PM Modi talks Covid crisis, world tours with MPs at surprise lunch in Parliament canteen

New Delhi: His Pakistan visit in 2015, the COVID crisis and his other foreign tours were some of the talking points that featured in a surprise lunch that prime minister Narendra Modi had on Thursday at the Parliament with some of his Parliamentary colleagues.

Among the eight MPs who were present in the 45-minute lunch were BJP MPs Heena Gavit, S Phangnon Konyak, Jamyang Tsering Namgyal and L Murugan, BJD MP Sushmit Patra, TDP MP Rammohan Naidu, BSP MP Ritesh Pandey and RSP MP NK Premachandran.

An MP who was part of the lunch said that they were invited by someone in the PMO but were not told the details of the meeting. “We were told that we should reach the PMO and when we reached we met the prime minister,” the MP said.

PM Modi then mockingly told the MPs that they were in for a “punishment”, the MP added. They were soon led to the MPs dining area, Sangam, on the first floor of the new Parliament building.

The menu, another MP said, included the prime minister’s favourite khichdi, among other vegetarian fare.

“The discussion was a very normal one, and most of us were asking the questions while he were just responding,” the MP quoted above said.

The prime minister’s visit to Lahore in 2015 came up during the discussions. “He spoke to us about how he landed in Lahore while on his way to Afghanistan,” the MP said, adding that the recently-held elections in Pakistan led to this conversation.

MPs also asked the PM about the COVID crisis and, and he told them about how the government maneuvered through the crisis. “He said that the 15 years in office as the Gujarat chief minister came into handy during this,” he said.

Some of the MPs also asked the prime minister about his other foreign tours and some asked him about his routine.