NEW DELHI: Former Prime Minister (PM) Manmohan Singh of the Congress party said today PM Narendra Modi has “stooped low” in his recent comments about opponents and that doesn’t “behove a Prime Minister”, reported ANI news agency.
“No Prime Minister in our country has used the Office of the Prime Minister to say things about his opponent that Mr Modi has been doing day in and day out. It doesn’t behove a Prime Minister to stoop so low and it is not good for the country as well,” said Singh at a press conference in Karnataka, which goes to the polls on Saturday.
Singh said the intentions of the Modi government which it claimed were good, had resulted in “massive” losses for the country.
“Its lack of reasoning and analysis is costing India and our collective future.”
The former prime minister said under the UPA governments the growth rate averaged 7 per cent. It was 8 per cent at one point of time despite turbulent global conditions, he said.
The NDA government, he said, clocked inferior growth rate despite a favourable international climate and low oil prices. In fact, growth rate under the NDA is lower in spite of the change in the methodology to determine it “which paints a rosier picture than reality”, Singh said.
Singh raked Modi over the coals for the “two major avoidable blunders” of demonetisation and the “hasty implementation” of the Goods and Services Tax.
“Losses the economy suffered due to these blunders have severely hurt our micro small and medium enterprise sector and have resulted in loss of tens of thousands of jobs,” said the former PM, from the Congress-led UPA regime.
Singh said the public is losing trust in Modi’s governance.
“The economic management of Modi government is slowly eroding the trust of the general public in the banking system. Recent incidents which resulted in shortage of cash in many states were preventable,” said Singh, referring to a sudden cash crunch a couple of weeks ago in various parts of the country, which was blamed on poor preparation for the financial year’s end.
