PM hiding behind speaker, 'lie' that there were plans to hurt him: Priyanka Gandhi

New Delhi: Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Thursday alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was "hiding behind" Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and described the claim that there was any plan to hurt the PM as an "absolute lie".

Her remarks came after Birla said in the Lok Sabha that he had asked Modi not to come to the House to deliver his address following concrete information that many Congress MPs could carry out an "unexpected act" by reaching the spot where the prime minister sits.

Lashing out at opposition members, the speaker said the conduct of some of them in his office on Wednesday was not appropriate and was, in fact, was "like a black spot".

According to Priyanka Gandhi, the government is making the speaker "say all this" because on Wednesday the prime minister did not have the guts to come to the House.

"It is an absolute lie. There is no question of anybody raising hands on the prime minister, trying to hurt him or any such thing. There is no question. So it is absolutely wrong for anybody to say that there was any such plan, there was no such plan," Priyaka Gandhi told reporters in the Parliament House complex.

"But if you are going to allow your members to quote books, talk nonsense, the opposition benches are going to protest. I am sorry, the prime minister is hiding behind the speaker. They are making the speaker say all this because yesterday he did not have the guts to come in the House....because three women were standing before his bench, what nonsense is this," the Congress MP said.

She urged the media to ask the prime minister, Home Minister Amit Shah and the government why the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha was not allowed to speak.

"Have they any basis to stop him from quoting a public source," she said.