New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi “indulged in the most vicious form of hate speeches”, his predecessor Manmohan Singh said in a letter Thursday, adding that Modi is the first PM to “lower the dignity of public discourse” and, thereby, the gravity of the PM’s office.
“No Prime Minister in the past has uttered such hateful, unparliamentary and coarse terms, meant to target either a specific section of the society or the Opposition,” Singh said in the letter addressed to the people of Punjab, two days ahead before all 13 constituencies of the state go to polls in the last phase of the Lok Sabha elections.
In the letter, he also responded to Modi’s claims in election rallies that Singh once remarked that the minority community had the first claim on the country’s resources. “He (Modi) has also attributed some false statements to me. I have never in my life singled out one community from the other. That is the sole copyright of the BJP,” Singh said in the letter.
In the first such letter in this Lok Sabha election season, the 92-year-old Singh further said that in the “impending” last phase of voting, “we have one final chance to ensure that democracy and our Constitution are protected from the repeated assaults of a despotic regime, trying to unleash dictatorship in India”.
In his appeal to the voters of Punjab, the country’s only Sikh prime minister also said that the BJP government has left no stone unturned in “castigating Punjab, Punjabis and Punjabiyat” in the last 10 years.
“Seven-fifty farmers, mostly belonging to Punjab, were martyred while incessantly waiting at Delhi borders — for months together. As if the lathis and the rubber bullets were not enough, none less than the Prime Minister verbally assaulted our farmers by calling them ‘andolanjeevis (agitators)‘ and ‘parjeevi (parasites)‘ on the floor of the Parliament,” Singh said in the letter, referring to the government clampdown on the 2020-2021 farmers’ protests. “Their only demand was the withdrawal of the three farm laws imposed on them without consulting them,” he added.
Not just farm laws, Singh attacked the BJP-led Central government over the implementation of the Agnipath scheme, which, he said, “endangers national security”.
“The BJP government imposed an ill-conceived Agniveer scheme on our Armed Forces. The BJP thinks that the value of patriotism, bravery and service is only 4 years. This shows their fake nationalism,” Singh said in his letter, adding that the outgoing administration has woefully betrayed those who trained for regular recruitment.
“The youth of Punjab, the son of the farmer who dreams of serving the motherland through the Armed Forces, is now thinking twice about getting recruited only for a 4-year stint. Agniveer scheme endangers national security,” he said, emphasising the Congress party’s promise to abolish the scheme.
The noted economist also compared the UPA and NDA governments’ performance on the front of India’s economy. While counting the UPA’s achievements, he said, “In the past 10 years, the nation’s economy has witnessed unimaginable turmoil. The imposition of the demonetisation disaster, a flawed GST, and the painful mismanagement during the COVID pandemic has resulted in a miserable situation, where an expectation of a subpar 6-7 percent GDP growth has become the new normal.”
He said the average GDP growth under the NDA has plunged to under six percent, while, in the UPA tenure, it was about eight percent. “Unprecedented unemployment and unbridled inflation have greatly widened inequality, which is now at a 100-year high,” he added.
Singh ended his letter with a “folded hands” appeal: “I appeal to each one of you to give love, peace, fraternity, and harmony a chance in India. I appeal to each voter in Punjab to vote for development and inclusive progress.”
“I appeal to all the young minds to exercise caution and vote for a brighter future. Only Congress can ensure a growth-oriented progressive future, where democracy and the Constitution shall be safeguarded,” he added.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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