'Modi as PM disastrous for nation'

Says Rahul has 'outstanding credentials' to be PM candidate

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday announced he would not head the government if the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) returned to power after the 2014 general elections, but said Narendra Modi as prime minister would be “disastrous” for India.

Hailing Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi as a person who has “outstanding credentials to be nominated the Congress party’s candidate for prime minister”, Singh said the UPA’s prime ministerial candidate would be announced at the appropriate time.

In the strongest frontal attack on the Gujarat chief minister and the BJP (the Bharatiya Janata Party)’s prime ministerial candidate, Modi, yet, the prime minister said he didn’t believe he had been a weak prime minister. “... if by strong prime minister you mean that you preside over a mass massacre of innocent citizens on the streets of Ahmedabad ... I do not believe that sort of strength this country needs, least of all in its prime minister.” (THE GROWTH DEBATE)

On Modi, the prime minister said: “I have full confidence that the next PM will be from the UPA coalition. It will be disastrous for the country to have Narendra Modi as prime minister.”  

 

 

Without raising his voice, the PM was combative on Modi, but little else. He conceded that price rise had been a factor in the Congress’ defeat in the recent Assembly elections, but added the UPA’s economic performance had been better than the NDA’s.

Singh avoided rating his government’s performance on a 10-point scale, and said given the global economic situation (the Eurozone crisis and the slowdown of 2008-09) and domestic issues (infrastructural bottlenecks and slow environmental clearances) he had done “the best I could”.

The prime minister did, almost parenthetically, refer to the role of the state governments in putting price control measures in place. But he did not point out any specific lapses on the part of the states that had contributed to the price rise, beyond noting that movement and logistics of perishable fruit and vegetables was a responsibility of the states.

Singh accepted there was a trust deficit between the government and the private sector, but said this was a function of the global economic slowdown. He also said he was concerned that the manufacturing sector was not generating enough employment; he emphasised the need for continued support to medium and small enterprises.

The PM avoided a reply on the future of the Kasturirangan Committee report on industrialisation and mining in the Western Ghats, a contentious issue in several Congress-ruled states.

He also said it would be speculative to comment on whether the holding back of a diesel price increase and the proposed increase in the number of subsidised liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) gas cylinders were signals that the government was reviewing or rolling back its policy on subsidies, following the electoral drubbing.

Singh was asked repeatedly how he saw himself in the nine and a half years he had been prime minister, particularly with charges of corruption against many of his colleagues. Did he feel his image as a clean prime minister had taken a beating? “I am the same person I was nine years ago. I have never used my office to enrich my relatives or friends.”

To the charge that he had done nothing while his colleagues enriched themselves at the expense of the taxpayer, the prime minister said he was the one to insist that spectrum and coal block allocation be done through auction. “When history of this period will be written, we will come out unscathed.”

He said corruption charges related to the UPA’s first tenure. After that, he emphasised, the people had given his government a second chance. That suggested “historians would be more kind to the government than contemporary media”.

His highest point during his tenure, Singh said, was concluding the India-US civil nuclear agreement that ended India’s nuclear apartheid.

The PM started on an upbeat note. In his opening remarks, he said: “The cycle of global economic growth is turning for the better. Many of the steps we have taken to address our domestic constraints are coming into play. India’s own growth momentum will revive.”

But as the press conference wore on, he was largely on the defensive on questions relating to his performance as prime minister. “I have done as well as I could have done. It is for historians to judge my legacy.”

When asked about all the nonsense he had to put up with, despite being a no-nonsense and straightforward man, he said: “The Congress has never run a coalition government. There have been some compromises but these have been peripheral.”

Singh was candid about his relationship with party president Sonia Gandhi. He accepted there was a dual power centre, but said the system had worked remarkably well. “There were times when they (the Gandhi leadership of the party) differed with the government on the way things were done. But it was not a disadvantage. Nobody asked me to step down and at no point did I think of resigning,” he added, scotching rumours that he would bow out before the term of this government ended.