DECEMBER 18, 2018
NEW DELHI – Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today attacked his successor Narendra Modi over his alleged reluctance to comment on contentious issues, hinting that it was unfair to brand him as “silent” when PM Modi clearly seems to be the one avoiding the media.
“People say I was a silent Prime Minister. But I wasn’t the Prime Minister who was afraid of talking to the press. I met the press regularly, and after every foreign trip I undertook, I gave a press conference,” Mr Singh said on the sidelines of an event held to release his book Changing India.
The book encapsulates the former prime minister’s life as an economist and policymaker, and provides an insight into the years he led the United Progressive Alliance government.
Mr. Singh was evasive on the economic feasibility of the farm loan waivers announced by the new Congress governments in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. “The chief minister announced it because we have to honour the commitments made in the election manifesto of states that went to the polls,” he said, adding that he has not studied the likely impact of the move yet.
A question on the government trying to get its hands on the monetary reserves kept in the Reserve Bank of India also went unanswered, with the former Prime Minister (who, incidentally, had served as the central bank’s governor in the 1980s) restricting himself to hoping that the two institutions would “find ways and means to work in harmony with each other”.
Mr Singh had earlier termed former RBI governor Urjit Patel’s resignation last week as a “severe blow” to the country’s economy.
The former Prime Minister, however, said that he has made the most of his time spent governing the country. “Life has been a great adventure and enterprise, and I have no regrets. The country has been immensely kind to me and I will never be able to repay this debt,” he asserted.
Courtesy/Source: NDTV / ANI
