Hitting out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, NDA ally Shiv Sena on Tuesday blamed the Pathankot attack on his Lahore diplomacy, saying it was time for him to focus on India rather than “trying to unite the world” even as sparks flew between BJP and Congress over his Pakistan policy.
“Seven of our soldiers get martyred in return for a cup of tea with Nawaz Sharif,” said the Sena, which shares an uneasy alliance with its senior partner BJP, adding it had warned Modi not to trust Pakistan. Modi paid a surprise visit to Lahore and met the Pakistan Premier on December 25. In a hard-hitting editorial in party mouthpiece ‘Saamana’, the Sena said, “The Prime Minister was in Lahore only last week as a guest of his counterpart Nawaz Sharif. At that time, we had warned him not to trust Pakistan.” “See how we have been betrayed today.”
The Sena also said that had the Congress been in power today, there would have been demands to strike at Pakistan and avenge the deaths of soldiers, but now nothing is being done about the attack on IAF base in Pathankot in Punjab last Saturday in which seven security personnel were killed.
“The only national work being done is condoling the deaths of soldiers on (social networking site) twitter. But why have these soldiers died? PM Modi is trying to unite the world, but time has now come for him to concentrate on India,” it said.