Sushma counters Rahul's claim, says she knew about Modi's meeting with Sharif

New Delhi: Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj on Thursday countered Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi's claim that she did not know about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif. She said she was well aware of the developments of the talks between the two Prime Ministers.

"When Rahul Gandhi made this statement, I wasn't present there in the house. If I would had been there I would have responded to him then & there. I reached home and heard his speech. He said that even I was unaware of Prime Minister Modi’s trip to Lahore, well let me correct the record. When Prime Minister Modi had a conversation with Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, he immediately called me to know my opinion," she said.

She also added that she encouraged Modi to meet Sharif. "I told him that it would be an out of the box initiative and insisted him to go to Lahore. The whole country saw when I received him at the Airport and for about ten minutes, we had our conversation. I acknowledged him of the positive response of the country about his visit," she said.

Rahul on Wednesday took potshots at the PM and his team claiming that he does not consult his Cabinet members before taking decisions concerning their ministries. He asserted that Swaraj was not consulted on the Pakistan policy and Home Minister Rajnath Singh was unaware of the Nagaland accord.

In a Facebook post, Jaitley said the prime minister not only works hard and involves himself in the functioning of the various departments of the government but also inspires his team to work harder. "As one evolves from a young to a middle-aged one, we certainly expect a certain level of maturity. The more I hear Shri Rahul Gandhi, the more I start wondering 'how much does he know – when will he know'," he said.

"The Prime Minister should be the natural leader of the party and the Government. In the NDA it is so. The UPA was quite different. The Prime Minister is to lead by example. The present Prime Minister not only works hard and involves himself in the functioning of the various departments of the government, but inspires his team to work harder than we would have normally. Each one of us, whether the External Affairs Minister, Home Minister or myself, are responsible for each important decision taken by each of one departments," Jaitley added.