Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi on Wednesday renounced the Centre’s claim of a ‘security lapse’ in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s security as he said the Prime Minister had planned to fly by helicopter and at the last moment announced he was traveling by road.  He later canceled his rally scheduled in Ferozpur district. Channi said PM Modi’s plan to travel by road was made at the “last minute” and only 700 people turned up to attend the rally.“No security lapse. PM’s road plans were made at the last minute. He was supposed to go by helicopter. I was up late at night overseeing security arrangements for his rally. 70,000 chairs were put up for rally but only 700 people turned up,” Channi said reacting to the incident.

PM Modi, who was traveling by road in Punjab on Wednesday, was stuck on a flyover for 15-20 minutes due to a blockade by some protesters, an incident the Union Home Ministry described as a “major lapse” in his security.

There is presently a heavy trend on Twitter with  #IndiaStandsWithChanni and another trend #PresidentRuleInPunjab with people writing on Twitter that the real security compromise happened for former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, former PM Manmohan Singh had a shoe thrown on him and in Chhattisgarh years ago when Intel had inputs of major Naxal attack but went ahead with plans and senior Congress leaders got killed as they were traveling with their convoy.  While there was no attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, among the protesting crowd, interestingly, BJP flags are seen waving too!