Can forgive himself too: Sonia Gandhi's dig at PM over 2017 Manmohan Singh remarks
Congress leader Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 2017 remarks in Rajya Sabha about Manmohan Singh knowing "the art of bathing
Congress leader Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 2017 remarks in Rajya Sabha about Manmohan Singh knowing "the art of bathing with a raincoat on" would go down as the "the lowest point of our parliamentary history". She made the remarks in an op-ed in The Indian Express after the Supreme Court upheld the CBI's clean chit to the former PM in the coal block allocation case. Read Full Story She further wrote that considering the PM is "forgiving India's students" for attacking him, perhaps he can take the opportunity "to forgive himself for his undignified slander against Singh". "Introspection, like charity, must begin from home," the former Congress chief said, adding that the remarks were driven by "a desperate desire to shift the public conversation and narrative away from his outstanding governance record". Sonia Gandhi also wrote that Singh's "record of integrity and accountability" stood in "stark contrast" to the functioning of the PM Modi government, and said history would remember him "kindly as a quiet, gentle but most consequential prime minister".
In the op-ed, she wrote that the top court judgment ended what she called "the witch-hunt against Dr Singh, a man of the most remarkable probity and integrity". The Supreme Court closed the criminal case against Singh by setting aside a summoning order passed against him. The former PM died on December 27, 2024, and now stands formally acquitted in the case. Gandhi also mentioned the top court pulling up the trial court for rejecting the CBI's closure reports and making adverse observations against the former PM for no "compelling reason". "The lobby against him was coordinated and well-organised, with actors stretching from the bureaucracy to the media, the judiciary, civil society, and most certainly to the RSS and BJP. Today, their bogus crusade has come to its inevitable conclusion of nothingness. Dr Singh has been vindicated on every count," she wrote in the op-ed. Gandhi also said it was not a coincidence that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had been among the most vocal critics of Singh.
In a sharp attack on the government, Gandhi said agencies such as the ED and the CBI had been "grossly" misused to put pressure on politicians. "Its purpose has been to exert pressure on politicians. Leaders are either silenced through coercion or cynically folded into the BJP or, in some remarkable instances, rewarded with ministerial positions as well. When credible accusations of corruption emerge, the Modi government simply brushes them aside. Corrupt when you're in the Opposition, suddenly clean when you jump ship," she wrote. Gandhi said Singh's government brought major economic change, with high growth rates and a boom in consumption and private investment that helped move India into the ranks of middle-income countries. She said India showed resilience during the 2008 global economic crisis, and added, "Let us not forget that in spite of the reworking of how the growth of India's GDP is calculated, the 10 years of the UPA government saw higher economic growth than the past 12 years, resulting in millions being pulled out of poverty." Calling the allegations against her former colleague's integrity "mischievous and indefensible", Sonia Gandhi said they had now been exposed as hollow.
The BriefWire