Congress raps BJP for dubbing Manmohan Singh 'consultant to government'

New Delhi, July 7 (ANI): Congress spokesperson Renuka Choudhary hit back at Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Yashwant Sinha for dubbing Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh a 'consultant to the government' despite remaining in power for almost eight years.

Choudhary told media that the world respects Dr. Singh as an able economist.

"I don't think Yashwant Sinha remembers what he did as finance minister; we will wait till we can ask him those questions. That is his personal opinion; I don't want to react to that. It is another matter that the whole nation and the whole world holds our Prime Minister in high regard, so Yashwant Sinha's opinion is his personal opinion and he is most welcome to it," she said.

Sinha, who was the finance minister during BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government, had earlier taken a jibe at Dr. Singh and called him a 'consultant' to the government, saying the latter could have made full use of the opportunity given to him since he has held the reins of the nation for eight years now.

"They are all platitudes. You see 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.

Sinha stated that the Prime Minister and his Cabinet cannot always put the blame on the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) rule for all problems facing the country.

"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 asked.

Sinha further said that during the last eight years Dr. Singh's name has been dragged into several controversies; either related to the scams or economic slowdown.

Dr. Singh in an interview to a leading national daily earlier said that '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'. (ANI)