NDA messed up economy, mismanaged J-K conflict: Manmohan Singh

Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, March 18

Former prime minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday launched a scathing attack on the NDA government, accusing it of having "messed up" the economy and mismanaging the dispute in Jammu and Kashmir.

At the 84th plenary session of the Congress, Singh described the government's demonetisation move as "ill-considered" and GST as "hastily implemented".

"The BJP-led government messed up the Indian economy. The ill-considered demonetisation and hastily implemented GST have destroyed small scale enterprises," he said.

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"The central government mismanaged the Jammu and Kashmir dispute like never before. The atmosphere in the state has been deteriorating day by day," he said.

Singh also dismissed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's comment about farmers' incomes being doubled.

"Modi said farmers' income would be doubled in six years. It is a 'jumla'-type (rhetorical) statement unlikely to be achieved," he said addressing the session.

Asserting that the UPA government achieved a "lot" under then Congress president Sonia Gandhi's guidance, Singh exuded confidence that the plenary session would chalk out the future path for the country and the party would play a "historic" role.

Change foreign policy

The Congress also vowed to dislodge the BJP government and restore the nation to what it described as an enlightened world view of the country’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru under the leadership of party chief Rahul Gandhi.

Moving the foreign policy resolution at the ongoing AICC session here, former minister Anand Sharma accused the central government of reducing the matter to a divisive political issue and sought the restoration of policy to bipartisanship.

The resolution was adopted unanimously.

“Foreign Policy was never held hostage to domestic politics. We are saddened that the consensus on foreign policy built over the years has been disrupted by the Modi Government. This must change,” Sharma earlier said introducing the resolution.

The resolution took note of the BJP leaning towards the US at the cost of relations with Russia and called for return to multi-polar world order with improvement of ties with the trusted Indian ally, Russia.

On India’s neighbourhood policy, the Congress expressed deep concerns saying: “India’s voice in the neighbourhood has never been so enfeebled as it is today”.

The resolution called for a cautious approach on Pakistan accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of making Pakistan a divisive domestic political issue.

“We did not divide India to fight terrorism like the BJP is doing. We salute our soldiers but what did the BJP do? The PM landed in Pakistan without invitation but with gifts and ended up undermining national dignity. In return we got Pathankot and many terror attacks,” Sharma said advising India for course correction in relations with China.

On Palestine the Congress reaffirmed support to the independent nation status obliquely castigating the Prime Minister for his recent policy shift towards Israel.

The resolution comprehensively condemned the existing foreign policy equating it to event management and said: “Grandeur is no substitute for effective diplomacy”.

The Congress also passed a resolution authorising party president Rahul Gandhi to nominate Congress Working Committee members, eliminating the need for elections. Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad introduced the resolution.

‘Demonetisation greatest lie’

Former finance minister P. Chidambaram called the central government’s November 2016 decision to scrap old highvalue bank notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 the "greatest lie" that destroyed jobs.

The Congress leader also accused the Centre of pushing people into poverty by implementing a flawed Goods and Services Tax (GST).

"There cannot be a greater lie than demonetisation," Chidambaram said after presenting the party's economic policy at the Congress plenary here.

He slammed the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for not telling the nation the total amount of demonetized currency it received back.

"Demonetisation was a big lie. The RBI is still counting and won't tell us how much money has come back," he said. With agencies