Stepping away from the ongoing bitterness over the resignations of BJP ministers over Vyapam and Lalit Modi issues, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday walked up to the front benches of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha and spent about four minutes shaking hands and exchanging pleasantries with them. Modi entered the Upper House during Question Hour just before Chairman Hamid Ansari adjourned the House till 2 pm amid a ruckus by Congress members and others. He was in the House for about four minutes, and during that time, he made his overtures before walking out. Interestingly, his outreach to the media was not captured by the Rajya Sabha TV, since cameras are switched off after the chair adjourns the House. After the Rajya Sabha was adjourned, Modi moved towards NCP’s Sharad Pawar and shook hands with him and Praful Patel, before moving on towards JD(U)’s Sharad Yadav and BSP’s Mayawati. Both Yadav and Mayawati had targeted the Modi government on Wednesday, over the Lalit Modi and Vyapam issues. [related-post] Modi also shook hands, with a smile, with the Congress’s Hanumantha Rao, who was standing with a placard that called for Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s resignation. He greeted Congress’ deputy leader Anand Sharma, and moved to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and shook hands with him and then further walked up to Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad’s seat and shaking hands with him too. He also shook hands with Congress member Madhusudan Mistry, who had unsuccessfully contested against him from Vadodara Lok Sabha constituency of Gujarat. The Prime Minister chated with Congress member Karan Singh before greeting Jairam Ramesh, standing three rows behind. “He was talking about his Jammu visit,” Singh said later, when asked. Moving back to the treasury benches, Modi met CPI leader D Raja on the way and then greeted his own party’s MPs. He patted Vinay Katiyar on the back while Sushma Swaraj, who was also standing in the aisle, made way for Modi. Members from Gujarat greeted him with a bow. “This is the beauty of our democracy. We have strong differences of views, but we are courtesous to each other,” Raja said, adding that PM asked him “How are you?” and held his hand for a while.
