PM had sought my opinion on Lahore visit: Sushma Swaraj on Rahul's remarks on Modi's Pak visit

In a rejoinder to Rahul Gandhi’s statement on PM Modi’s impromptu Pakistan visit made in Lok Sabha earlier on Wednesday, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said that the Prime Minister had sought her opinion on his visit to Lahore. She further said that Gandhi is incorrect in saying that the PM did not follow the diplomatic protocol on his visit, as she had suggested PM Modi to go ahead with the visit as it would be an ‘out-of-the-box’ move. [caption id=“attachment_2653378” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. PTI[/caption] “I told PM that this will be a very ‘out of the box’ move and that he should go to Lahore. So what Rahul Gandhi has said is incorrect,” Swaraj told ANI. Swaraj added that had she been present in the Lok Sabha, she would have quickly corrected Rahul Gandhi. The Congress scion had even dragged the 26/11 Mumbai attack to prove his point. “When 26/11 operations were on, our citizens and soldiers were dying, the government of India begged the then Gujarat CM to not visit Mumbai. But he didn’t listen. Pakistan directly attacked this country in Mumbai. Almost 200 people were murdered and butchered. Did he care? He went there, disturbed entire operations, grabbed headlines when our people died. And what does PM do? Without any thought or vision, the PM decided to go have tea with the Pakistan PM (Nawaz Sharif). PM didn’t consult the armed forces, he didn’t consult the officials, I don’t think he even discussed with Sushma ji,” Gandhi said in Lok Sabha. “The PM destroyed six years of our work. In one move he let Pakistan out of the cage we had forced them into. He gifted them a status equal to ours. He just went there as if its only his opinion that matters. Without any thought, without any vision he decides to take a detour to Pakistan. We spent thousands of hours of diplomacy to put Pak in a diplomatic cage. We convinced the world that they were the global supporter of terror,” Gandhi said referring to the work done by the then UPA government on the Pakistan front.