Perhaps avenging former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's strident criticism of the note ban, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday launched a surprise attack on him, saying that politicians should learn from Singh how to maintain a clean image even after 35 long years of public life dotted with scams under his stewardship.
Replying to a debate on the Motion of Thanks to the President's address to the two Houses of Parliament, Modi also chose to attack another former Prime Minister of the Congress - Indira Gandhi.
In his one hour and 10 minutes speech, Modi also dismissed observations made by economists across the world about the November 8 move to demonetise higher value currency, saying the move is "unparalleled" and economists can never calculate its effects as such a massive decision "has not been taken before anywhere in the world".
Modi first cast aspersions on the scholarship of Manmohan Singh, a former RBI governor and an eminent economist, saying he (Modi) recently came across a book purportedly written by Singh, but found out that only the foreword was by "Doctor sahib" (Manmohan Singh).
"Looks like, even the speech Doctor Sahib delivered in the last session...," Modi said, just stopping short of saying anything further, but implying that Singh's speech lambasting the note ban was not his own.
The Prime Minister continued amid aloud protests by the Congress members: "For around 35 years, he (Manmohan) has had a say or a role in India's economic policy and decisions. In these 35 years, we heard of many a scam, but he has remained free of any blemish."
"There is a lot for us politicians to learn... so much happened he did not get even a taint. Only Doctor Sahab (Manmohan Singh) knows the art of bathing wearing a rain coat," he said in a jibe, resulting to a huge uproar from Congress benches.
The Congress MPs walked out at this point, though Manmohan Singh himself did not budge from his seat. A few senior Congress MPs including P. Chidmabaram, A.K. Antony and Karan Singh asked the former Prime Minister to come along and walk out, which he did.
Modi's attack comes after Singh on November 25, speaking in the Rajya Sabha during the Winter Session, termed the implementation of demonetisation a case of "organised loot and legalised plunder". Singh had also described the note ban exercise as a "monumental disaster" -- which Modi had listened to quietly, without any change of expression.
On Wednesday, Modi justified his attack on the former Prime Minister, saying he (Manmohan Singh) could have thought about "maryada" while using words like "loot" and "plunder" in the context of demonetisation.
"We have the power to pay back in the same coin," Modi said.
Earlier, the Prime Minister also targeted Indira Gandhi, saying the then former Prime Minister Gandhi never tabled the Wanchoo Committee report against black money in Parliament in the early 1970s.
"(Madhav) Godbole's book mentions it. Why did you not protest against him or take any action when he came out with the book? Were you sleeping at that time?" Modi asked, looking at the Congress MPs.
Speaking of demonetisation, Modi said that the economists' or the experts' opinions about the effect of demonetisation on the Indian economy being thrown around by the opposition had little weight as "they (economists) cannot give any accurate opinion about demonetisation".
"They have never seen it before, so how can they judge it. This is an unparalleled move. No such huge decision was ever taken anywhere in the world," Modi said.
He said the move created a "horizontal divide" in the society - that of neta versus public.
"Usually it is public versus the government whenever a tough decision is taken by a government. But this time around, it was government plus public versus others," Modi said.
He said that digitalisation of the economy could be difficult but to criticise this idea altogether, which he said opposition was doing, was ridiculous.
The Prime Minister said that institutions like the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and its Governor should not be dragged into a controversy.
Modi cited an extract from a book by former RBI Governor D. Subba Rao wherein he has expressed his displeasure with then Finance Minister P. Chidambaram's decision, and has accused him of treading in the exclusive territory of the RBI without even keeping him in the loop.
"We have not undermined RBI's authority, we have given it greater autonomy by amending the RBI Act," Modi said.
Opposition leaders including Sitaram Yechury of CPI-M and Sharad Yadav of JD-U tried to intervene at certain points while Modi was speaking but the Prime Minister told them to sit down and put their point later.
After the speech when Yadav and Yechury stood up to made their point, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi objected to it saying there was no tradition of putting up a point after the Prime Minister's reply.
The entire opposition walked out in protest one after the other, and the Motion of Thanks was adopted with almost the entire opposition benches vacant.
