"You can eat a meal in Delhi for Rs 5. I don't know about Mumbai. You can get a meal for Rs 5 near Jama Masjid," Congress leader Rasheed Masood said on Thursday.
When asked whether he had ever had a meal for Rs 5, he said he can have a meal for even less than Rs 5.
Babbar had on Wednesday said it was possible to have "full meal for Rs 12 in Mumbai" even today.
His remark came at the All India Congress Committee briefing, in response to a volley of questions, as he tried to explain that poverty has come down even as prices have risen.
When asked about Masood's remarks, Union Minister Manish Tewari said the issue should not be trivialised.
"There is no need to trivialise everything. The question is about the report of the Planning Commission in which they have compared the decline in poverty in 2004 Vs 2012, National Democratic Alliance Vs United Progressive Alliance," he said.
Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi expressed similar sentiments, saying the issue should not be trivialised by "mocking those living below or above poverty line."
"Nobody is suggesting that it is a comforting situation. It is a travesty to say that Congress and the Planning Commission are suggesting otherwise," he said.