Modi's rule not been good for India, he failed electorate: Manmohan Singh
New Delhi, Oct 26: 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 as he "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 under the present dispensation the environment in universities and national institutions like the CBI was being vitiated and dissent stifled.
His remarks came amid the current crisis in the CBI, whose top two bosses were divested of their powers and sent on leave by the government.
In a scathing criticism of Modi, Singh said he was elected as the 14th prime minister of India on the back of many lofty promises, but in the past four years, he and his government "failed" their electorate and eroded the voters' faith.
He 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".
"He (Modi) has spoken of being a prime minister for all Indians but the government he presides over has been mostly silent in the face of widespread communal violence, mob lynching and cow vigilantism.
"At the same time, academic freedoms are being sought to be curbed. The environment in our universities and national institutions like the CBI is being vitiated and dissent stifled," Singh alleged.
Speaking during a panel discussion at the event after Singh's address, former Union minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, when asked about the CBI, said, "We have the most 'credible bureau of investigation' and we have the most enlightened directorate, ED. Who am I to comment on that. I am one of their favourite...This is again an example of how institutions are being destroyed."
"A new government has to reinvent a Federal Bureau of Investigation or a Central Bureau of Investigation. This cannot be repaired. This cannot be put together again. You can say the same thing about the Central Information Commission. You can say the same thing about the Central Election Commission," Chidambaram alleged.
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".
Singh also alleged that Modi presides over a "fearful population, an economy that has been set back by foolhardy initiatives, painful lack of jobs, the growing distress among India's farming communities, a devastating number of farmer suicides, insecure borders, instability in Kashmir, and the palpable failure in implementation of even laudable initiatives like Swachh Bharat, Skill Development, Make in India and Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao".
"This is what he presides over, and not a secular, plural, free and equal society that was... envisioned and built in its six and a half decades as a free nation," he added.
Modi's rule has "not been good" for India and it all arises from the Modi paradox that Tharoor has shown in his book, he said.
"Much of what the Modi government is all about has turned out to be little more than a series of empty gestures...with very little substance having been achieved on the ground," he said.
Singh lauded Tharoor for coming out with the "timely book, reminding us that the idea of India is under threat today from those who seek not just to rule India but to change India's very heart and soul".
Earlier, speaking at the event, Tharoor alleged, "The government of India statistics will tell you that of all the cow vigilantism, cow-related violence that has ever occurred in independent India in 70 years, 97 per cent has occurred in the rule of Narendra Modi." Tharoor, however, did not say which statistics of the government he was referring to and did not elaborate on his claim.
During the panel discussion, Chidambaram, while referring to National Security Advisor Ajit Doval's lecture here on Thursday, alleged that the talk of a strong state and hard decisions, was nothing but the seed of an "illiberal democracy".
Janata Dal (United) leader Pawan Verma, during the discussion, slammed the opposition , saying that it had no leadership.
"Can we have an opposition which goes beyond photo ops," he said.
"If everything about Modi is wrong, and we are six months away from an election. Why does he continue to enjoy personal popularity ratings which are so high?" he asked.
Something must be wrong with those who are trying to oppose him or he must be doing some things better than the opposition, he argued.
Former Union minister Arun Shourie and journalist-turned-politician Ashutosh also slammed the government for its policies.
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Post poll TN alliances divided in supporting TVK
Chennai (PTI): In a changed political atmosphere in Tamil Nadu with no single political party having a simple majority to form the government post the Assembly election, opinion is divided among the allies led by the Dravidian majors in extending external support to Vijay-led TVK in government formation.
Both the DMK and AIADMK are at unease as the Congress and also a section in the AIADMK express willingness to extend external support to Vijay-led Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagtam in forming the government.
Post poll, the TVK's political prospects appear to impact alliances led by both the Dravidian majors in a different manner, triggering a speculation of a split.
Leema Rose Martin, who won from Lalgudi on an AIADMK ticket, has stated that talks were underway on extending support to the TVK. Her son-in-law Aadhav Arjuna, who won from Villivakkam is TVK's general secretary.
On May 5, former AIADMK minister O S Manian, emerging from his meeting with party general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami, stated that AIADMK would not support TVK in forming the government.
The AIADMK, which finished third in the elections with 47 seats has cancelled its meeting of MLAs designate on Wednesday amidst a difference in extending external support to the TVK, which won 108 seats, including two seats by its founder Vijay.
As Vijay is gearing up for his swearing-in on May 7, the police have tightened security at his residence here. The party has lodged its MLA-elect at a resort in Mamallapuram and has simultaneously engaged in talks with the Congress and AIADMK, a source said.
The DMK that won 59 seats on its own, has convened a meeting of its newly elected legislators on May 7 evening and the party is likely to elect the youth wing secretary Udhayanidhi Stalin, who won from Chepauk-Thiruvallikeni as its legislature party leader.
Congress general secretary K C Venugopal admitted that TVK chief Vijay requested the Congress for support to form the government.
"The INC is clear that the mandate in Tamil Nadu is for a secular government, committed to protecting the Constitution in letter and spirit. The INC is determined not to allow the BJP and its proxies to run the government of Tamil Nadu in any manner. Thiru Vijay has also spoken about drawing inspiration from Perunthalaivar Kamaraj," he said.
Accordingly, the Congress leadership has directed the TNCC to take a final decision on Vijay’s request, keeping in view the sentiments of the state as reflected in the electoral verdict, Venugopal said in a statement.
DMK spokesperson Saravanan Annadurai slammed the Congress decision and said the move to ally with TVK, pledging the support of its five MLAs to the party, was tantamount to "backstabbing the DMK and the people of Tamil Nadu."
"They have betrayed the mandate given by the people. Even before the ink on the returning officer’s signature on the victory certificate has dried, they have chosen to go ahead with this alliance," he told PTI.
The most important question was who took this "foolhardy decision, and how is it going to backfire on the Congress?" he asked.
"I don’t think they had any serious deliberation on this. The larger issue is their opposition to the BJP, which is their ideological enemy. We have supported the Congress throughout. It was our leader M K Stalin, who named Rahul Gandhi as the prime ministerial candidate when the BJP and RSS were criticising him. And now, within a day, they say they are supporting TVK. This is not the mandate of the people of Tamil Nadu,” Saravanan said.
The Congress' exit from its long-standing alliance with the DMK will be a significant moment in the political scenario of the state, commentator and political analyst Sumanth Raman said.
The Congress may be betting on the TVK as a long-term partner option, but that comes with risks, as the TVK is as yet an unknown quantity, he said.
"For the DMK, if the TVK+Congress becomes the choice of the minorities as it well could, it is an existential threat. It was the minority vote that gave the DMK alliance a 12%-15% cushion in the polls. If that goes, their chances of winning drops dramatically," Raman said on 'X.'
The Congress won 5 seats. However, DMK's other allies, the IUML, VCK, CPI and CPI (M) and DMDK have categorically stated that they would not support TVK.
As of now, the TVK requires the support of 11 MLAs to attain a simple majority of 118 to form the government.
The PMK, which won 4 seats and AMMK one - both allies of AIADMK - have not announced their decision yet.
"AIADMK’s real post-result drama may not be outside the party, but inside it. Whispers from the west and north suggest that a Coimbatore hand and a Villupuram voice may soon ask the question everyone is avoiding: Is it time to save the party from the leadership, before the cadre are forced to do it themselves? In politics, coups don’t begin with slogans. They begin with silence, phone calls and “review meetings,” Aspire Swaminathan, who is credited with founding the AIADMK IT wing in 2014, said on 'X.'
He has resigned from the AIADMK in 2021 and now acts an as independent political analyst.
