Punjab CM Mann again questions PM Modi foreign visits: ‘He can go to Pakistan, but we cannot'

‘We cannot go to Pakistan, but he can land there!’ says Punjab chief minister, reacts to MEA rebuke, ‘Why can’t I ask about foreign policy?'

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Friday continued with his jibes at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his foreign visits, singling out his 2015 stopover in Pakistan.

CM Bhagwant Mann speaking during the Punjab Vidhan Sabha session in Chandigarh on Friday. (Ravi Kumar/HT Photo)

“It seems that when the PM is flying in his plane, he looks down and asks, ‘Which country is that?’ When told it's so-and-so, he says, ‘No worries, we will reach an hour late where we are going; let’s land here now.' He decides to land just anywhere. That's how he landed in Pakistan too,” Mann, a comedian-turned-politician, said in Punjabi in the state assembly on Friday.

Mann referred pointedly to PM Modi's 2015 surprise visit to Pakistan to meet the then Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif.

“The PM decided, just like that, to visit Pakistan. He had biryani and came back. We cannot go to Pakistan, but he can land there!” Mann remarked.

In 2015, Modi was returning home after a visit to Russia and a halt in Afghanistan when he decided to make a stop in Pakistan too.

No effect of MEA rebuke

CM Mann had made similar comments about PM Modi's visits at a function earlier this week, after which the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said, without naming Mann, that the comments were “irresponsible and regrettable”.

Outside the Punjab Vidhan Sabha on Friday, Mann was asked specifically about the MEA response, to which he replied: “Do I not have the right to ask about foreign policy?”

He added, "I will continue to ask in the future as well. With 140 crore people in the country, he should engage with them and address their concerns. He says he will stop the Ukraine(-Russia) war, but he can't even resolve water issues between Punjab and Haryana."

Mann had joked about how PM Modi might be visiting random, non-existent countries like “Magnesia”, “Galveaisa”, or “Tarvesia”, suggesting that his visits are not substantial.

Defends Diljit's movie

Inside the House on Friday, Mann was acerbic as he defended Diljit Dosanjh over the casting of a Pakistani actor, Hania Aamir, in his latest movie ‘Sardaarji 3’. That is when he brought up Modi's Pakistan visit.

Diljit's movie, he stressed, had been shot before the Pahalgam terror attack, after which India carried out Operation Sindoor against teror bases in Pakistan.

Mann said no one could “issue certificates of patriotism”. He also had "a message for the entire country”, that “without Punjab and Haryana, you cannot eat” as the two states “account for 70 per cent of the country's foodgrain production”.