PM Modi's swearing-in ceremony: Excluding Pakistan's PM Shehbaz Sharif from the frame

In 2014, when the Bhartiya Janata Party candidate Narendra Modi was sworn in as the Prime Minister of India, the grand event was witnessed by the leaders of neighbouring nations, including the then-Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif. However, this time, the environment is totally different. The moment PM-designate Modi was declared as the leader of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), India accorded the highest priority to its 'Neighbourhood First' policy and 'SAGAR' vision". The Ministry of External Affairs sent invitations to various SouthEast nations including Maldives, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Nepal but it did not pass the same call to its immediate neighbour, Pakistan, for the event. Notably, in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls, the BJP party-led alliance secured 293 seats out of 543. The majority mark in the lower house is 272.

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