Wire with his tweet. The report noted that many leaders and ministers of the BJP were quick to congratulate Modi on his win. Union ministers Piyush Goyal, Rajyavardhan Rathore, Prakash Javadekar and Smriti Irani, Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh, and former chief ministers Raman Singh and Vasundhara Raje were among those who congratulated Modi. The Prime Minister’s Office, too, tweeted on the award and said it would be “offered annually to the leader of a nation” who has had impact on “people, profit and planet”. According to the award citation, Modi was selected for his “outstanding leadership for the nation”. “His selfless service towards India, combined with his tireless energy has resulted in extraordinary economic, social and technological advances in the country,” it read . The fact that the award won by Modi is not mentioned in the website or social media of the World Marketing Summit group, which was founded by marketing consultant Philip Kotler, who lends his name to award, was questioned by the Wire report. Kotler, it may be recalled, is a professor of marketing at Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management. Owing to his ill health, Jagdish Sheth of EMORY University, Georgia was deputed to confer the award on Modi, PTI had reported. Meanwhile, ANI reported that Kotler, in a mail addressed to Seth on Tuesday, said: “I can’t find the words to express how wonderful you have been making it possible to give the Kotler Award to Prime Minister Modi for his public leadership…I am only saddened that I couldn’t be there.” Among those who came down heavily on the nature of the award and its purported lack of authenticity were RJD scion Tejashwi Yadav, who retweeted Rahul and sarcastically called the prime minister “ second to none”.