Lucknow: Welcoming the surprise meeting between the Indian and Pakistani Prime Ministers in Lahore, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh today hailed Narendra Modi as the “harbinger of innovative diplomacy” as he drew parallels between him and Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
A day after Modi's visit to the neighbouring country, the first by an Indian Prime Minister in more than a decade, Singh further said that the move was in line with Vajpayee's vision for India-Pakistan ties.
“Modi is the harbinger of innovative diplomacy,” he said at a function here to mark the birth anniversary of Vajpayee, who had during his tenure as prime minister travelled in 1999 to Lahore from New Delhi on the inaugural run of a bus route.
Singh said that it was mainly due to Modi's efforts that the influence and image of the country improved globally.
“In independent India, after Vajpayeeji, if there is someone who has made the country proud and raised its dignity in front of the world, it is Narendra Modi,” said Singh.
The Home Minister maintained that the “visit was in line with the vision of Vajapyee on India-Pakistan relations”. He also mentioned the visit of US President Barack Obama to India in 2010 and said that “India is not emerging, but India has emerged”.
Talking about Vajpayee, Singh said that the former prime minister's contribution, too, has been of importance in independent India's resurgence.
Meanwhile, asked about graft allegations against Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Singh said they were all baseless and his integrity could not be doubted.
Modi, while returning from his visit to Russia and Afghanistan, made a surprise stopover in Lahore last evening. “Looking forward to meeting PM Nawaz Sharif in Lahore today afternoon, where I will drop by on my way back to Delhi,” he had tweeted.
Modi and Sharif had met briefly on the sidelines of the Paris Climate Change Summit recently. The Paris interaction was the first between the two leaders after July, when they had met in the Russian city of Ufa and agreed that the National Security Advisers of the two countries should engage.
The two leaders also attended the UN General Assembly session in September, but did not meet even though they stayed in the same hotel.
They again came under one roof during a peacekeeping summit held on the sidelines of the General Assembly, but only waved at each other and did not speak or shake hands.
