NEW DELHI: Highlighting the “success story” of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), the BJP on Tuesday attacked the Congress, alleging that its leader P Chidambaram had mocked the launch of UPI, which has now become the world’s largest real-time payment system within a decade.UPI completed 10 years of its rollout in 2016 on Tuesday, news agency PTI reported.Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters, BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra said Chidambaram had called UPI a “big blunder” and claimed that it would affect the country’s economy.The BJP MP was referring to remarks made by the former finance minister during a discussion in Parliament, where he had claimed that poor people, including street vendors and those in rural areas, would not be able to use the digital payment system.“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, taking 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”.The Congress hit back, claiming 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 UPI’s “success story”, Patra said its initial transaction volume stood at 1.78 crore, with a transaction value of Rs 0.07 lakh crore.In 2025-26, UPI’s transaction volume increased to 24,162 crore from 1.78 crore transactions in 2016-17, representing a 13,000-fold surge, he said.Patra said UPI’s transaction value also rose to Rs 314 lakh crore in 2025-26, 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 that the number of banks on the UPI interface had also increased from 44 in 2016-17 to 703.Hailing UPI’s growth, Patra also took a dig at the Congress and its allies by quoting lines from a popular song from the Amitabh Bachchan-starrer Hindi film ‘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.(With agency inputs)
