Former prime minister Manmohan Singh met PM Narendra Modi at his 7, RCR residence on Wednesday evening, hours after the Rajya Sabha MP hit out at the BJP for destroying India’s democratic ethos and accusing him of corruption to divert from the real issues.
Singh had launched an uncharacteristically aggressive charge on the NDA government for re-packaging UPA schemes and suppressing dissent to promote a “biased and communal” view of history but spent over 30 minutes in conversation with the PM.
“Very happy to meet Dr Manmohan Singh ji & welcome him back to 7RCR. We had a great meeting,” the PM tweeted on a day his party repeatedly attacked Singh’s legacy and accused him of being a puppet leader.
The BJP has run a relentless campaign against Singh for allegedly overseeing a spate of corruption scandals – such as the 2G spectrum auction or coal allocation scam – and has accused the former PM of being a silent spectator and taking directions from the Congress party leadership.
“I believe a PM’s responsibility is not limited to not doing corruption himself but to also ensure others are not allowed to do corruption. Under Singh’s rule, scams of Rs 12 lakh crore occurred and the Congress cannot run away from its responsibility,” BJP president Amit Shah had said earlier in the day.
His comments came after Singh cast doubts on the government’s claim of economic recovery and defended the UPA’s administrative record.
“In the last one year, BJP government has to manufacture, modify some statistical data to show that this last one year has not been that bad for the economy. But their people are of the view that the recovery that they talk about in the last one year is very fragile recovery,” he said.
The former PM said the Congress’ policies had led to profound social transformation and unprecedented economic growth to promote a pluralistic, liberal and secular democracy.
“Institutions of democracy are under threat. The entire edifice of the welfare state is now being dismantled in the guise of promoting faster economic growth, whereas they are two sides of the same coin,” Singh said at a convention organised by Congress’ student wing NSUI.
