Fix the economy, stop blaming UPA: Manmohan Singh to government

MUMBAI: Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday said his successor Narendra Modi and finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman should stop blaming the UPA regime for the crisis in the economy as the NDA had been in office for over five years which is "long enough period" for a government "to do some credible things".
"When I was in office, what happened did happen. There were some weaknesses, but you can't claim the fault lies with UPA always.Mainly passing the buck to UPA is not enough. The government is obsessed with trying to somehow fix the blame on its opponents. In the process, it is unable to find a solution that will ensure the revival of the economy, particularly strengthening of our banking system," said Singh, speaking at a Congress meet on the state of the economy.
A couple of days ago, Sitharaman had said Indian public sector banks had their "worst phase" when Singh was the PM and Raghuram Rajan was RBI governor.
Highlighting what he called NDA's utter failure on the economic front, former PM Manmohan Singh said: "With growth rate declining year after year, I don't think there's any hope of economy reaching the target of $5 trillion by 2024."
On the PMC Bank crisis, Singh asked Modi and Sitharaman to address the plight of 16 lakh depositors as a top priority. "Indeed, it is unfortunate that lakhs are suffering following the fraud involving officials and directors of the bank."
The former PM strongly defended NCP leader Praful Patel who has been summoned by ED on Friday in connection with a financial deal involving Hajra Iqbal Memon, wife of the late drug lord Iqbal Memon "Mirchi".
He said ED's action appears to be an act of political vendetta. "Our laws are clear. So long as he is not guilty, he is considered as innocent. In my opinion, central agencies should not be used to settle political scores against rivals."
The former PM clarified that Congress had not opposed but supported the proposal to nullify Article 370 in Parliament. "We are not opposed to (the move on) Article 370. Our contention is that the NDA government could not secure the goodwill of the people of J&K owing to high-handedness at all levels."
On the Maharashtra BJP's proposal in its manifesto to confer the Bharat Ratna on Veer Savarkar, Singh said Congress was never against Savarkar but was against the ideology of Hindutva promoted by him.