Many surgical strikes during UPA regime, we never claimed credit: Manmohan

The former PM alleges BJP was racking up the national security issue to draw people's attention away from Modi government's failure on the economic front

Multiple surgical strike took place in the UPA regime, but for Congress military operations were meant for giving befitting reply to anti-India forces and not a vote garnering exercises, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in an interview.

"In the past 70 years, a government in power never had to hide behind the valour of our armed forces. Such attempts to politicise our forces are shameful and unacceptable," he told Hindustan Times.

On PM Modi's comparison with Indira Gandhi, he said there cannot be any comparison between Indira Gandhi's greatness and the pettiness of the present regime. " Neither Mrs Gandhi, nor her predecessor took away the credit of our armed forces in winning these wars," he said.

The former PM alleged that BJP was racking up the national security issue to draw people's attention away from Modi government's failure on the economic front.

Refuting the charge that his government was weak in responding to 26/11 attack in Mumbai, Singh said different geopolitical conditions require different responses. UPA got China to agree to declare Hafiz Saeed as a global terrorist under the 1267 Sanctions Committee of UN and also ensured that a $10m bounty was placed on his head, he said.

"Our response was to isolate and diplomatically expose Pakistan as a terror hub," Singh said.

Singh listed several facts to show that the NDA government was a failure both on the national security and the economic front.

He said there have been 17 major terror attacks on security installation, while the defence expenditure as percentage of GDP declined to a 57-year low.

Modi promised 20 million jobs per year, but demonetisation and a flawed GST snatched over 40 million jobs. Joblessness and unemployment is at a 45-year high of 6.1%, he said.