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‘Pained’ Manmohan asks Modi to apologise over Pak conspiracy charges

Singh, in a statement, stressed that the Gujarat election was not discussed during meeting with some Pakistani officials at Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar’s house.

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to apologise to the nation for alleging that he was conspiring with Pakistan for the Bharatiya Janata Party’s defeat in the Gujarat polls.

Rejecting the charge as “innuendos and falsehoods”, Singh said he was deeply pained by the prime minister’s “ill thought transgression”.

Addressing an election rally in Palanpur, Gujarat on Sunday, Modi suggested that Pakistan was trying to influence the assembly polls in the state.

He claimed that some Pakistani officials and Manmohan Singh met at Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar’s house over dinner on December 6. This was a day before Aiyar’s “neech” jibe against Modi.

Singh issued a statement on Monday, listing those who attended the dinner, and stressed that the election was not discussed during the meeting.

“I reject the innuendos and falsehoods as I did not discuss Gujarat elections with anyone else at the dinner hosted by Mani Shankar Aiyar as alleged by Modi.

“I sincerely hope that he will apologize to the Nation for his ill thought transgression to restore the dignity of the office he occupies,” Singh said in the statement.

Singh also said that he and his party don’t need nationalism lectures from Modi.

“The Congress Party needs no sermons on “Nationalism” from a party and Prime Minister, whose compromised track record on fighting terrorism is well known,” he said.

The senior Congress leader further said, “Let remind Shri Narendra Modi that he had gone to Pakistan uninvited after the terrorist attacks in Udhampur and Gurdaspur. Let him also tell the country the reason for inviting the infamous ISI of Pakistan to our strategic Air Base in Pathankot to investigate a terror attack that emanated from Pakistan.”

“My track record of public service to the country over the last five decades is known to everyone. No one, including Shri Modi, can lamely question it to gain lost political ground,” Singh added.

Here is Singh’s full statement:-

Source: Rediff