Ab ki baar Trump sarkar : Modi violated foreign policy

New Delhi : The Congress on Monday accused PM Narendra Modi of violating foreign policy's "time honoured principle" of not interfering in the domestic elections of another country by "actively campaigning" for US President Trump at the 'Howdy, Modi' event in Houston.

The opposition party said by taking a "partisan" position, the PM has done a "disservice" to long-term strategic Indo-US relations.

It also took a swipe at Modi saying it would have been better if he would have "shed his aversion" to Nehru and joined in endorsing what the US Senators were saying about the country's first PM.

Congress senior spokesperson Anand Sharma said it should not be seen that India is taking sides and the PM using the Houston platform to exhort and raise the slogan of 'Ab ki baar Trump sarkar' was better avoided.

"We have a strategic partnership between India and the United States of America which is bipartisan, which we fully endorse. "But, there is a time-honoured convention of India's foreign policy that when we engage with the foreign governments or the President or PM when on foreign soil, we do not take part in the domestic electoral politics.

PM should have honoured that," Sharma told reporters. "It should not be seen that India is taking positions or sides and PM using that platform to exhort and raise that slogan on 'Ab ki baar Trump sarkar' was better avoided," the Congress leader said.

Sharma said India has engaged with both Republican administration and Democratic administration and it was a Republican administration under President George W Bush "when we successfully negotiated the Indo-US Nuclear deal during PM Manmohan Singh's tenure".

He said when the US elections came, the Indian leadership under PM Manmohan Singh did not take a partisan position to support or endorse the Republicans and when Barack Obama took over as the US President, "we carried on with the US engagement with the Democratic administration, as effectively as we had done with the previous Republican administration".