Ex-PM Manmohan Singh Responds To Modi's 'Favouring Muslims' Charge, Says 'Copyright Of BJP To...'

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has refuted PM Modi's claim of prioritising Muslims in the allocation of the nation's resources. Manmohan Singh said that the BJP was spreading falsehoods.

File photo of former PM Manmohan Singh and his successor Narendra Modi.

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has responded to his successor Narendra Modi's charge of favouring the Muslim community and allotting it the country's resources on priority. Asserting that the claim was false, Manmohan Singh said that he had never differentiated one community from another.

Last Month Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleged that the previous Manmohan Singh-led UPA government wanted to snatch property from Hindus and distribute it among Muslims. He even said that the Congress manifesto of 2024 promised to do the same. PM Modi's claim was found to have been false as the Congress had not mentioned any such thing in its manifesto.

READ | Facing Flak Over 'Infiltrators' Remark Against Muslims, PM Modi Reiterates Claim Against Manmohan Singh

“In the past ten years, the BJP government has left no stone unturned in castigating Punjab, Punjabis and Punjabiyat.

750 farmers, mostly belonging to Punjab, were martyred while incessantly waiting at Delhi borders, for months together. As if the lathis and the rubber bullets… pic.twitter.com/xJZQrsT3f8

— Congress (@INCIndia) May 30, 2024

PM Modi at a public meeting in Rajasthan said: "Manmohan Singh's government had said that Muslims had the first right to the nation's resources." He was referring to a December 2006 speech by Manmohan Singh at the meeting of the National Development Council. Manmohan Singh in that speech spoke about the need to allot resources to uplift people from the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes communities, backward classes, minorities, women, and children. He said that India needs to plan the development of minorities, particularly the Muslim minority, in a manner that they are "empowered to share equitably the fruits of development". 

An official transcript of the speech read: "Agriculture, irrigation and water resources, health, education, critical investment in rural infrastructure, and the essential public investment needs of general infrastructure, along with programmes for the upliftment of SC/STs, other backward classes, minorities and women and children. The component plans for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes will need to be revitalized. We will have to devise innovative plans to ensure that minorities, particularly the Muslim minority, are empowered to share equitably in the fruits of development. They must have the first claim on resources. The Centre has a myriad other responsibilities whose demands will have to be fitted within the over-all resource availability [sic]."

Sharing the "Muslims" sentence as an isolated statement, PM Modi and the BJP have repeatedly used this speech to attack the Congress and Manmohan Singh, accusing them of favouring the community over other religions.

On Thursday, without mentioning PM Modi's remark, Manmohan Singh said in an open letter: "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."

READ ON ABP LIVE | What Did Manmohan Singh Say In His 'First Claim On Resources' Speech Referred To By PM Modi In Rajasthan?