Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday said that hugely popular 'achhe din' was originally coined by former prime minister Manmohan Singh and it has become a 'gale mein haddi' (millstone) for the NDA government

Days after comedian Kapil Sharma's now infamous tweet "Ye hain aapke acche din?" to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday said that the hugely popular "achhe din" slogan was originally coined by former prime minister Manmohan Singh and it has become a "gale mein haddi" for the NDA government.

"Acche din maanne se hota hai (Good days depends on one's belief). It was at an NRI meet in Delhi that Manmohan Singh had said that Acche din ayenge (good days will come). When asked when acche din will come, Singh had replied, 'in the future'. Modiji said the same thing somewhere and it has now become the millstone around our neck," Gadkari said, reported PTI.

In response to former MP Vijay Darda's query, the minister claimed, "We just used the words achhe din and it should not be taken in the literal sense. It should be interpreted as progress is being made."

A few days back, comedian Kapil Sharma had alleged that that Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials have asked for a bribe of Rs 5 lakh bribe to construct his office space in Mumbai and had tweeted tagging Modi "Ye hain aapke acche din?" The entire incident snowballed into a big controversy with a FIR being filed against the television star.

Yeh hain aapke achhe din ? @narendramodi — KAPIL (@KapilSharmaK9) September 9, 2016

However, Kapil Sharma is not the only one to question the BJP's oft-repeated slogan, which was generously used by the prime minister during his campaign for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

In the past, the Opposition parties have engaged in a war of words with the Modi government over the slogan. On completion of two years of the NDA government, Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari had alleged, "In the past two years, the NDA government ripped the social fabric, slayed institutions, demolished federalism, sunk the economy and shrunk India's emerging international profile. That is the sum and substance of acche din."

In response to the growing skepticism of the Modi government's promise of acche din, Gadkari on Tuesday said, "If a person has a bicycle, he would want a motorcycle, once the motorcycle is bought, the next target would be a car. Therefore, no one ever feels that good days have arrived," he said.

With inputs from PTI