After verbal tiff, PM Modi, Manmohan Singh come face to face, shake hands

New Delhi: Politics and its colours resurfaced once again on Wednesday after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his predecessor Manmohan Singh greeted each other with folded hands and went a step forward by shaking hands as they came face to face at an event to mark the 2001 Parliament attack anniversary.

Modi and Singh met outside Parliament before paying tribute to the nine people, including security personnel, who died after five terrorists entered Parliament complex and opened indiscriminate fire on December 13, 2001.

Wednesday's meeting holds significance as a war words ensued between the present and former prime minister, leading to a controversy amid elections to the Gujarat Assembly.

Modi, at an election rally on Sunday, alleged that at a dinner attended by Singh and other Congress leaders discussed the Gujarat elections with Pakistani officials. He claimed that Pakistan was trying to influence the outcome of the polls and conspired to make Ahmed Patel the chief minister of Gujarat.

The Congress rubbished the allegation, but a stern response came from Singh, who said Modi is spreading “falsehoods and canards” for political gains and asked him to apologise to the nation for it.

Congress president-elect Rahul Gandhi, who returned to the national capital from the poll-bound Gujarat after a hectic election campaign, was also present at the Parliament to pay his tributes to those who lost their lives in the 2001 attack.

Rahul was also seen shaking hands with Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and talking to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.