In a letter addressed to the country’s people, Manmohan Singh said on Thursday that he had “never distinguished one community from another.” His statement was in reference to the speech given by Narendra Modi in Rajasthan on April 21st. While attending a rally in Rajasthan, Narendra Modi said that the Congress would distribute people’s hard-earned money and valuables to “infiltrators” and “those who have more children” if it came to power.
The former prime minister Manmohan Singh lashed Modi of lowering the dignity of public discourse and the gravity of the office of the PM by giving “hateful speeches” during the poll campaign.
“The BJP thinks that the value of patriotism, bravery and service is only four years. This shows their fake nationalism,” he said in a letter to voters of Punjab.
The letter also read, “I have been watching the political discussion very carefully during this election campaign. Modiji has engaged in vile hate speeches, which are downright divisive. Modi ji is the first Prime Minister who has reduced the dignity of the office and, with it, the seriousness of the Prime Minister’s office. No previous Prime Minister used such vile, unparliamentary, and low-level language to target a particular section or opposition. They have also given me some wrong statements. I have never in my life distinguished one community from another. This is the special right and habit of the BJP.”
“I appeal to every voter in Punjab to vote for development and coordinated progress. I urge all young people to vote carefully and to vote for the future. Only Congress can guarantee a development-led progressive future where democracy and the Constitution will be protected,” he added further.
Hitting on the Modi government and criticizing them over the worsening Indian economy, Mr. Singh said, “In the last ten years, the country’s economy has seen tremendous upheaval. The scourge of demonetization, mismanaged GST, and poor management during the COVID-19 pandemic have created dire conditions. Below-average 6-7 percent GDP growth has become normal. Annual GDP growth under the BJP government has dropped to less than 6 percent, while it was around 8 percent during the Congress-UPA.” He added: “While the Congress-UPA, despite the challenges, continued to increase the purchasing power of our people, the mismanagement of the BJP government has reduced household savings to a historic low of 47 years.”
Modi’s Rajasthan Speech
During the rally in Rajasthan, Modi said, “The Congress manifesto says it will calculate the gold with mothers and sisters, get information about it, and then distribute that property. They will distribute it to whomever Manmohan Singh’s government has said that Muslims have the first right to the country’s assets.”
He added, “Earlier, when their (Congress) government was in power, it said that Muslims had the first right to the country’s assets. This means to whom will this property be distributed? It will be distributed among those who have more children.”
“It will be distributed to the infiltrators. Should your hard-earned money go to the infiltrators? Do you approve of this?” he said. “This urban Naxal mindset, my mothers and sisters, they will not even leave your mangalsutra’. They can go to that level,” Modi alleged.
Speech by Manmohan Singh in 2006
At the meeting of the National Development Council in December 2006, Singh said, “I believe our collective priorities are clear. Agriculture, irrigation and water resources, health, education, critical investment in rural infrastructure, and the essential public investment needs of general infrastructure, along with programs for the upliftment of SCs and 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,” he said. The next day, the PMO also clarified that Singh’s reference to ‘first claim on resources’ “refers to all the ‘priority’ areas… including programs for the upliftment of SCs, STs, OBCs, women, children, and minorities.”
