Manmohan urges PM to ‘exercise restraint’

NEWDELHI: Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday regretted the quality of public discourse in the country and urged his successor, Narendra Modi, to exercise “due restraint” in his speeches.

“My advice to the prime minister [Modi] is to exercise due restraint that is becoming of a prime minister. When the PM goes to states that are not ruled by the BJP, he has an obligation to not use the language that has now become common practice,” Singh said at the launch of Congress leader Manish Tewari’s book ‘Fables of Fractured Times’.

Singh spoke about the use of language in public discourse cutting across party lines. He said the previous Congress-led government never discriminated against its political opponents. Singh accused the Modi government of discriminating against its opponents and Opposition-ruled states “on a daily basis”.

“We never discriminated against the Bjp-ruled states. [Madhya Pradesh chief minister] Shivraj Singhji would himself testify to this. We paid the respect that he deserved. He is the PM of all Indians. His conduct must be worthy and consistent with the obligation he has as a PM.”

Singh remembered the innocent civilians killed in the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai a decade ago. He said terror achieves no purpose and emphasised that friendly relations between India and Pakistan was the only way forward.

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah, who spoke at the book release function, echoed Singh. He said the political discourse has hit a new low. He said the Congress-led rather than the Bharatiya Janata Party government should have conferred Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honour, on late former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Abdullah praised Vajpayee but questioned Modi’s comments about some late Prime Ministers. “If we are here, it is because of the legacy that has been passed on to us. His conduct is just not becoming of the prime minister.”