Manmohan Singh lashes out at Narendra Modi, says govt's Pak policy in shambles

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday said the Narendra Modi-led government's Pakistan policy is "in shambles". He further accused it of "failing miserably to honour its solemn promise to the people of the country".

"The (Modi) government's policy towards Pakistan is in shambles. Terrorists from Pakistan continue to operate freely not only in Jammu and Kashmir but also in Punjab and other neighbouring states," Singh, who represented Assam in theRajya Sabha for 10 years, said at a Congress poll rally.

"The recent attack on Pathankot airbase is evidence of our vulnerability," he added.

"On the economic front, agriculture in the last two years has been stagnant, bringing large scale distress to Indian farmers," he stated. Continuing to hit out at PM Modi, Singh said his foreign trips have been projected as great achievements "though everybody knows that these have yielded nothing yet".

Raking up PM Modi's promise before the Lok Sabha polls to bring back black money kept by Indians in foreign banks, Singh said ironically the government "failed miserably to honour its solemn promise to the people of India"

"This is what the dream-merchant is selling all the time" and his (Modi's) list of promises is "endless", Singh said. "All he (Modi) achieved in these two years is that he has forced crores of people to open bank accounts. But people are asking what will they do with bank accounts when they have nothing to keep in the bank. There is a saying in English that action speaks louder than words. However, it seems Modiji forgot this basic tenet of public life."

There is now a deliberate attempt to fool the people by bringing "non-issues as issues of great importance", he asserted. Referring to the country's economic scenario under the BJP government at the Centre, Singh said industrial production has been stagnant and as a result there is no sign of growth in employment, while exports have continued to decline month after month in the last 15 months.

Urging people of Assam to give a "strong mandate" to the Congress, he said this would take the development of the state to a new high. "Whenever the reins of the state was given to a non-Congress party, the state suffered enormously," he added.

- with PTI inputs