In sharp takedown of Narendra Modi, Manmohan Singh calls him 'paradoxical prime minister'

Former PM Dr. Manmohan Singh on Friday said that his successor is a ‘paradoxical Prime Minster’ who has failed the electorate and is running a government that is mostly silent on disturbing incidents of lynching, communal violence and cow vigilantism etc.

Manmohan Singh was speaking at the launch of Congress leader Shashi Tharoor's new book on PM Modi. (Image: PTI)

New Delhi: Launching one of the sharpest attacks yet on Narendra Modi, former PM Dr. Manmohan Singh on Friday said that his successor is a ‘paradoxical Prime Minster’ who has failed the electorate and is running a government that is mostly silent on disturbing incidents of lynching, communal violence and cow vigilantism etc. While speaking at the launch of Congress leader Shashi Tharoor's new book on PM Modi, Singh alleged that under the present dispensation the environment in universities and national institutions like the CBI was being vitiated and dissent stifled. His remarks came in the sidelines of the ongoing 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 state that Modi 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. Further speaking about the economic condition of the country, Singh said that the PM Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has done nothing concrete to bring back black money allegedly stashed abroad. He also spoke about the drawback of demonetisation, implementation of Good and Services Tax (GST) and relentless hike in petrol and diesel prices over the past few months. Further praising Tharoor’s book, Singh said that it is a reminder that the idea of India is under threat today from those who seek to change India’s very heart and soul. Singh also alleged that PM Modi presides over a fearful population, an economy that has been set back by foolhardy initiatives, painful lack of jobs and the growing distress among India’s farming communities. “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,” the former PM concluded.