'Singh's 10-yr reign a wasted opportunity'

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday termed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s 10-year reign as a ‘wasted opportunity’, even as it strongly reacted to the Singh’s prophecy that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi would be a disaster as a prime minister.

Arun Jaitley, leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, said the vocabulary used by Singh didn’t add to the dignity of the prime minister’s office. He said though Modi’s name had been cleared by various commissions of inquiry investigating the 2002 Gujarat riots, the prime minister had chosen to make such a reference.

Quoting Singh, Jaitley said if the prime minister could absolve his government’s act of corruption by seeking shelter in the 2009 victory, the PM should also extend the same logic to absolve Modi as he had repeatedly won elections. “He manufactured a new logic that electoral sanction of a corrupt government wipes out allegations of corruption... This can be used by criminals also when they win elections,” he said.

Modi, who is known to react quickly on social media, had till Friday evening chosen to remain mum on Singh’s allegation. He had left his defence to the party.

BJP President Rajnath Singh termed PM’s observations against Modi as ‘laughable’.

“It is a laughable statement to say he should not be the PM as during his tenure, riots have taken place in Gujarat. Modi in his tenure as chief minister has presented Gujarat as a model of development,” Singh said.

Jaitley said the press conference of Singh was a “farce” and lacked any content.

“Except the announcement that he will be unavailable (after the 2014 elections) the rest of the press-conference was a formality... He admitted that his government failed to curb corruption, check unemployment, contain corruption. Between corruption, inflation and unemployment, it is a perfect recipe of disaster,” Jaitley said.