Indian extremist party Shiv Sena warns PM Modi not to get close to Pakistan

In this photo released by Press Information Department, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, right, reviews guard of honor with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif in Lahore, Pakistan, Friday, Dec. 25, 2015. Modi arrived in Pakistan on Friday, his first visit as prime minister to this Islamic nation that has been India’s long-standing archrival in the region. (AP Photo/Press Information Department)

India’s extremist Hindu right-wing political party Shiv Sena has censured Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent unannounced visit to Pakistan, saying those who get close to Pakistan become irrelevant in politics.

“What needs to be remembered is that there is an orthodox belief that in the past, no politician who has tried to get too close to Pakistan has been able to remain in politics for long.”

Citing an example of the senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), LK Advani, the Sena said in a statement published in the party’s mouthpiece publication, Saamana, “LK Advani had once been to the tomb of [Mohammed Ali] Jinnah (the founder of Pakistan) and had praised him. After that, his political graph started declining and today he has been sidelined.”

“The whole country is asking if 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 is soaked in the blood of lakhs of innocent Indians,” the statement said.

Citing former Indian prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s efforts to start a bus service, and meeting former Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf in Agra, the Sena claimed that he (Vajpayee) could not steer the BJP party to the premiership twice because he attempted to mend the strained relations with Pakistan.

On December 25, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had made a surprise visit to Lahore on his way back from Afghanistan, where he attended the inauguration of a newly-built Afghan parliament building in Kabul.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had received his Indian counterpart at the Allama Iqbal International Airport in Lahore as Modi announced the unscheduled visit, the first by an Indian prime minister in 11 years, on Twitter.

Both the leaders “expressed their desire to carry forward the dialogue process for larger good for peoples of the two countries” they also agreed to “continue and enhance contacts and work together to establish good neighbourly relations,” the Foreign Office said.