Politicians who got too close to Pak lost their significance: Shiv Sena

Criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s sudden visit to Lahore last week and citing examples of BJP stalwarts Atal Behari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani, the Shiv Sena said that no politician who had got too close to Pakistan was able to remain in politics for long. The Sena, through an editorial in its mouthpiece Saamana, also said that the neighbouring country’s soil is “cursed” because it has soaked the blood of lakhs of innocent Indians.

“What needs to be remembered is that there is a belief that no politician who has tried to get too close to Pakistan has been able to remain in politics for long. L.K. Advani had once visited the tomb of (Mohammed Ali) Jinnah and praised him. After that, his political graph started declining and today he has been sidelined,” the editorial said.

“(Atal Behari) Vajpayee had, to mend relations between both countries started the ‘Lahore bus’ service and also went out of his way to meet General (Parvez) Musharraf in Agra. After that, never did a BJP government come to power under the leadership of Vajpayee,” it said. The Sena mouthpiece further questioned what the BJP’s response would have been had a Congress Prime Minister made an unannounced stopover in Pakistan.

“The whole country is asking if the BJP would have similarly welcomed a Congress PM’s unannounced stopover in Lahore like they did for Modi Pakistan’s soil is cursed and kissing it would prove to be costly because it has soaked the blood of lakhs of innocent Indians,” the Sena editorial said.