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New Delhi: Bharatiya
Janata Party leader Yashwant Sinha Friday attacked Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh, calling him an "overrated economist" and an
"underrated politician".
Reacting after the prime minister assured the nation that economic
growth will be restored, Sinha, who was the finance minister
during the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) regime, said the
prime minister was only a "consultant" to the government.
"He is an overrated economist and underrated politician," Sinha
said.
"The problem with Manmohan Singh has been that he has always acted
as a consultant to the government, saying what should be done,
what need not be done. You know he has been prime minister for
eight years, before that he was finance minister for five years
and clearly, he had all the opportunity in the world to implement
what he believes in," said Sinha.
"Now, at the end of eight years, he cannot say this should be done
and that should be done," he added.
Sinha also said that the prime minister should not blame his
government's failures on the previous NDA government.
"The mess is domestically created and it is the government which
has created the mess. This is something which has to be
understood. I went through his interview and I find that he is
constantly offering alibis, you know, and the worst part of it is
that he says they had to undo what we did, when we were in the
government," said Sinha.
"As if all the problems in India from 1947 onwards can be laid at
the door of the NDA government between 1998 and 2004. Why was
India partitioned? Because of the NDA government. Why is the
Kashmir problem there? Because of the NDA government," he said.
In an interview published in the daily Hindustan Times, the prime
minister said: "There is no realisation that a reversal to an
earlier era is neither possible nor desirable; even a neighbour
like China has understood the logic of an open economy and is
developing the institutional framework which is required for
this".
Manmohan Singh also refuted charges of corruption against his
government, saying "I do not think there has been any explosion in
corruption under my watch".
Sinha said this was "laughable".
"These are the most laughable of all comments made so far. He has
defended his corrupt ministers to the hilt, it's only when the
Supreme Court used its stick that they gave up. Why is he
protecting (Home Minister P.) Chidambaram? He protected (former
telecom minister A.) Raja earlier," Sinha added.
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