Parties corner Shiv Sena on silence over Sharif's visit

Maharashtra's political parties have cornered the Shiv Sena, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s ally of 25 years, for keeping mum over Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's decision to attend Narendra Modi's swearing-in ceremony slated for Monday.

Congress member of Parliament (MP) and All India Youth Congress Committee chief Rajeev Satav took a swipe against the party, which had in the past stopped Pakistani cricketers from playing in Mumbai, forcing the matches to be moved to other cities.

Satav, who defeated Shiv Sena MP Subhash Wankhede in the Hingoli constituency in Maharashtra, dared the Shiv Sena to clarify whether its MPs would take oath in Sharif's presence and thereby give a burial to its anti-Pakistan stand.

Further, the Congress' Maharashtra unit led a scathing attack against the Sena, saying the Shiv Sena's statements and stance on Pakistan till now were only for political convenience. State Congress spokesman Sachin Sawant claimed the silence showed the "uproar" on the Pakistan issue in the past by the Sena was "the roar of paper tigers".

According to Sawant, there was nothing wrong in the invitation to Sharif. However, he wondered what the stand of the BJP and Sena would have been if the Congress had extended the invitation.

The Congress' ally, the Nationalist Congress Party alleged the Shiv Sena's silence clearly showed it was hungry for power.