One protected by mothers, sisters can't be harmed: Modi's

Taking a dig at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his 'danda' remark, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday that a person with the protective shield of mothers and sisters cannot be harmed. The prime minister made the comments while addressing a public rally here, even as ruckus continued in Parliament over the comments that Gandhi made at an election rally.

"One with the protective shield of mothers and sisters of the country cannot be harmed," Modi told the massive gathering without naming Gandhi. During a poll rally in Delhi on Wednesday, Gandhi warned Modi that in the next six months, the youth will hit him with sticks ('danda') if he doesn't address the issue of unemployment in the country.

The comment created a furore in Parliament with a few members of the BJP and the Congress almost coming to blows in the Lok Sabha when Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan roundly condemned the remark and called it "outlandish". Vardhan said the Congress leader's father Rajiv Gandhi was a prime minister and even he was not targeted like this.

Gandhi later alleged that the ruckus in the Lok Sabha was "orchestrated" to prevent him from questioning the government. In his reply to the Motion of Thanks on the President's Address, Modi on Thursday had said, "I heard an Opposition MP saying 'we will beat Modi with sticks in six months'. I have also decided I will do more 'Surya Namaskar'.

This will make my back even stronger to face abuses. In any case, I have been abused so much for the last two decades that their negativity hardly matters." PTI TR ESB SOM SOM.