PM draws flak for comparing Badal to Mandela

The Prime Minister’s praise for Mr Badal was made at a function – to mark the 113th birth anniversary of Jai Prakash Narayan – where he felicitated public personalities for fighting the Emergency imposed by the Indira Gandhi regime.

But Modi applauded Badal for his years spent in Indian prisons for “political reasons”, and described him as a “great leader”. “The only crime of people like Badal sahab is that they had political views different from those in power”. Former Punjab chief minister and Amritsar Congress MP Amarinder Singh tweeted: “Who says our PM has no sense of humour”. “In its meeting held at Amritsar, SAD made a decision to launch a morcha against this draconian step after which the top leadership of Akali Dal, including me, courted arrest”, he said.

Modi said: “Badal Sahab is sitting here…he is the Nelson Mandela of India”. “Most of the jail terms of Badal were voluntary as he would always hide behind the safety and the hospitality of the government guesthouses after sparking trouble in Punjab”, he said. But Twitter was in no mood to let go a golden chance attack the statement with its cruel jokes.

Yes, the stunning revelation and the divine knowledge had dawned only recently on the Congress Vice-President.

At a time when the Bharatiya Janata Party’s motormouth ministers have provided much mirth with a few rather far-fetched claims, Prime Minister Narendra Modi unwittingly provided fodder for the trolls on Sunday.