That awkward moment when Manmohan Singh gives it again off to Modi
The former prime minister’s speech in Bengaluru was scathing but sober.
Manmohan Singh is "maun" no more, at least not these days. Less than a month after he asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to “follow the advice he gave me and speak more often”, the former PM launched a scathing attack on the BJP government on May 7, hauling it over the coals on a range of issues ranging from polarisation to the state of Indian economy.
Pulling no punches, but veering away from emotive rhetoric, Singh, addressing a press conference in Bangalore, said of Modi’s campaigning style: “It doesn't behove a prime minister to stoop so low and it is not good for the country as a whole as well.”
He also accused the NDA government of “systematically dismantling” the Indian economy.
The former PM’s words come just four days after Modi had addressed a rally in Bangalore. Singh’s speech, however, shorn of literary devices but backed with empirical data, could not have been more different from the PM’s rather scintillating “Silicon Valley to valley of sin, start-up hub to pothole club, steel flyover to steal flyover” performance.
On the economy
The former PM raised questions over the falling number of jobs, rising petrol prices, poor GDP and the turmoil in the banking sector.
“In four years, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has reversed the successes of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. GDP growth is half of that during the UPA government,” Singh claimed.
Taking on the Modi government’s penchant for shock-and-awe tactics, Singh said the government, despite “virtuous intentions”, was causing losses to people because of a “lack of reasoning and analysis”, and the economy had been derailed by “avoidable blunders” such as demonetisation and a hastily-implemeted GST.
The noted economist also said growth rate at present was lower than that of during the UPA’s time, despite favourable international conditions and the government “changing numbers to present a rosy picture.”
On PM’s campaigning style
Singh also criticised PM Modi for the bizarre claims he is wont to make from campaigning pulpits. In the run-up to the Gujarat elections, Modi had accused Manmohan Singh of participating in a meeting at former Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar’s “house that was attended by the Pakistan high commissioner, Pakistan’s former foreign minister and India’s former vice president”, and that Aiyar had given Pakistan the “supari” to bump Modi off.
Singh reminded Modi of the dignity of the head of the nation’s office: "I hope he [Modi] will now learn the lesson and not seek to polarise the society in Karnataka and the country. No prime minister in our country has used the office of the prime minister to say things about his opponent that Modi has been doing day in, day out.”
Of falling trust in institutions
Singh, a former governor of the central bank, said people’s faith in the banking system, including in the RBI, was falling under the present dispensation.
“It is unfortunately being talked about openly now that RBI cannot be trusted to even count returned notes. That has never happened before,” he said.
He added that the money swindled in the banking sector almost quadrupled from Rs 28,416 crore in September 2013 to Rs 1.11 lakh crore in September 2017.
“Perpetrators of these frauds, meanwhile, escape with impunity. The economic mismanagement of the Modi government, and I say this with great care and responsibility, is slowly eroding the trust of the general public in the banking sector,” he said.
Throughout his speech, Singh neither raised issues pertaining to religion nor made any personal attacks. While he accused Modi of polarisation, he only highlighted the ills of it: “I am really sorry the way the state’s population is sought to be... what can I say, polarised. This is not good for Karnataka. It's not good for the country as a whole.”
The BJP does not take criticism lightly. It remains to be seen what rhetoric will likely be poured against Manmohan Singh for his reasoned speech.