Modi first PM to lower dignity of office with hate speeches: Ex-PM Singh

New Delhi, NT Bureau: Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday stated that his successor Narendra Modi had attributed false statements to him and engaged in the most vicious form of hate speech during campaigning for the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.

“I have never in my life singled out one community from the other,” said Singh in a letter addressed to the people of Punjab, where the general elections are scheduled for June 1.

“That is the sole copyright of the BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party].” The former prime minister seemed to be responding to false claims that Modi made in poll rallies that the Congress would distribute citizens’ private wealth among “infiltrators” and “those who have more children” if voted to power, a reference to Muslims.

I have never in my life singled out one community from the other...& no PM in the past has uttered such hateful, unparliamentary and coarse terms... — Former P M Manmohan Singh

Modi made the claim during a speech in Rajasthan’s Banaswara on April 21, in which he referred to remarks that the former prime minister purportedly made on December 9, 2006 at a meeting of the National Development Council.

Singh had said that the country’s priorities were to uplift the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, minorities and women and children.

“We will have to devise innovative plans to ensure that minorities, particularly the Muslim minority, are empowered to share equitably in the fruits of development,” Singh had said.

“They must have the first claim on resources.” In his letter on Thursday, Singh wrote: “Modi ji is the first prime minister to lower the dignity of public discourse, and thereby the gravity of the office of the prime minister. No prime minister in the past has uttered such hateful, unparliamentary and coarse terms, meant to target either a specific section of the society or the Opposition.”

Singh wrote: “Only Congress can guarantee a development-led progressive future, where democracy and the Constitution will be protected.”

“Modi ji had promised to double the income of our farmers by 2022,” said Singh. “His policies in the past 10 years have eroded the earnings of our farmers. The national average monthly income of farmers is a meagre Rs 27 per day, while average debt per farmer is Rs 27,000 [National Sample Survey Office].”