<p>Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s reported remarks at an informal meeting with journalists in New York triggered a controversy, which was lapped up for political gains by BJP leader Narendra Modi.<br /><br /></p>.<p>The row reinforced the perception that India’s relations with Pakistan have always been testy. <br /><br />The root of the controversy can be found in a phone report by Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir to his news channel Geo TV.<br /><br />Mir, in his report, said Singh raising the issue of Pakistan-based terrorism during his meeting with US President Barack Obama was like a rural woman (“dehati aurat”) taking a complaint to a third person.<br /><br />The video of the Geo TV report went viral on social media networks and Modi, who addressed a massive rally here, said Sharif dared to compare the Indian Prime Minister with a village woman because his own partymen show scant respect to Singh.<br />A senior Indian journalist, who also came under Modi’s fire, later clarified that no pejorative or derogatory phrase was used for the prime minister. <br /><br />According to the journalist, Sharif had referred to an allegorical story of a dispute between two people in a village, in which one was a woman. The moral of his story was that disputes should be settled between parties directly and not involve a third party.<br />Congress General Secretary Ajay Maken also contributed his bit to the controversy by dubbing Modi’s remarks against Singh as “anti-national” as he (Modi) believed a Pakistani journalist. <br /><br />Later, Mir withdrew his comments in a series of Twitter posts and insisted that “nothing derogatory was said by Sharif about the (Indian) PM”.</p>
<p>Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s reported remarks at an informal meeting with journalists in New York triggered a controversy, which was lapped up for political gains by BJP leader Narendra Modi.<br /><br /></p>.<p>The row reinforced the perception that India’s relations with Pakistan have always been testy. <br /><br />The root of the controversy can be found in a phone report by Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir to his news channel Geo TV.<br /><br />Mir, in his report, said Singh raising the issue of Pakistan-based terrorism during his meeting with US President Barack Obama was like a rural woman (“dehati aurat”) taking a complaint to a third person.<br /><br />The video of the Geo TV report went viral on social media networks and Modi, who addressed a massive rally here, said Sharif dared to compare the Indian Prime Minister with a village woman because his own partymen show scant respect to Singh.<br />A senior Indian journalist, who also came under Modi’s fire, later clarified that no pejorative or derogatory phrase was used for the prime minister. <br /><br />According to the journalist, Sharif had referred to an allegorical story of a dispute between two people in a village, in which one was a woman. The moral of his story was that disputes should be settled between parties directly and not involve a third party.<br />Congress General Secretary Ajay Maken also contributed his bit to the controversy by dubbing Modi’s remarks against Singh as “anti-national” as he (Modi) believed a Pakistani journalist. <br /><br />Later, Mir withdrew his comments in a series of Twitter posts and insisted that “nothing derogatory was said by Sharif about the (Indian) PM”.</p>
