TIL Desk/National/Mumbai/ The Shiv Sena has criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his just-concluded China visit, claiming it was a “casual” tour during which he avoided taking up crucial bilateral issues with President Xi Jinping in view of the next year’s general elections. The Uddhav Thackeray-led party claimed that Modi was trying to resolve pending issues with Beijing through “Panchsheel”, five principles of peaceful coexistence propounded by former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru of whom he had been critical.
The Sena sought to know what the RSS, the ideological mentor of Modi’s party the BJP, had to say about this stance. It said Modi had ‘chai pe charcha’ with the Chinese president during which he avoided discussing controversial issues in view of the general elections due next year.
Issues related to Doklam, border incursions and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), among others, were not taken up with the Chinese side, it said in an editorial in the party mouthpiece ‘Saamana’. “Pandit Nehru’s friendship with China had backfired. Modi has lever lost an opportunity to criticise Nehru. But it seems the current prime minister is trying to solve the issues with China through Nehru’s Panchsheel,” the Sena claimed.
