Indian Prime Minster Manmohan Singh addresses a press conference, in New Delhi, India on Friday, January 3. (AP Photo/Harish Tyagi, Pool)
NEW DELHI, January 3 (Reuters): Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday ruled out serving another term after an election due by May and threw his support behind Nehru-Gandhi dynasty scion Rahul Gandhi to lead India if their party wins the vote.
Singh, 81, has presided over India for a decade at the head of coalition governments led by the Congress party and was widely expected to step down. Gandhi will have his work cut out if he's chosen to lead the Congress party into the election with corruption scandals, stubborn inflation and decade-low growth eroding support, opinion polls show.
"In a few months' time, after the general election, I will hand the baton over to a new prime minister," Singh said at a rare news conference, adding that a "new generation" would guide the country. Singh said Gandhi, 43, should be the Congress party's prime ministerial candidate. "Rahul Gandhi has outstanding credentials to be nominated as the candidate and I hope our party will take that decision at an appropriate time."
The Congress is due to hold a top-level meeting on January 17 and is expected to announce its candidate soon afterwards. Whoever gets the nod will face off in the election against Narendra Modi, of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), who is ahead in the opinion polls. Modi is campaigning on a platform to revive an economy growing at its slowest in a decade and end the red tape and corruption that have bedevilled the Congress-led coalition. The Congress fared badly in elections in four large states towards the end of last year, largely due to voters' anger over corruption.
"I sincerely believe that it would be disastrous for the country to have Narendra Modi as the prime minister," said the softly-spoken Singh. Singh rejected a suggestion that he had been a weak prime minister and again referred to Modi. "If by strong prime minister you mean that you preside over the mass massacre of innocent citizens in the streets ... I do not believe that sort of strength this country needs. Least of all in its prime minister," Singh said.
BJP spokeswoman Nirmala Sitharaman said on her Twitter account she was "utterly disappointed" with Singh's remarks. In what was seen as his farewell news conference, the prime minister took a conciliatory tone on a dispute with the United States over the arrest of Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade in New York.
Singh said the government was committed to good relations between the two countries. "There have been recently some hiccups but I sincerely believe that these are temporary aberrations and diplomacy should be given a chance to resolve these issues that have arisen," Singh said.
PM accepts failure to check inflation and unemployment
IANS: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Friday inflation remained unexpectedly high and his government did not succeed in creating adequate jobs in the manufacturing sector during his decade-long tenure.
"I am concerned that we have not been as successful as we need to be in generating employment in the manufacturing sector. This is an aspect of performance which we are working hard to correct,” the prime minister said while addressing a media conference here. "We need a much stronger effort in support of small and medium enterprises which can be a major source of good quality employment. Our manufacturing strategy gives high priority to this objective for the future,” he said.
Manmohan Singh said the second biggest concern on the economic front was inflation. "We have also not been as successful in controlling persistent inflation as we would have wished,” he said. "This is primarily because food inflation has increased. However, we should remember that our inclusive policies have put more money in the hands of the weaker sections. "To keep food prices in control, we need to increase supplies and also improve marketing arrangements and logistics. This is especially important for items which are perishable such as fruits and vegetables,” he added.
The prime minister said although his government was not successful in controlling inflation, it has taken adequate measures to shield the common man from the ill-effects of rising food prices. "The worry about inflation is legitimate but we should also recognise that incomes for most people have increased faster than inflation,” he said.
Manmohan Singh claimed that real wages in rural areas have increased faster than before and per-capita consumption in both rural and urban areas has risen significantly. "Rural wages have increased in real terms much faster than earlier. Rural real consumption per capita has increased four times faster,” he said. This has helped lift 13.8 crore people out of poverty in the past one decade.
Referring to allegations of corruption, the prime minister said his government has taken procedural measures to minimise the chances of graft. "There is much public concern on high-profile allegations of corruption, notably in regard to 2G spectrum allocations, coal block allocations and cases related to land,” he said.
Manmohan Singh pointed out that his government has taken taken major steps to change the existing procedures for allocation of spectrum and coal by shifting to auctions so that these problems do not arise in future.
