New Delhi: Foreign minister Sushma Swaraj told the Lok Sabha on Monday that she met four generations of Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's family on her recent visit to Islamabad. Ms Swaraj was in Pakistan last week.
"I have been asked what did I speak with Maryam about? Why only Maryam, I even spoke with his mother," Ms Swaraj told MPs in the Lower House, speaking in chaste Urdu. "I met four generations of Nawaz Sahab's family," she said.
Maryam Nawaz Sharif is the Pakistan Prime Minister's daughter.
Slamming her critics, Ms Swaraj said: "Critics can say anything. Someone said why was I wearing a green sari...I wear a green sari every Wednesday. And, it happened to be a Wednesday." Some others had objected to her addressing the media in Islamabad in Urdu, Ms Swaraj said. "I spoke in Urdu because is it also my country's language, not just theirs...If I can address the World Sanskrit Conference in Sankrit in Bangkok, why can't I speak Urdu?"
TMC lawmaker Saugat Roy praised Ms Swaraj's Urdu saying she "spoke better Urdu than Mr Sharif."
After Mr Sharif came to India for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's and Ms Swaraj's swearing in ceremony last year, he had gone back and written to PM Modi saying he hoped to work with him "in harmony to resolve all unsettled matters."
The letter came with a sari -- a gift for Mr Modi's mother Hiraben, who lives in Gandhinagar. When Mr Modi responded to Mr Sharif's letter about strengthening India-Pakistan relations, he sent a shawl for the Pakistan Prime Minister's mother Shamim Akhtar and his daughter tweeted about it. Ms Swaraj met both on this visit.
"I have been asked what did I speak with Maryam about? Why only Maryam, I even spoke with his mother," Ms Swaraj told MPs in the Lower House, speaking in chaste Urdu. "I met four generations of Nawaz Sahab's family," she said.
Maryam Nawaz Sharif is the Pakistan Prime Minister's daughter.
Slamming her critics, Ms Swaraj said: "Critics can say anything. Someone said why was I wearing a green sari...I wear a green sari every Wednesday. And, it happened to be a Wednesday." Some others had objected to her addressing the media in Islamabad in Urdu, Ms Swaraj said. "I spoke in Urdu because is it also my country's language, not just theirs...If I can address the World Sanskrit Conference in Sankrit in Bangkok, why can't I speak Urdu?"
After Mr Sharif came to India for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's and Ms Swaraj's swearing in ceremony last year, he had gone back and written to PM Modi saying he hoped to work with him "in harmony to resolve all unsettled matters."
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