Lifting of Modi boycott a ‘corrective step’: BJP

The US Ambassador’s Nancy Powell meeting Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday was described by the BJP as an “internal corrective” step of lifting the boycott on Modi by the US authorities based on “suo motu assessment of the domestic situation” in India ahead of Lok Sabha elections.

“The decision by the US administration to resume contact with the Gujarat Chief Minister appears to be based on their suo motu assessment of the domestic situation in India. I regard it as an internal corrective of the US administration,” Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley said in an article posted on his website. The BJP leader added, “The Gujarat Chief Minister is unquestionably the frontrunner in the 2014 general elections”.

The BJP leader dubbed the boycott of Modi by western countries as “failure” of the country’s foreign policy and charged the Ministry of External Affairs for failing on this count.

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“The earlier decision of some countries not to deal with him was a failure of India’s foreign policy. It is not for a political party or a State government to react to another country’s response of dealing or otherwise with elected representatives in India. It was for the External Affairs Ministry (MEA) to react to it.

Did the MEA under the UPA fail in this regard? Unquestionably it did,” Jaitley said deploring External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid’s remark about the US Ambassador’s meeting with Modi.