India needs another Manmohan Singh, says Sharad Pawar

India needs another Manmohan Singh to pull it out of the financial crisis, feels NCP supremo Sharad Pawar.

The 79-year-old veteran politician said that he was a minister in the government when Dr Singh was the union finance minister in the then government headed by PV Narsimha Rao. Dr Singh later became India's prime minister and served in the top post for 10 years heading the Congress-led UPA government.

Pawar also said prime minister Narendra Modi needs to consult experts and take the economy ahead.

"We knew we were going through a financial crisis. Manmohan Singh (as finance minister) gave a new direction to the country. He pulled out India form the financial crisis," Pawar said in an interview to Saamana, Shiv Sena's mouthpiece, that was conducted by its executive editor Sanjay Raut.

According to Pawar, he gives credit to both Dr Singh and Rao equally. "They took the vehicle to a new direction and the economy was taken back on the road," said Pawar, who was a defence minister, when the Narsimha Rao-Manmohan Singh combine triggered economic reforms.

Asked specifically if India needs another Manmohan Singh, he said, "Hundred per cent."

When pointed out that Modi considers him his guru, Pawar said: "By saying so he puts me in trouble."