After Narendra Modi's Rs50 crore barb, Shashi Tharoor says his wife 'priceless'

Hitting back at Narendra Modi for his attack on his wife Sunanda Pushkar, Union Minister Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday said she is "priceless" but the Gujarat chief minister needs to be able to love someone to understand that.

Tharoor also said his wife was worth a lot more than Modi's imaginary Rs50 crore.

"My wife is worth a lot more than your imaginary 50 crores. She is priceless. But you need2be able2love some1 2understand that," Tharoor tweeted.

Speaking in Shimla on Monday, Modi had taken potshots at Tharoor's personal life, saying his wife was once his "50-crore-rupee girlfriend", a day after the Congress leader made a comeback in the Union Cabinet reshuffle as Minister of State for Human Resources Development.

"Wah kya girlfriend hai. Apne kabhi dekha hai 50 crore ka girlfriend?" (What a girlfriend? Have you ever seen a 50-crore girlfriend), Modi said at an election rally, in an apparent attack on Tharoor's wife.

"There was a Congress leader who was a minister. He was accused of amassing wealth from cricket. He had said in Parliament that he is not connected to the Rs50 crore in the lady's name," the BJP stalwart said in an apparent reference to Tharoor in the context of the IPL cricket controversy involving Pushkar in 2010 which led to his resignation as Minister of State for External Affairs minister.

"...And then girlfriend becomes wife, we learn some time later...the issues are still not settled and he (Tharoor) is now made a minister," the chief minister said.

Explaining his tweet, Tharoor said that since Modi was "silly enough" to attack his wife, he said she is worth more than his imaginary 50 crores and that one has to be able to love someone to understand that.

"We will have to see whether he (Modi) is capable of understanding that," he added.