Narendra Modi visits Arun Shourie at Pune hospital, wins over Twitterati for gesture towards staunch critic

Prime Minister Narendra Modi earned praise on social media for an unplanned visit to Arun Shourie, a staunch critic of his administration, at a Pune hospital on Sunday. Modi, who was in Pune to attend the conclusion of the three-day conference of IGs and DGPs, reached Ruby Hall Clinic at 6 pm and spent 15 minutes with Shourie, who has been undergoing treatment since he fell on 1 December while out on a walk near his bungalow in Lavasa, some 60 kilometres from Pune. Modi tweeted:

Shourie, 78, a former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)  leader and a minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government between 1999 and 2004, became a vocal critic of the economic policies of the Modi government, leading to a parting of ways with the ruling dispensation. Twitter users praised Modi’s gesture:

Another user praised the prime minister for “raising the bar.”

Recently, the Modi government had come under criticism from eminent business personalities including Rahul Bajaj , who said that the current regime has created an environment of fear and uncertainty. With inputs from PTI