'Never used office to enrich myself'

Under attack from former bureaucrats in the 2G case, former prime minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday said he did not use his public office to enrich “myself, my family or my friends”.

Singh’s remarks come a day after former telecom secretary Pradip Baijal claimed that the former prime minister warned him of “harm” if he didn’t cooperate in the 2G case.
“As far as I am myself concerned, I can say in all humility that I have not used my public office to enrich myself, to enrich my family or to enrich my friends,” Singh said addressing the national convention of the National Students Wing of India, the student wing of the Congress.

He said the BJP kept harping on this theme of corruption because it wants to distract the attention of the people to non-issues.

Singh criticised the NDA government saying that “all was not well” with the economy under the stewardship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “Investment is not going up. Exports are declining and farmers are in distress,” Singh said adding that a number of social welfare schemes were launched by the UPA government that had benefited the people.

He accused the Modi government of “manufacturing” and “modifying” statistical data to show that the last one year has not been that bad for the economy.

Singh also accused the Modi government of repackaging UPA initiatives as their own.
“What BJP had opposed when we were in power, are now being sold as its contribution,” said Singh.

“Look at the issue of ‘Make in India’. What is ‘Make in India’? This is a carbon copy of the programme that our government has chalked out as ‘New Manufacturing Policy’ under which we had pledged that we would raise the share of manufacturing in total National Interest to 25 per cent of our GDP,” he said.