In one of his sharpest attacks yet on Narendra Modi, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said his successor's rule has not been good for India. Singh said Modi has "failed" the electorate and led a government that was "mostly silent" on incidents of communal violence, mob lynching and cow vigilantism.
Singh, while speaking at the launch of Congress leader Shashi Tharoor's new book, alleged that under the present dispensation, the environment in universities and national institutions like the CBI was being “vitiated and stifled”.
His remarks came amid the current crisis in the CBI, which saw its top two bosses be divested of their powers and sent on leave by the government.
“In 2014, Shri Narendra Modi ji was elected as prime minister on the back of many lofty promises... but the ruling government has mostly been silent in the face of widespread communal violence, mob lynching... at the same time, academic freedom is being sought to be curbed, and independent institutions like the CBI are being vitiated and stifled.”Manmohan Singh, Former Prime Minister of India
In a scathing criticism of Modi, Singh said, in the past four years, he and his government "failed" their electorate and eroded the voters' faith.
Singh said Modi is a "paradoxical prime minister" and Tharoor has demonstrated this through his "superbly written and devastatingly accurate book".
Tharoor's book is titled "The Paradoxical Prime Minister: Narendra Modi and His India".
Singh, in his speech, also came down hard on the government's economic policies, saying nothing concrete had been done to bring back the "promised billions of dollars" allegedly held abroad as black money.
The "hastily-implemented" demonetisation and GST have proved to be "disastrous" for the economy, the former prime minister said.
Petrol and diesel prices are at a "historic high" despite the fall in international crude oil prices because the Modi government chose to levy excessive excise duties instead of passing the benefits of low prices to the people of India, he said, adding that Modi, instead, has thought it fit to "punish our people".
(With inputs from PTI)
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