Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s much-awaited Press conference turned out to be a farewell speech in which he gave a bitter parting shot to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, accusing him of presiding over the mass massacre during the 2002 riots in the State.
“I will hand over the baton to a new Prime Minister,” Singh said in his opening remark in his maiden Press conference during UPA II. Singh indicated that his party’s second-in-command Rahul Gandhi would be a better choice for the PM’s post due to his “outstanding credentials” for the top job and Congress president Sonia Gandhi would announce the right choice at an opportune time.
While speculation was rife about Rahul’s anointment as Congress’ PM nominee with senior party functionaries clamouring for naming the Gandhi scion for the post, by ruling himself out for a third term, Singh has paved the way for Rahul’s coronation during the AICC session on January 17. After setting the stage for a Narendra Modi vs Rahul Gandhi clash in the 2014 polls, the PM launched an uncharacteristically bitter attack on the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, who along with his party members has never missed a chance to term Singh as a “weak PM” who “takes commands from 10, Janpath”.
Singh, who faced a volley of questions on the “weak PM” charge, lashed out at Modi. “I do not believe I am a weak Prime Minister. It is for historians to judge. The BJP and its associates may say whatever they like. If by strong Prime Minister you mean you preside over mass massacre of innocent citizens on the streets of Ahmedabad, if that is the measure of strength, I do not believe that this country needs that kind of strength. I sincerely believe that it will be disastrous for the country to have Narendra Modi as Prime Minister,” the Prime Minister said.
He also ridiculed Modi’s campaign for a “Congress-free” India saying that was not going to materialise. After heading two consecutive tenures of an alliance Government at the Centre (UPA-I and UPA-II), Singh hoped that the country will again see a UPA-chosen Prime Minister. To various questions about his performance, particularly related to massive corruption charges against the UPA, Singh hoped history would be kinder to him than the contemporary media or the Opposition while judging him.
Answering a barrage of questions on his sincerity to tackle corruption, Singh claimed that the pending five or six anti-corruption legislations will soon be passed in Parliament. “The Opposition has vested interests. Sometimes the media plays into their hands. When history is written we will come out unscathed. This is not to say that there are no irregularities. But the dimensions of the problem have been overstated by the media, by CAG sometimes and other entities,” Singh said.
With regards to his relationship between the Government and the Congress, Singh conceded there were differences at times and the Government reconsidered decisions. “I sincerely believe that the arrangement where the Congress president and the Prime Minister did not happen to be the same person has under the circumstance worked exceedingly well. Sonia Gandhi’s support has been enormous. She was there to back me which facilitated my task in more than one way,” said Singh.
At the outset, the Prime Minister conceded that price rise could have been one of the factors in the defeat of the Congress in the recent Assembly elections and also regretted his Government’s inability to control inflation and create more jobs. “We will reflect on the results of the Assembly elections and learn appropriate lessons. I am concerned that we have not been as successful as we need to be in generating employment in the manufacturing sector. This is an aspect of performance which we are working hard to correct. We need a much stronger effort in support of small and medium enterprises which can be a major source of good quality employment. Our Manufacturing Strategy gives high priority to this objective for the future.
Second, we have also not been as successful in controlling persistent inflation as we would have wished. This is primarily because food inflation has increased.” In his first remarks on the performance of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Singh said only time will tell whether this experiment is capable of dealing with the challenges that our economy and polity faces but they should be given a chance. While the PM remained elusive on a repeated question on the lowest moment of his career, he termed striking a nuclear deal with the US as his best moment.