Economy systematically dismantled: Manmohan

​Bengaluru: Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, one of the world's best-known economists, has accused the Narendra Modi government of 'systematically’ dismantling Indian economy, the third-largest in the world.

Manmohan Singh, who flipped India to the market from its lowest orbit, stated, “It required several years to earn Indian market that the next largest market… today that it really is being systematically dismantled”. Presenting a report card, the former PM said in just four years, the Modi government has reversed the successes of the UPA government.

The ‘mismanagement’ from the NDA government is evident,” he said, adding that avoidable blunders like demonetization and hasty implementation of the Goods and Services Tax have hurt the small, medium and micro enterprise sector, costing tens of thousands of jobs.

“Today, people have lost faith in banking sector, farmers are facing an acute crisis, aspirational views are not finding opportunities,” he said. The "virtuous intentions" of the Narendra Modi government has caused the country massive losses due to its "lack of reasoning and analysis," Singh told the media in Karnataka.

Costs of gasoline and diesel are at an historic high, regardless of lesser worldwide crude oil rates, he said. “Modi’s federal government chose to inflict excess excise taxation. Instead of passing on the advantages, it’s chosen to punish men and women,” Singh stated. “Modi has a tendency to blame everything on 70 decades of Congress rule,” said the former PM, who led the UPA government for a decade.

The scathing attack by the 85-year-old former PM comes less than a week before the Assembly elections in Karnataka. The Congress government of Siddaramaiah is fighting for a second term in the state in face of a tough BJP challenge.