Pak heartwarming gesture: When PM Modi touched Pak PM’s mother’s feet

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif (R) talks with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi in Lahore, Pakistan, December 25, 2015.

“Spoke to PM Nawaz Sharif and wished him on his birthday”, Prime Minister Modi said in a series of tweets moments after inaugurating the new building of Afghanistan Parliament in Kabul.

“What better day than the birthday of Atalji for this path-breaking departure!”, Madhav, who has been involved in the behind-the-scene arrangements of PM’s foreign visits, tweeted.

In August, talks were canceled over an agenda conflict, only to have the national security advisers of both countries meet recently for surprise dialogue in Bangkok, Thailand. After a short helicopter ride, he walked into the Sharif household, decked up for the wedding of the prime minister’s granddaughter, with a gift cementing the tradition that started with the Indian prime minister sending a saree for Sharif ‘s mother in May 2014.

An official spokesperson for the CM said Sayeed is “delighted” by Modi’s visit, which will further “strengthen the bonds of friendship and usher in an era of peace and stability in the region”.

Dubbing the meet as “a very successful” one, Singh said, “It is certainly not the conventional diplomacy but an out of box diplomacy, which is the requirement between India and Pakistan”.

If the diplomatic move was the first push, the second came from none other than Mumbai-based steel tycoon Sajjan Jindal, a personal friend of Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif, whose family is also into the steel business through the Ittefaq group of Industries, an integrated steel producer with major operations in Punjab district of Pakistan.

It was the first visit by an Indian Prime Minister to Pakistan in a decade.

Other analysts urged to take a more cautious view.

He said Kashmiri tea was presented to the Indian premier.

Top-level communications easing friction between the two nuclear powers would improve stability in South Asia. It was an ice-breaking visit, he said.

After months of a freeze, India and Pakistan resumed high-level contacts with a brief conversation between Sharif and Modi at climate change talks in Paris late last month, part of efforts to restart a peace dialogue plagued by militant attacks and long-standing distrust.

Mr. Modi reportedly agreed to including all issues, including Jammu and Kashmir in the list, which had been omitted in the Ufa statement, and suggested sending the Foreign Secretaries to the meeting as well.

In this context, Modi’s visit might be considered a nice birthday surprise for Sharif.

The Union home minister while addressing the gathering in Lucknow on Saturday said that he and BJP national chief Amit Shah were sitting in the lawns of his official residence, when they received a phone call from the Prime Minister that he was going to Pakistan.