‘Maun-Mohan’, Night Watchman to ‘shining example’: PM Modi on Manmohan Singh over the years

Narendra Modi on Manmohan Singh

Modi consistently hit out at Singh in the lead-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections when he was pitching himself as a prime ministerial candidate.

At a rally in October 2012, when he was the Gujarat CM, Modi called Singh“Maun (silent)” Mohan Singh. Referring to a speech the then PM made in Una, Modi said: “Aaaj ki sabse badhi khabar hai ki Maun Mohan Singh ne apana maun tod diya (Today’s biggest news is that ‘Maun-Mohan’ Singh broke his silence).”

Almost a year later, in March 2013, while speaking at the BJP National Council meeting in New Delhi, Modi called Singh a “night watchman”. He told his BJP colleagues, “They appointed a night watchman by naming Manmohan Singh as PM. The PM is nothing but a puppet of the Gandhi family.”

The following month, addressing BJP workers in Kolkata, Modi said Singh was not accepted as a leader in the Congress. “If you ask 100 Congress workers as to who their leader is, no one will name Manmohan Singhji, irrespective of him being the Prime Minister…How can such a prime minister lead a nation?” he asked.

Remarks of such nature continued over the years.

In February 2017, speaking in the Rajya Sabha, Modi took another dig at Singh. Expressing surprise at the “clean record of Dr Singh” even as his government faced various corruption allegations, PM Modi said: “Not a single corruption charge against Manmohan Singh that too during the most corrupt government. The art of taking a bath while wearing a raincoat in the bathroom can be learnt from Manmohan Singh.”

The remark infuriated the Congress and led to Opposition walkouts.

In May 2019, Modi referred to Singh as “an acting PM imposed on the country” by the Congress. At a rally in Madhya Pradesh’s Sagar, Modi said, “Whether it is running a remote-control government or playing video games, these people (Congress) cannot think above acting. This is why they imposed an acting Prime Minister at the helm of the country and waited till the Prime Minister-in-making became wise.”

Launching the Chhattisgarh Assembly election campaign in Ambikapur on September 8 last year, Modi compared his predecessor to then Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh. He hit out at the former PM, who is a renowned economist and was the architect of the 1991 liberalisation policy during his tenure as finance minister, for his decisions on the Indian economy.

“While the doctor of people (Raman Singh) was doing excellent (work) for their well-being, the doctor of rupee (Manmohan Singh) was not able to heal the wounds of the Indian currency at all. He said the rupee was battling for life in a hospital,” said the PM.

Manmohan Singh on Narendra Modi

On January 4, 2014, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, Singh said at a press conference: “Without discussing the merits of Narendra Modi, I sincerely believe that it will be disastrous for the country to have Shri Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister.”

After four years, addressing another conference in Indore in November 2018 ahead of the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections, Singh was asked about his 2014 comment.

“I did say Modi will be a disaster as the PM. Now I recognise I used a harsh word I should not have used. I don’t want to repeat it. But time is not far off when the public at large will have the chance to pronounce on the efficacy or otherwise of public policy which has been put in place by Modiji,” he said.

Singh has also been critical of his successor’s economic policies. In November 2016, during a debate on demonetisation, he said that the way “the scheme had been implemented was a monumental management failure”, and called it “a case of organised loot, legalised plunder of the common people”.

A year later, in November 2017 Singh said at a gathering in Ahmedabad that demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax (GST) were a “twin blow to the economy”.

On December 10, 2017, Modi alleged that at a meeting held at former MP Mani Shankar Aiyar’s residence in which Singh and a former Army chief were present, the Congress colluded with Pakistan to interfere with the Gujarat polls.

In response, Singh said in a statement, “I am deeply pained and anguished by the falsehood and canards being spread to score political points in a lost cause by none less than Prime Minister … Fearing imminent defeat in Gujarat, the desperation of the Prime Minister to hurl every abuse and latch on to every straw is palpable. Sadly & regrettably, Sh Modi is setting a dangerous precedent by his insatiable desire to tarnish every constitutional office, including that of a Former Prime Minister and Army Chief.”

The former PM, in an interview to The Indian Express in April 2018, criticised Modi over his “silence” on the rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua and the alleged rape of a teenager by a BJP MLA in Unnao. Modi “should follow his own advice to me” and “speak more often”, he said.

Asked about the BJP taunting him with the ‘Maun-Mohan Singh” comment, the former PM said he “had lived with comments like these his whole life”.

In May 2019, in an interview to PTI, Singh had called the NDA regime up till that point “a sad story of governance and accountability failure”. He had remarked that Modi’s rule was the most “traumatic” and “devastating for India’s youth, farmers, traders and every democratic institution”.

Singh also took on Modi over policy on Pakistan. “Modi’s slipshod policy on Pakistan was marred by a series of flip-flops — from going to Pakistan uninvited to inviting rogue ISI to Pathankot,” he said.