As campaigning for the Lok Sabha elections came to a close Thursday, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of having delivered the “most vicious” form of “purely divisive” “hate speeches” during his electioneering, lowering the dignity of public discourse and gravity of his 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 . People of India are seeing through all of this. This narrative of dehumanization has now reached its peak. It is now our duty to save our beloved nation from these forces of discord,” Singh said in an appeal, meant for the people of Punjab, which is voting in the last phase on June 1. The rare intervention by the 91-year-old former Prime Minister, who headed the UPA government from 2004 to 2014, came at the end of the bitter and gruelling campaign which had seen Modi repeatedly targeting Singh’s UPA government claiming that the Congress wanted to allocate 15% of the government’s budgetary allocations for minorities during its tenure. In one of his speeches in Rajasthan, Modi referred to Singh’s December 2006 speech at the meeting of the National Development Council to argue that the Congress government wanted Muslims to have the first right to the country's assets and that the party’s manifesto this time talks about taking stock of “the gold of mothers and sisters” and distributing that wealth to infiltrators. While the Congress countered Modi aggressively and even knocked the doors of the Election Commission, Singh was silent. Breaking his silence, Singh said “I have been keenly following the political discourse during this election campaign. Modi ji has indulged in the most vicious form of hate speeches, which are purely divisive in nature. Modi ji is the first Prime Minister to lower the dignity of public discourse, and thereby the gravity of the office of the Prime Minister.” “He 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,” said Singh, who had not been keeping well and remained largely out of the public glare. Singh and Modi had often exchanged barbs in the past but have expressed admiration for each other too at times. In February, Modi, bidding farewell to retiring members of Rajya Sabha, surprised many when he thanked Singh, his predecessor, for “guiding the House” and the country. Calling Singh a “shining example” of what an MP should be, Modi said the former PM even came to the Upper House in “a wheelchair to help strengthen democracy”. In September last year, Singh, in an interview to The Indian Express on the eve of the G-20 summit, pointed out that India has a “pivotal role” in “steering” the new world order and in the contest of the Russia-Ukraine war said New Delhi has “done the right thing in putting its sovereign and economic interests first while also appealing for peace. Singh had said that he was “more optimistic about India’s future than worried,” but that optimism is “contingent on India being a harmonious society.” They have attacked each other too. For instance, Modi had called Singh “Maun (silent)” Mohan Singh in 2012 and termed him a “night watchman” a year later. Speaking in Rajya Sabha in 2017, Modi said “Not a single corruption charge against Manmohan Singh that too during the most corrupt government. The art of taking a bath while wearing a raincoat in the bathroom can be learnt from Manmohan Singh.” Singh too had been scathing about Modi. Addressing one of his last press conferences as Prime Minister in January 2014, Singh said “Without discussing the merits of Narendra Modi, I sincerely believe that it will be disastrous for the country to have Shri Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister.” In May 2019, in an interview to PTI, Singh had called the NDA regime up till that point “a sad story of governance and accountability failure”. And that Modi’s rule was the most “traumatic” and “devastating for India’s youth, farmers, traders and every democratic institution”. In his appeal Thursday, Singh said India is standing at a crucial juncture. “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,” he said. Appealing to the people of Punjab, he said “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 were not enough, none less than the Prime Minister verbally assaulted our farmers by calling them ‘Andolanjeevis’ and ‘Parjeevi’ (Parasites) on the floor of the Parliament. Their only demand was the withdrawal of the three farm laws imposed on them without consulting them.” “Modi ji had promised to double the income of our farmers by 2022. His policies in the last ten years have eroded the earnings of our farmers. The national average monthly income of farmers is a meagre Rs 27 per day, while average debt per farmer is R. 27,000 (NSSO). High cost of input, including fuel and fertilizers, coupled with GST on at least 35 farm related equipment and a whimsical decision making in farm export and import, has destroyed the savings of our farm households and left them on the margins of our society,” he said. Singh also attacked the BJP over its management of the economy. “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 per cent GDP growth has become the new normal. Average GDP growth under the BJP Government has plunged to under 6 per cent, while during Congress-UPA tenure, it was about 8 per cent (New Series). Unprecedented unemployment and unbridled inflation have greatly widened inequality, which is now at a 100-year high,” Singh said. “While the Congress-UPA, despite challenges, increased the purchasing power of our people, the misrule of the BJP Government has resulted in depletion of household savings to a historic 47-year low. Rural wages have witnessed a systematic fall, and wage disparity has led to widespread distress. Our youth is the most neglected section of society under the present dispensation. There are 30 lakh Government vacancies. Innumerable paper leaks have cast a dark shadow on their future, even as they are forced to wait for recruitment for years,” he added. Singh also slammed the Agniveer scheme as ill-conceived. “The BJP thinks that the value of patriotism, bravery and service is only 4 years. This shows their fake nationalism. Those who trained for regular recruitment were woefully betrayed by the outgoing regime. 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. The Congress party has therefore promised to abolish the Agniveer Scheme,” he said.. Singh asked the people of Punjab to “give love, peace, fraternity, and harmony a chance in India.”
