Chandigarh: Just hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday compared Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to Nelson Mandela, Congress leader Amarinder Singh ridiculed the remark and termed it an "insult" to the legendary South African anti-apartheid icon.

"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. If Mr Modi really meant so, it is an insult to the great stature of Nelson Mandela, who single-handed fought against and defeated the apartheid in South Africa," Amarinder, the party's deputy leader in the Lok Sabha, said in a statement here.