As a row erupted over Prime Minister Narendra Modi replacing Mahatma Gandhi on Khadi and Village Industries Commission diaries and calendars, sources in the government today said the controversy is "baseless and unnecessary".

The PM has styled himself as a brand ambassador for the cloth, with his half-sleeved mandarin-collared kurtas. His first Mann Ki Baat radio address exhorted people to buy at least one khadi item to help the poor.

Later, he claimed that sales doubled after his address, though these claims turned out to be based on the sales of the Khadi Gramodyog Bhavan in Connaught Place, New Delhi.

Responding to the Khadi controversy, PMO sources said, "It is an unnecessary controversy. In 1996,2002, 2005, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2016 Mahatma Gandhi photograph was not there on calendar." "There is no rule in the Khadi Village and Industries Commission (KVIC) that only Mahatma Gandhi's photo must be printed on the calendar," the sources quoted by news agency ANI said today.

During the four-month period between Gandhi's birthday on October 2 and his martyrdom on January 30, the KVIC launches special promotions and offers special rebates to boost khadi sales across India.

Incidentally, Modi already has a khadi garment unofficially named after him - the casual, half-sleeved 'Modi Kurta' - since the days he was Gujarat Chief Minister and sported it regularly in public in various shades and styles.

Meanwhile, the news was received with consternation and went viral on various social media networks with a vast majority sharply critical of the KVIC move.