The BJP didn’t exactly apologise, but it said today that PM Narendra Modi didn’t mean to question his predecessor Manmohan Singh’s commitment to India when he accused him of colluding with Pakistan.
The BJP also said it holds Singh and former vice president Hamid Ansari “in high esteem”.
“PM in his speeches didn’t question, nor meant to question the commitment to this nation of either former PM Manmohan Singh or Former VP Hamid Ansari, any such perception is erroneous, we hold these leaders in high esteem, as well as their commitment to India,” said senior BJP leader and Union minister Arun Jaitley today in the Rajya Sabha.
The Congress has been disrupting the Rajya Sabha since the beginning of the Winter Session of Parliament and demanding that Modi apologize.
Earlier this month, while campaigning in Gujarat, PM Modi accused Congress leaders – including Singh – of having a “secret meeting” with a former Pakistan minister and diplomats to ensure a BJP loss in the Assembly elections in the state. (The BJP won.) He alleged that the “three-hour secret meeting” was attended by Pakistan’s high commissioner, its former foreign minister, former PM Singh, and former Vice-President Ansari.
Singh criticised Modi uncharacteristically sharply. He berated him for allegedly spreading “falsehood and canards” to “score political points in a lost cause.”