NEW DELHI: Congress’s offensive against Narendra Modi took an interesting turn on Friday with Union law minister Kapil Sibal blaming the high prices of onions on BJP’s PM candidate while also asking him to explain where he finds huge finds from for his rallies.

Sibal said the country suffered a shortage of onions as the Modi government had handed over huge tracts of land in Kutch, which accounts for a big part of the onion crop, to the Adani group. "Those onions used to come here," Sibal said, focusing on the alleged responsibility of the Gujarat government even though he also talked about the role of hoarders.

The day also saw finance minister P Chidambaram suggesting that the Gujarat CM needed to improve his understanding of economics. "It is good that he is taking interest in economics. As he takes more interest, he will learn more," Chidambaram said in response to a question from reporters.

At a function he held to mark the launch of his personal website, Sibal said Modi was distorting facts and was running away from addressing the media, even as he invited him for a debate over UPA’s performance in comparison to that of the NDA.

The comment, which came amid public resentment over the spike in onion prices, immediately invited a retaliatory attack from the BJP, with leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley scoffing at Sibal’s challenge to Modi for a debate. Jaitley suggested that Sibal was trying to punch above his weight since he was not in the same league as Modi.

"The kind of attendance at Modi's rallies is among the largest I have seen in the last few decades. Congress has been rattled. They don't know how to deal with the possible outcome of the 2014 general elections. Therefore, second rank leaders of the Congress have jumped in to mount a personalized attack on Modi," he said.

Jaitley also said people had figured out the leaders who are trying to distract attention from UPA’s failures.

Interestingly, Sibal had turned down the suggestion from the BJP that he should spar with fellow lawyer Jaitley, saying that the leader of opposition was not the PM candidate.

Taking exception to Modi’s telling people to rid the country of Congress, Sibal said, "Why to free the country from Congress? What has the Congress done? And today, I challenge Modi for a debate on any issue on any platform and in any language, be it Hindi, English or Gujarati. I challenge him to decide the day, the subject, place and language so that all is clear."

He further said, "He( Modi) will not be able to do so because he has not held any press conference yet then what will he debate with me. Have you heard him in any press conference? He just goes and delivers his speech from the podium. He has no vision. I challenge him to debate on all those issues."

Accusing Modi of dishing out lies, he said, "If someone wants to be the PM, he must give alternate vision for foreign policy, for education."