Prime Minister Narendra Modi clarified regarding the ongoing rumour on Twitter. (File)

Expressing his disapproval of a reported campaign that people should give him a standing ovation for five minutes, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Wednesday said it appears to be a mischief to drag him into a controversy.

The Prime Minister, in a series of tweets in Hindi, said maybe it is someone’s goodwill but said “yet I insist that if you really have so much love and want to honour Modi, then take the responsibility of a poor family, at least as long as the coronavirus crisis exists.”

मेरे ध्यान में लाया गया है कि कुछ लोग यह मुहिम चला रहे हैं कि 5 मिनट खड़े रहकर मोदी को सम्मानित किया जाए। पहली नजर में तो यह मोदी को विवादों में घसीटने की कोई खुराफात लगती है।

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 8, 2020

“There can be no greater honour for me than this,” he added.

PM Modi said it has been brought to his notice that some people are running this campaign to honour him by giving him a standing ovation for five minutes.  “At first sight, it appears to be a mischief to drag Modi in a controversy,” he wrote.

His tweets were in response to an unsigned message circulating online that asked people to give him a standing ovation for five minutes at 5 pm on Sunday for the work he has been doing for the nation.

Earlier, PM Modi had appealed the nation to lit diyas, candles and flashed torchlights to “challenge the darkness of the coronavirus” outbreak on April 5 for nine minutes at 9 pm. Whereas, on March 22, the day when the country observed Janata curfew, people responded to PM Modi’s call by beating thalis and clapping as a gesture to laud healthcare workers.