Manmohan ‘hurt, anguished’

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 13

On the eve of phase two polling in Gujarat, BJP chief Amit Shah attacked former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for remaining silent when PM Narendra Modi was called a low life by a Congress leader and expressing his anguish on the Gujarat election eve only to mislead people.

Shah’s all-out attack on Singh came after the former PM released a video link in which he reiterated his “hurt and anguish” over what he described as “falsehoods and canards being spread by PM Modi in the face of imminent defeat in Gujarat”. Singh rejected PM Modi’s charges that Congress leaders and Pakistani guests secretly discussed Gujarat at a private dinner hosted by Mani Shankar Aiyer, who’s been suspended from the Congress, and demanded that the PM apologized to the nation.

Moments after Singh’s video link was released, Shah launched an offensive against him, saying he was “amused to see the Congress party so desperate before the Gujarat elections… both Rahul Gandhi and respected Manmohan Singh ji are only maliciously attacking the PM.”

In a series of tweets, the BJP chief asked “where was respected Manmohan Singh ji’s anger when Rahul Gandhi tore an ordinance which his Cabinet had cleared? Where was his concern for the dignity of the Prime Minister’s office?”

“The question that the Congress and Manmohan Singh need to answer is, why did Anand Sharma and Randeep Surjewala vehemently deny that the meeting with a top Pakistani leader has ever happened? 

“After strongly denying the meeting, why did respected Manmohan Singh did a sharp U-turn and declared that he attended the meeting? Only after the secret meeting was exposed, Manmohan Singh said the discussion was confined to India-Pakistan relations. Why did he not consider it appropriate to apprise GoI about such a meeting with a neighbour like Pakistan? Why did he try to hide it?” asked Shah. He also said, “We are seeing a very angry Manmohan Singh ji these days. We just want to ask him whether he was so angry when monumental loot & plunder was happening under his watch? The nation missed this anger then!”

Singh, in a video cast today demanded an apology from the PM again and said, “PM Modi is setting a dangerous precedent with his insatiable desire to tarnish every constitutional office, including that of the former PM and the ex-Army Chief.