Abolishing Planning Commission has been harmful for India: Manmohan Singh

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said that the country's economic policy has "no sense of direction" after the Modi government decided to scrap the Planning Commission.

Singh also dismissed as "malicious" propaganda that no development had taken place during previous Congress regimes.

"Economic policy has no sense of direction and this is largely because Planning Commission, with all its deficiencies....Was a positive dynamic instrument of steering the country's economy," Singh, known as the architect of economic reforms in the country, said.

He was speaking at the inauguration of a National Convention here organised by the Indian Youth Congress on the occasion of Indira Gandhi's 98th birth anniversary.

Singh asked his party workers to tell people how government's decision to abolish the planning body has been "harmful" for the country.

The senior Congress leader said that as Indira Gandhi followed Jawaharlal Nehru's path of planned development, she always emphasised the need of Planning Commission for a country as diverse as India and one which faced multifarious challenges.

Recalling her contribution in various fields, including the Green revolution and the birth of Bangladesh, he said that Indira Gandhi believed that the plan body was necessary to address the development needs of all the parts of the country with a strong sense of vision and commitment.

Singh dubbed as "malicious" propaganda that nothing was done for the development of the country during the Congress regimes, including those of Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi.

The former Prime Minister asked the Youth Congress and the Seva Dal to work together in reaching out to people when the party will be facing several state elections followed by the Lok Sabha polls in 2019.