Golgappa and vegetable sellers far intelligent than Rahul: BJP attacks Congress for 'mocking' UPI

NEW DELHI: Highlighting the "success story" of the Unified Payments Interface, the BJP on Tuesday attacked the Congress, saying its leader P Chidambaram had mocked the launch of UPI which has become the world's largest real-time payment system in a decade.

The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) on Tuesday completed a decade of its rollout in 2016.

Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters, BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra said Chidambaram called UPI a "big blunder" and had claimed that it would impact the country's economy.

The BJP MP was referring to the former finance minister's remarks on the digital payment system during a discussion in Parliament, where he claimed that the poor, like street vendors, and people in rural areas would be unable to use it.

"Mr Chidambaram, in your part of the country, in my part of the country, and in every part of the country, the amma selling vegetables is smarter than Rahul Gandhi," the BJP leader said.

"Chidambaram had mocked golgappa sellers. Today, Paytm (digital transaction system) is available even at golgappa shops. A golgappa seller is smarter than Rahul Gandhi. Rahul Gandhi should learn from them," Patra said in a swipe at Congress leaders.

"Don't underestimate the intelligence of a vegetable vendor. Don't underestimate the intelligence of a small-time worker. People are far more intelligent than the Gandhi family and its dynasty," Patra added.

Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw also posted Chidambaram's speech on X and said, "10 years of proving them wrong".

Hitting back, the Congress claimed that former prime minister Manmohan Singh laid the foundation on which India's digital payments infrastructure stands today.

"And, more importantly, let us ignore the petty, credit-hungry people who do too little and talk far too much - albeit with the help of a teleprompter," party MP Pawan Khera said.

On the UPI's "success story", Patra said its initial transaction volume was 1.78 crore with a transaction value of Rs 0.07 lakh crore.

In 2025-26, the UPI's transaction volume increased to 24,162 crore from 1.78 crore transactions in 2016-17, showing a whopping 13,000-fold surge in transactions, he said

Patra said UPI's transaction value also rose to Rs 314 lakh crore in 2025-26, showing a 4,000-fold increase from Rs 0.07 lakh crore in 2016-17.

"Today UPI has become the world's biggest platform for real-time digital payments with it being available in 11 countries," he said, adding the number of banks on the UPI interface has also increased from 44 in 2016-17 to 703 today.

Hailing the growth of the UPI, Patra also took a dig at the Congress and its allies, using a few lines from a famous song of the Amitabh Bachchan-starrer Hindi movie 'Silsila'.

"Ye kahan aa gaye hum yun hi saath chalte chalte (Where have we arrived as we walked together?). Silsila. That song comes to mind. Who is walking together? The people and Modiji; the people and the NDA government," the BJP leader said.

"On the other hand, there is the UPA. They say: 'Tum hote to aisa hota, tum hote to waisa hota' (If you were there, this would have happened; if you were there, that would have happened."

"With this, they imply that if they had been in charge, WhatsApp might have been named 'Rajiv Gandhi Gap-Shap Yojana' and every statue would have been named after the Gandhi family," Patra said.