Prime Minister Narendra Modi routinely hugs his foreign counterparts and his partymen, but it is rare for him to have hugged a Congressman. Ashok Gehlot is perhaps the only one from the Grand Old Party who have got a hug from Modi, and the Congress general secretary claims he took it much more positively than Modi’s response to a hug from Congress president Rahul Gandhi during the no-confidence motion debate in Parliament last week.Modi hugged Gehlot back in 2013 when the former was the chief minister of Gujarat and the latter had just stepped down as chief minister of Rajasthan.“I was taken aback when it happened. It was a similar setting to when Rahul Gandhi went to hug Modi…Rajnath Singh and LK Advani were then sitting next to Narendra Modi on stage as they were in Parliament last week,” Gehlot told ET, referring to the Vasundhara Raje ’s swearing-in function in 2013 as the chief minister of Rajasthan.Gehlot had went on the stage to meet the leaders when Modi stood up and warmly hugged him.“Mere to haath niche hi reh gaye the. Socha yeh ekdum se kya ho gaya aur log kya sochenge (My hands were left down as I was taken aback…I thought what people will think),” Gehlot said. “But I did not get offended as I thought he acted out of affection. I did not say that Modi ji toh mere gale padh gaye,” he told ET, pointing to Modi’s rebuke to Gandhi’s hug.Gehlot said Modi lost an opportunity to react in the right spirit. “Unke samne ek acha avsar tha jo inhone kho diya. When you hug someone, hearts meet and it means let’s make a new start in the country by pyaar aur bhaichara, aur nafrat ko mitaiye. Rahul Gandhi took such a spontaneous brave step. It was his himmat, to go across the aisle and hug the PM. Modi, too, should have stood up and returned the hug. But he instead chose to make fun of Gandhi’s gesture in his speech. This was extremely unfortunate,” Gehlot said.He said Modi and himself, too, had bitterly criticised each other during the 2013 Rajasthan poll campaign before that hug, like Gandhi criticised Modi in his speech before going to hug him. “Par meine bura nahi mana tha unke gale lagane ka. Unko bhi Rahul ji ke gesture ka bura nahi manna chahiye tha,” Gehlot said.A senior BJP leader, however, said Gehlot’s comparison is “unfair” as while Modi had hugged Gehlot at a public function on stage, Gandhi did so inside Parliament in the middle of the no-confidence motion debate just to attract eye-balls. “His subsequent wink exposed his intention,” the leader told ET.Gehlot claimed the present scenario in the country made Gandhi’s gesture relevant. “Look at the atmosphere due to these lynchings being reported from everywhere. Rahul ji said he will win over the hate in the BJP also by his politics of love. He said BJP leaders can keep on calling him names but he will still love them. His hug was an act of love – but Modi ji did not get it,” Gehlot said.