Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday castigated his successor Narendra Modi and accused him of using language unbecoming of a prime minister and attempting to polarise poll-bound Karnataka.
"It is shocking that a prime minister stoops so low and uses such language and phraseology which is unbecoming of a prime minister, particularly when he is in a state where elections are taking place. No prime minister has used election time to say things in manner that Modiji has been trying. I sincerely hope he will now learn a lesson and not seek to polarise the society," Manmohan Singh said at a press conference in Bengaluru.
The senior Congress leader also raked up the multi-crore loan default scam that involved celebrity jeweller Nirav Modi and held the Centre responsible for turning a blind eye to it. Manmohan Singh attacked the government over a series of banking sector frauds, saying the money swindled almost quadrupled from Rs 28,416 crore in September 2013 to Rs 1.11 lakh crore in September 2017.
"Perpetrators of these frauds meanwhile escape with impunity. The economic mismanagement of the Modi government, and I say this with great care and responsibility, is slowly eroding the trust of the general public in the banking sector," Manmohan Singh said.
"As far as Nirav Modi is concerned, it was obvious that in 2015-16, that something is going around with the affairs of (Nirav) Modi and yet the Modi government didn't do anything. If blame has to be cast, it has to be on the government of mandate," he said.
Singh said the prime minister was in the company of the accused businessman at the World Economic Forum (WEF) organised in Davos, in January, the same time when the scam-hit Punjab National Bank (PNB) detected the scam.
Manmohan Singh added, "Only a few days later he ran away from the country. That itself is the reflection of the sad state of affairs in this wonderland of Modi government."
The scam was started in 2011, and was detected in the third week of January.
However, Nirav Modi managed to flee the country before the PNB officials filed a complaint with the CBI on January 31.
"Prime Minister Modi hasn't held a single press conference in the last four years. That itself is a reflection of the state of affairs," the former prime minister remarked.
"Our nation today is experiencing difficult times. Our farmers are facing an acute crisis, our aspirational youth are not finding opportunities, and the economy is growing below its potential," Singh said. He said the "unfortunate truth" was that each of these crises was "entirely avoidable".
"It pains me to see how rather than standing up to all these challenges, the governments response has been to stifle dissent when deficiencies are pointed out," he said.
Noting that economic policy has a significant impact on the lives of people, Manmohan Singh said it was essential that those tasked with decision making pay careful attention to policies and programmes and not act on mere whims and fancies.
"India is a complex and diverse country and no one person can be the repository of all wisdom," he said in an apparent dig at Modi.
He said every time an answer was sought for any of the "disastrous policies" of the BJP government, "all we hear is that the intentions are virtuous".
Manmohan Singh said the intentions of the Modi government which it claimed were good, had resulted in "massive" losses for the country.
"Its lack of reasoning and analysis is costing India and our collective future."
The former prime minister said under the UPA governments the growth rate averaged 7 per cent. It was 8 per cent at one point of time despite turbulent global conditions, he said.
The NDA government, he said, clocked inferior growth rate despite a favourable international climate and low oil prices. In fact, growth rate under the NDA is lower in spite of the change in the methodology to determine it "which paints a rosier picture than reality", Singh said.
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According to Manmohan Singh, two "major avoidable blunders" of the Modi government had been demonetisation and hasty implementation of GST.
He said the losses the economy suffered due to these blunders had severely hurt the micro, small and medium enterprises and resulted in the loss of tens of thousands of jobs.
Besides, exports as a share of the GDP plunged to a 14 year low at a time when the global economy was reviving and exports of other Asian nations like Vietnam were growing substantially, he said.
Manmohan Singh said petrol and diesel prices were at a "historic high" despite a fall in international crude oil prices because the Modi government had chosen to levy "excessive" excise duty.
"Instead of passing on the benefits of low prices to the people, the Modi government has punished the people," he said.
With the assembly elections inching nearer, Karnataka has turned into a battlefield with both the BJP and the Congress indulging in aggressive campaigns.
Karnataka will go to polls on May 12 to elect representatives to the 224-seat assembly. The results will be declared on May 15.