Prime Minister Narendra Modi felicitates Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal on the occasion of 113th birth anniversary celebration of Jayaprakash Narayan, in New Delhi on Sunday, October 11, 2015. (Press Trust of India photo)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's comment that Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal is India's Nelson Mandela has not only created an online storm, but also prompted Congress leader Amarinder Singh to question the Prime Minister's "sense of humour."
"Either it is a tongue in cheek comment by the Prime Minister and he really did not mean what he said, or he actually does not know what he is saying," Mr Singh, who is also a key leader of the Congress in Punjab, said a written statement.
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.
In what seemed to be a reference to the Gandhi family, PM Modi said: "There is a special family about whom pages are written in history even if their fingernails break. Very few people know that Badal Saheb is Nelson Mandela of India, who has spent nearly two decades in jail only because of political differences."
Almost immediately, the Prime Minister's comment became a target of jokes under the hashtag # #YoBadalSoMandela.
Calling it an insult, Mr Singh said, "If Mr Modi seriously means Mr Badal to be the Nelson Mandela of India, then, I am sure, he might be thinking that like Mandela he (Mr Badal) deserves a Bharat Ratna and Nobel Peace Prize also and he should really lobby for him".
President of Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee, Partap Singh Bajwa, tweeted:The Prime Minister's political archrival, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted: