Did Modi meet Sharif on SAARC sidelines in 2014: Cong to govt

Congress today sought to know from the government whether reports that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a secret meeting with his Pakistan counterpart Nawaz Sharif on the sidelines of the SAARC summit in Kathmandu last year were correct.
"Did the Prime Minister at all have a meeting with Pakistan PM? If yes, then why did his government kept it secret? Was it for image? Optics? 56-inch-chest or for political deliverables?" party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi asked while talking to reporters.
If it is yes, then did the Prime Minister consider the Ministry of External Affairs either incompetent or incapable as he had to engage an industrialist for the purpose, Singhvi asked.

He also wanted to know whether the Prime Minister raised the issue of as many as 900 ceasefire violations by Pakistan and whether he took up the issue of mastermind of 26/11 moving freely in Pakistan.
Besides, he sought to know whether the Prime Minister took up the issue of support of Pakistan to India's bid for a seat in the UN Security Council. Whether Pakistan was playing dog in the manger on the issue with support from China?
Singhvi said if the meeting had taken place then it has happened despite categorical denials on the part of the government any meeting having been planned, leave part a meeting having taken place.

Dubbing the government's Pakistan policy as "confused, directionless and contradictory", he said that the "dilly dallying on an issue as sensitive like our relations with Pakistan has been visible ever since the Modi government assumed office".

Asked for his reaction, a senior BJP leader said, "Anyone who understands the way Modi conducts his foreign affairs would realise that he believes in direct diplomacy. So involving anyone else is almost out of the question.
"It is Congress policy to use industrialists, writers or journalists to facilitate such meeting. This (story) seems to have been used to promote the book and there may not be any truth in it."

Media reports quoting a book had it that a year ago, Modi and Sharif held an hour-long secret meeting. Both the leaders shared their constraints while agreeing they needed more time and greater political space to move forward with public engagements.
The meeting was facilitated by Indian steel magnate Sajjan Jindal, who is the brother of former Congress MP Naveen Jindal.