Manmohan Singh criticises PM Modi on his 2014 poll promises, says BJP failed to create 2 crore jobs

Former prime minister Manmohan Singh on Friday hit out at Narendra Modi-led BJP government, accusing them of all-round failure leading to agrarian crisis, economic turmoil and deteriorating ties with neighbouring countries. Launching a series of fresh salvos at the NDA government, Singh also criticised Modi on demonetisation and the data of jobs, saying the numbers put by the Saffron party is questionable.

"People are not impressed with the figures that are being put out by the Modi government to justify the creation of a large number of jobs," the former prime minister said while referring to PM Modi's 2014 poll promises of 2 crore jobs.

The former PM was a gathering at the launch of Congress leader Kapil Sibal's book Shade of Truth - A Journey Derailed. Shade of Truth has reportedly highlighted the failures of Narendra Modi government in the last four years.

Speaking on the "bad implementation" of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), Singh said, "Programmes, like Make in India and Stand Up India, are yet to make a meaningful impact on industrial production growth".

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"Small and marginal enterprises are yet to derive significant benefit from the ease of doing business schemes. The hasty implementation of demonetisation and GST has hurt enterprises," he added.

"Nothing concrete has been done to bring back the promised billions of dollars allegedly held abroad as black money," the Congress leader went on to claim further.

To raise concerns over the surge in the number of rapes across India, Singh said, "Women, Dalits and minorities are increasingly living in an environment of insecurity. The Modi government has slowly but surely undermined the values that any democratic party, any democratic polity should fiercely protect".

"Our relations with neighbours have deteriorated in last 4 years. Modi government has failed to address issues relating to the creative use of science and technology," the veteran leader said.

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However, this is not the first time that Singh has launched such a scathing attack on Modi government. Earlier in August, he also criticised Modi for the historic demonetisation in 2016, days after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said that around 99.3 per cent of the banned notes were back in the system.