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

At a function in Delhi to pay tribute to socialist leader Jayaprakash Narayan on his 113th birth anniversary, Modi commended Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal for his political struggles and compared him to Nelson Mandela, former President of South Africa and an anti-apartheid revolutionary.

In 2003, Badal, who has been in the office for eight years now, was booked along with his wife, son and seven others under the Provision of Corruption Act. He was acquitted later seven years later by a local court due to lack of incriminating evidence. But he hasn't been entirely free of controversy since then.

In April, his business interests were in the spotlight after a teenage girl died after being raped and her mother was seriously injured after being thrown out from a running bus. The bus, it turned out, was owned by Orbit Aviation of which Badal owns a part. He reached a compromise with the family by paying them Rs 30 lakhs in cash and offering the girl's father a government job, a deal that was likened to the payment of "blood money" by the Congress Party and criticised by the Aam Aadmi Party.

But Modi applauded Badal for his years spent in Indian prisons for “political reasons”, and described him as a “great leader”.

 

 

 

Social media users soon brewed up its storm in the Twitter teacup.