New Delhi: After a bitter war of words during a keenly contested Gujarat election, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his predecessor Dr. Manmohan Singh met at a function at the Parliament House on Wednesday and shook hands.
The chance meeting happened at the fore-court of the Parliament House where the top political leadership of the country, including senior ministers and opposition leaders, including Rahul and Sonia Gandhi had gathered to pay homage to the martyrs of the 2001 Parliament terror attack.
The acrimonious campaign in Gujarat came to an end on Tuesday evening.
In the last phase, in a no holds barred attack, the Prime Minister alluded in one of his speeches that the Congress leadership was conspiring with Pakistan to defeat BJP in the Gujarat elections.
“There were media reports yesterday about a meeting at Mani Shankar Aiyar's house. It was attended by Pakistan's high commissioner, Pakistan's former foreign minister, India's former vice president and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh," Modi alleged.
PM Modi was referring to a dinner meeting held at Mani Shankar Aiyar's residence last week which was attended by some former Pakistani diplomats and ministers. Also present were former PM Manmohan Singh, former vice-president Hamid Ansari along with several other Congress leaders and former Army chiefs.
"And, after that meeting, people of Gujarat, backward communities, poor people and Modi were insulted. Don't you think such events raise doubts," Modi asked. He said the Congress should inform the people of the country what exactly it was up to.
In an uncharacteristically sharp rebuttal, Dr Singh said that he and the Congress party do not need sermons on nationalism from people with “compromised record".
Demanding an apology from PM Modi, the soft spoken former Prime Minister had said that he was anguished by the falsehoods being spread to score political points ahead of the Gujarat elections.
“Fearing imminent defeat in Gujarat, desperation of Prime Minister to hurl every abuse and latch on to every straw is palpable," he said, adding that no one, including Modi can question his track record.
So in Parliament on Wednesday, after the heat and the dust of the campaign, some other BJP leaders including law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad were seen animatedly chatting with Congress President-elect Rahul Gandhi.
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