"Why would anyone holiday on an aircraft carrier? It's not a cruise ship!" said Rahul Gandhi in an interview with Hindustan Times, admitting that he had visited IAS Viraat with his father and late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. He said that it was not a vacation and an official trip.
Gandhi was responding to the claims made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi that Rajiv Gandhi misused the Indian Navy ship as his “personal taxi” during a vacation in Lakshadweep in 1987.