The Shiv Sena sought to play down the "praise" lavished on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over attracting foreign investments, saying the contributions of P V Narsimha Rao and Manmohan Singh towards bolstering India's economy cant be forgotten.

"Though Prime Minister Narendra Modi is immensely popular in foreign countries, people like Narsimha Rao and Manmohan Singh laid the foundation of India's economic progress and opened the countrys gates for other nations. How can we forget their contribution?" the Sena said in its mouthpiece Saamana.

An editorial added. "There is no doubt that Modi is very popular and everywhere he went (in the US) there were chants of 'Modi Modi', but so were Nehru and Indira, even at a time there was no social media like today."