'Night watchman' jibe: Modi threatens to sue Cong leader

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has threatened to initiate legal proceedings against a local Congress leader for serving a notice -- asking him to apologise and withdraw his remarks calling Prime Minister Manmohan Singh a ‘night watchman’ of the Gandhi family.

Replying to the legal notice issued in March by former Pradesh Congress Member K K Benson, Modi, through his advocates K N Subba Reddy and Vivek Reddy, asked him not to initiate any "false, frivolous and adventuristic complaint against him."

"In spite of this advice, if you (Benson) were to institute any such false and frivolous complaint, I will not only be constrained to defend the same, but also initiate appropriate legal proceedings against you, both civil and criminal, at your sole risk and cost," Modi said in the reply.

Modi claimed that he had not insulted, degraded and defamed the PM in public by calling him a ‘night watchman’ and added that the demand that he apologise for it "is wholly untenable."

Benson had served a legal notice to Modi, asking him to apologise and withdraw his remarks calling the prime minister a ‘night watchman’ of the Sonia Gandhi family.

Without naming Manmohan Singh, Modi on March 3 had said the Congress appointed a ‘night watchman’ to keep the seat warm for the first family of the Congress.

"They did not realise that the night will be so long and dark. As a buffer, they appointed an economist to the post," Modi had said.