MODI CALLS SONIA, MANMOHAN

Prime Minister Narendra Modi called opposition leaders, including Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and former PMs Manmohan Singh and HD Deve Gowda, to brief them about the peace accord. Modi’s phone calls came hours after 25 Congress members were suspended from the Lok Sabha for ‘obstructing’ the House.

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday dialled opposition leaders, i ncluding Cong ress chief Sonia Gandhi and former PM Manmohan Singh, to brief them about the signing of a peace accord between New Delhi and the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN).

Modi’s telephone calls to opposition leaders — although on a different matter — come against the backdrop of a stalemate in Parliament that may further intensify following the suspension of 25 Congress MPs.

Sources told HT that when Modi spoke to CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury to brief him about the peace deal “achievement” that could not be made in the last 60 years, the latter pointed out that such accords takes years of concerted efforts. “That is true. Still, it is a big achievement,” Modi is learnt to have told Yechury.

In his conversation with former PM HD Deve Gowda, Modi told the JD (S) leader that the process he had started 18 years back had been accomplished on Monday. In a separate call to leader of opposition in Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, Modi said, “We have achieved it (peace accord) after 18 years.”

A release from the government said the PM also spoke to Janata Dal (United) chief Sharad Yadav, SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, BSP chief Mayawati, Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar, Tamil Nadu CM J Jayalalithaa, West Beng al CM Mamata Banerjee and DMK leader M Karunanidhi. Nagaland governor Padmanabha Acharya and CM T R Zeliang also received a call from the PM.