Former PM Manmohan Singh lashes at NDA govt, calls it "despotic regime"

NEWDELHI: Former prime minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday lashed at the BJP-led NDA regime at the Centre calling it a "despotic regime trying to unleash dictatorship in India".

In a letter to Punjab's voters ahead of the seventh phase of Lok Sabha polls on June 1, the former prime minister appealed to voters that they have "one final chance to ensure that democracy and our Constitution are protected from the repeated assaults of a despotic regime, trying to unleash dictatorship in India."

"Punjab and Punjabis are warriors. We are known for our spirit of sacrifice. Our indomitable courage and innate belief in the Democratic ethos of inclusiveness, harmony, amity, and brotherhood can protect our great nation," he added.

Singh alleged that in the past ten years, the BJP government has left no stone unturned in castigating Punjab. "750 farmers, mostly belonging to Punjab, were martyred while incessantly waiting at Delhi borders, for months together.

As if the lathis and the rubber bullets were not enough, none less than the Prime Minister verbally assaulted our farmers by calling them "Andolanjeevis" and "Parjeevi (Parasites) on the floor of the Parliament.

Their only demand was the withdrawal of the three farm laws imposed on them without consulting them," he said. He said that though Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised a doubling of the farmer's income by 2022, his government's policies in the last ten years have eroded the earnings of the farmers.

"The national average monthly income of farmers is a meagre Rs. 27 rupees per day, while average debt per farmer is Rs. 27,000 (NSSO). The high cost of input, including fuel and fertilizers, coupled with GST on at least 35 farm-related equipment and whimsical decision-making in farm export and import, has destroyed the savings of our farm households and left them on the margins of our society," he said.

He said that in the past 10 years, the nation's economy has witnessed unimaginable turmoil. "The imposition of the demonetisation disaster, a flawed GST, and the painful mismanagement during the COVID pandemic has resulted in a miserable situation, where an expectation of a subpar 6-7 per cent GDP growth has become the new normal," he said, "Average GDP Growth under BJP Government has plunged to under 6 per cent, while during Congress-UPA tenure, it was about 8 per cent (New Series) Unprecedented unemployment and unbridled inflation have greatly widened inequality, which is now at a 100-year high," he added.