Manmohan's comment on Modi laughable: Rajnath

BJP Friday said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's attack on their party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi was "laughable".

He also said that Manmohan Singh ruling out a third term showed he has conceded defeat in the Lok Sabha polls.

Manmohan Singh said at a press conference here that it will be "disastrous for the country to have Narendra Modi as prime minister" and that "India does not want such a prime minister".

"I want to say Modi in his tenure has made Gujarat a model state...," Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Rajnath Singh said.

"Such a comment on him (Modi) is laughable," he said.

"Whatever happened in 2002 is sad, but when SIT (Special Investigation Team) and court have given him a clean chit, such statement is unfortunate and condemnable," he added.

On Manmohan Singh's announcement that he will not go for a third term, Rajnath Singh said: "PM ruling out a third term only means he has conceded defeat in the national election."

He also said economic growth was better during the National Democratic Alliance regime when the growth rate was 8.4 percent and "stooped to its lowest during the UPA regime".

He also criticised the prime minister for not mentioning steps being taken to handle the "internal and external security crisis faced by the country".

"The government has failed on all fronts. Prime minister accepted that there are two power centres... when there are two power centres, good work cannot be expected from that government," he said.