Courtesy Call or Invitation? After PM Modi-Manmohan Singh Meet, Different Versions

New Delhi:  When Prime Minister Narendra Modi met his predecessor Dr Manmohan Singh at his Race Course Residence on Wednesday evening, there was much speculation on the purpose of the former PM’s visit.

It came at the end of a day when Dr Singh had made an uncharacteristically scathing attack on the Modi government and multiple leaders of the BJP, including party chief Amit Shah, had hit out at Dr Singh.

The Prime Minister’s Office described Dr Singh’s visit to 7 Race Course Road, where he lived till a year ago, as a courtesy call. PM Modi tweeted their photo and said, “Very happy to meet Dr. Manmohan Singh ji & welcome him back to 7RCR. We had a great meeting.”

Hours later, however, Dr Singh’s office said in a statement, “At the invitation of PM Modi, former PM Dr Manmohan Singh met the Prime Minister today…They discussed the economic situation in the country and foreign policy issues.”

News agency Press Trust of India quoted sources close to Dr Singh as saying that PM Modi had sent a message asking to meet his predecessor over tea sometime on Tuesday evening and when that meeting couldn’t happen it was scheduled for Wednesday.

Congress leader Anand Sharma too said that the meeting took place at the behest of the Prime Minister.

Accused by former aides and colleagues of permissiveness towards corruption in his government, Dr Singh had said earlier on Wednesday, “I have not used my public office to enrich myself, my family members or my friends.”

He attacked the Modi government alleging that “institutions of democracy are under threat and the entire edifice of the welfare state is being dismantled in the guise of promoting faster economic growth.”

Dr Singh’s assertion on corruption came after Pradip Baijal, the former head of the country’s telecom regulator, said that Dr Singh asked him not to obstruct policies that were being implemented to allow a massive scam in the allocation of mobile network licenses in 2009.



 



BJP chief Amit Shah said Dr Singh’s statement shirked accountability. “I accept the PM was not corrupt, but it was his job to ensure the same of his ministers,” he said.

“One must give credit to him that he is (the) best politician India has produced in the last many decades… He can lie with a straight face and say I have not done anything wrong,” BJP’s Siddharth Nath Singh said. Other BJP leaders and ministers too attacked Dr Singh.