PM, Advani shake hands this time

They quarrelled on BR Ambedkar’s birth anniversary on April 14, but prime minister Manmohan Singh and leader of the opposition LK Advani let bygones be bygones by the time Motilal Nehru’s birthday came on Wednesday.

At a function held in parliament, the two shook hands and went their separate ways. After the heat and dust raised by the personal attacks launched by the two leaders, Wednesday’s meeting was an anti-climax.

BJP sources said Advani, though hurt by the PM’s remarks about him, “does not believe in ignoring basic courtesies”. “So it’s not surprising that they shook hands,” they said.

The prime minister’s office also expressed a similar view. “All that was said was a political campaign. When you meet at functions, such things are unimportant,” an official said.

They perhaps forgot that on Ambedkar’s birth anniversary function, the two had ignored each other and later Advani did not attend a farewell dinner in honour of Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee. “The dinner was held on a day when Advaniji had pre-scheduled meetings. Even Pranab Mukherjee and Sonia Gandhi did not attend the dinner,” Advani’s aide explained.

So does this mean that all is forgiven? That’s not the case, sources close to Singh and Advani said. “As we pointed out. Basic courtesies are being maintained,” an official in the PMO said.