New Delhi: In his first campaign message on the eve of Punjab Assembly poll, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday attacked the ruling BJP, calling its nationalism “fake, empty and dangerous” and accusing it of practising the British policy of divide and rule.
Attempts to defame Punjab, Punjabiyat
Ties cannot be improved by hugging leaders, taking them swinging or stopping by uninvited to have ‘biryani’… attempts to defame Punjab and Punjabiyat during farm agitation. Manmohan Singh, Ex-prime Minister
In a video message, Singh, without naming PM Narendra Modi, said despite being in power for seven years, the government continued to blame late PM Jawaharlal Nehru for all of the people’s problems.
The 89-year-old ex-PM, unable to travel for health reasons, accused the government of attempting to “defame state CM Charanjit Singh Channi over the January 5 PM’s security breach in Ferozepur and Punjabis and Punjabiyat during the farmers’ agitation”.
“As a true Indian hailing from Punjab, these things deeply hurt me,” said Singh, terming India’s foreign policy a “complete failure” and claiming that the government was “trying to bury the issue of Chinese transgressions along the LAC”.
“Today’s circumstances are extremely worrisome. On the one hand, faulty policies of the government have led the people to anguish over rising prices and joblessness and on the other, the government, after seven years of rule, instead of accepting and correcting its mistakes, is busy blaming first PM late Jawaharlal Nehru for people’s problems… the position of the PM has special significance and you cannot escape your sins by blaming history,” Singh said, adding that the rich were getting richer and the poor poorer.
Noting that Chinese soldiers were sitting on Indian land for a year, Singh took a veiled swipe at his successor saying, “I hope the incumbents would have realised by now that bilateral relations cannot be improved by hugging leaders, taking them swinging or stopping by uninvited to have ‘biryani’.”
The noted economist said India was at a significant crossroads today with “old friends getting alienated and neighbourly relations deteriorating”.