A regrettable personal attack

The most trenchant critics of Dr Manmohan Singh’s tenure as Prime Minister would not dream of labelling him personally corrupt, although his tenure was marred by financial scandals. For this, the Congress Party paid dearly, recording its lowest ever harvest of seats in the Lok Sabha election of May 2014. This fact, however, appeared to pass Prime Minister Narendra Modi by in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday when he accused Dr Singh of having the capacity to take a bath with a raincoat on! This was a new low recorded in the annals of our public life when the Prime Minister launches a vicious personal tirade against a predecessor — one who is respected across the world as an eminent economist and an individual of the highest probity.

In the political spectrum, Dr Singh remains among the few who is known for the simplicity of lifestyle and their honest life. This is all the more reason why Mr Modi’s remarks jar so much. It seemed that Mr Modi was somehow determined to name Dr Singh as a corrupt person, but could only do so in an oblique, crafty way. Mr Modi also made it plain that he was attacking the former PM because in a Rajya Sabha speech Dr Singh had criticised the policy of demonetisation as an instance of official “loot” and “plunder” of the pockets of ordinary people. Mr Modi evidently does not possess the faculty of distinguishing a criticism of government policy from a scurrilous personal attack.