Pakistan is cursed: Shiv Sena

Mumbai, Dec. Dec 28: The Shiv Sena on Monday called Pakistan a 'cursed' land that destroys anybody who dares to go and prostrate there. In a sharp edit in the party mouthpiece Saamana, the party said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's brief stop-over in Pakistan was "an adventure" and many even termed it "a political masterstroke". "In the past, all those (Indian) leaders who pursued Pakistan, did not enjoy a long political career - that is the superstition..." the Sena warned. Modi made a surprise visit to Pakistan to meet his counterpart Nawaz Sharif last Friday (December 25) and warmly greeted him on his birthday. Citing examples, it said, earlier senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L.K. Advani had gone to the tomb of Pakistan's founder M.A. Jinnah, sang his praises, but later his political graph plummeted and today he is nowhere. Even the former prime minister A.B. Vajpayee made efforts to improve relations with the neighbour including launching the Lahore bus service and then former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf's visit to Agra. In a major confidence-building measure between the countries, a Lahore-Delhi bus service was launched and the then prime minister Vajpayee travelled on the inaugural service on February 19, 1999. He was received at Wagah Border by his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif. "Even after all this, the NDA government failed to return to power (in 2004). Such is the 'cursed' land of Pakistan... Whoever goes to kiss that country's ground, they have to pay for it... After all, it is soaked in the blood of millions of innocents," the Sena said. "Modi's Pak trip has been praised even by Advani and everybody desires a thaw in the cold relations between the two countries... We only pray that Modi should not suffer the same betrayal as Vajpayee in his endeavours," the edit concluded.