''Popular'' PM Narendra Modi mobbed by media for ''selfie''

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who attended the `Diwali Milan` lunch hosted at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) headquarters here, interacted with the journalists and was later mobbed by them for a `selfie`.

He waded with folded hands through the sea of scribes as everyone had their cell phones out to click a picture with him.

Addressing the media earlier, Prime Minister Modi emphasised on the importance of festivals and their celebration in the nation.

"I wanted to host this event around Diwali, but I was indisposed. It`s good it`s happening now or else we would have had to wait till Christmas," he jested.

He asserted the importance of festivals in the country and said that the celebrations in itself were an example of India`s great unity and diversity.

"Celebrating a festival gives direction as well as strength to the society. I can`t imagine the number of stories that can be churned if we sit to analyse the impact of our festivals in our society. If you take the Kumbh Mela for example, a small Europe comes and assembles by the Ganga every day. That much is the number of people, who gather at the event. This signifies strength," the Prime Minister said.

The Prime Minister was accompanied by BJP president Amit Shah, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu.Senior BJP ministers Nitin Gadkari, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Nirmala Sitharaman, Smriti Irani were also present at the event.This event comes a day after Prime Minister Modi broke the ice with Congress president Sonia Gandhi and his predecessor Manmohan Singh, whom he invited over for tea, to talk about the landmark Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill and for the smooth running of the Parliament.