Opposition dubs PM Modi's U.K visit as a 'publicity exercise'

Opposition parties on Thursday launched a scathing attack at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his three-day visit to the United Kingdom, saying it was nothing but a 'publicity exercise'.

Congress leader P. C. Chacko dubbed the foreign visits of Prime Minister Modi as having brought no diplomatic success to the nation.

"The Prime Minister's foreign visits are now a day's only a publicity exercise. But beyond that no diplomatic success has ever been noticed in any of the foreign tours," Chacko told ANI.

Chacko furthers said that the people were only looking forward to the Wembley Stadium address of the Prime Minister.

"The RSS people are there for the last two months to organise the Wembley meeting. So, it is quite natural that the Indian Diaspora in that country, when the Prime Minster is speaking, naturally they will be there," he added.

Meanwhile, a confident Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), after cruising to a victory over the BJP in Bihar, asked Prime Minister Modi not to denigrate the nation's past when he addresses the Indian Diaspora.

"Prime Minster has gone abroad, I will only expect him not to speak low of his predecessors, not to denigrate the past of India and of what we have achieved. Not to mention as if nothing existed in India before his arrival," RJD spokesperson Manoj Jha told ANI.

"The nation has a long history as a parliamentary democracy. He (Modi) is just a person who emerged in 2014. His habit of speaking low of what happened before him, I think this time he should not repeat that. That will be a tribute to the kind of nation we are," he added.

Prime Minister Modi left today for the United Kingdom, where terrorism and taking economic ties forward will dominate his bilateral agenda, besides paying homage to Mahatma Gandhi's statue near the Parliament and addressing the Indian Diaspora at the Wembley Stadium.

External Affair Minister Sushma Swaraj was present at the airport to see off the Prime Minister and was seen having a lengthy discussion with him before he left.