Dear Dr Manmohan Singh,
As a citizen of this great country of ours, who has been following Indian politics for quite some time now, I feel happy after reading your letter to PM Modi. It seems that you have finally started feeling some pain and anguish. The effect of the anesthesia that you had injected in yourself seems to be finally wearing off after you (thankfully) ceased to be the PM of the nation.
Dr Manmohan Singh, Where was the pain and where was the anguish when scam after scam took place right under your nose when you were the PM? 2G, Coalgate, Agusta-Westland, Commonwealth, National Herald, the list is endless. It must be noted that you were the Coal Minister when Coalgate happened. Your silence is well documented in the book by Vinod Rai. You were aware of all the rot that was taking place, but chose to remain silent.
In 2004, UPA inherited an economy with over 7% growth and with policy paralysis and corruption, UPA government brought the growth rate to under 5%. At around 5%, Fiscal deficit was at an all-time high. Inflation was at an all-time high and our foreign reserve was less. For all your accusations of the BJP being crony capitalists, the NPA problem that we have today is a result of your policies wherein some banks were pressurized to give loans to the big corporate despite knowing that the money is not going to repaid. What about the Food Security Bill? Despite knowing that it is a bad move for the economy, you still went ahead with it only because you could not go against Madam. You are supposed to be one of the world’s best economists with fancy degrees. How could you allow all this to happen Dr Manmohan Singh? And when all this did happen, were you not pained or anguished?
Where was your pain and where was the anguish Dr Manmohan Singh when the Authority of Prime Minister was shamed by Rahul Gandhi when he publicly tore an ordinance and termed it ‘nonsense’? After that, during the 2014 elections, you shamelessly said that you are willing to work under him. Why Dr Manmohan Singh, Why?
Dr Manmohan Singh, where was the pain and where was the anguish when you openly said that minorities have the first right to the resources of the country? Was it not blatant minority appeasement? I am not from the minority community. Why should I be treated like a second-class citizen in my own country? Your party, despite the tall talks of inclusion and secularism, has always divided people in the name of caste and religion.
Where was the pain and where was the anguish when your General Secretary Digvijay Singh brazenly termed 26/11 ‘RSS ki Saazish’ and even participated in a book launch with the same title? Was it not a deliberate attempt to malign the organization to please the minorities? When Rahul Gandhi was caught on Wikileaks saying Hindu terror posed a greater threat to India and not Islamic terror, thereby implying that organizations like LeT, SIMI and JeM were not much of a threat, you were silent about the whole thing.
Dr Manmohan Singh, When your Home Minister P Chidambaram coined the mythical saffron terror theory, why were you not anguished or pained? The Malegaon blasts clearly pointed to radical organizations SIMI and LeT. In the name of secularism, your party twisted the story and brought up the Hindu terror angle and you did what you were best at, which is to keep silent about the whole thing.
When you and your party demonized the then Gujarat CM Modi for the 2002 riots despite the Supreme Court appointed SIT confirming that there was no wrong doing, were you not undermining the institution of Supreme Court? You yourself made a statement that Modi presided over the mass massacre of Muslims. Was this not an irresponsible and unwanted statement from the PM of the country, aimed to create paranoia among the Muslims? At that time, nobody complained of you hitting below the belt.
In your letter Dr Manmohan Singh, you also say that the Congress party does not need sermons on Nationalism from anyone. Apart from the scams mentioned above, was it nationalism that took Rahul Gandhi to JNU to support elements that chanted ‘Bharat tere tukde honge’? After 26/11, when our Air Force was ready to perform surgical strikes, it was your government that stopped the operation. Was this nationalism? What about Rahul Gandhi meeting the Chinese envoy during the Doklam crisis? What about Mani Shankar Aiyar publicly telling in Pakistan ‘inko hataiye aur humein laayiye’? Nationalism? Times Now and Republic are coming up with new exposes on the UPA government on a very regular basis and some of them, like the Safdar Nagori tapes are extremely chilling. What you did then certainly did not amount to nationalism by any stretch of imagination.
The Goods and Service Tax (GST) was conceptualized first by the UPA government and finally when it saw the light of the day after languishing in Parliament, you chose to not participate in the launch despite being invited by the government. Your party is busy creating panic in the minds of the people by trying to give a picture that it is a flawed GST or Gabbar Singh Tax and you had envisioned a single rate. Do you really think a Hawai slipper and an Audi car should be taxed alike? If yes, we would like to hear from the master economist on what that tax rate should be. Would you agree that your party is creating a narrative of a flawed GST for strictly political purposes?
Lastly, Dr Manmohan Singh – you talk about an imminent defeat in Gujarat for the BJP. This only reminds me of Mani Shankar Ayer’s statement that ‘Modi Pradhan Mantri nahi banenge, nahi banenege, nahi banenge’. In any case, if luck does not go in your favor and you end up losing the elections, would you, like other Congressmen, also blame the EVMs and malign the institution of the Election Commission to save Rahul Gandhi? Would you go to the extent of propagating the famous Bluetooth theory? We would love to have your views on this on 18th Dec.
Dr Manmohan Singh, you are expecting an apology from the PM for the statement that he has made. Will you apologize to the nation for all the misdeeds that have happened when you were the PM?
You played an important part in the 1991 liberalization (It must also be mentioned here that the then PM PV Narasimha Rao was insulted by Madam even after his death and you chose to keep quiet about it) and when you became the PM, the entire country was hopeful that a person of your education and stature is going to lead the country and will take us to great heights. But alas, your loyalty for the first family by far overshadowed your Rajdharma and UPA 2 was a dark chapter in the history of India. If I have to draw an analogy, you are like Dhrithrashtra of Mahabharata, who chose his son over Rajdharma.
History is certainly not going to be kind to you as you had hoped it would be. Will you apologize to the nation Dr Manmohan Singh?
Yours truly
A citizen of this Republic, who was sick and fed up of your (mis)ruleTop of Form
