Union Minister Mukhtar Naqvi lashed out at former PM Manmohan Singh for his jibe at PM Modi. (Photo/ANI)
Responding to Manmohan Singh's 'not afraid to speak to the press' jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Wednesday slammed the former PM, saying that he read from the 'script' written by others.
Speaking to reporters outside Parliament, Naqvi said Manmohan talked on someone's else script but PM Modi "doesn’t need a prompter or a director".
"He is a senior leader and a former PM, when he was PM he used to talk on someone’s order and script, even now he is doing same.He should realise that PM Modi doesn't need prompter, script or a director," Naqvi said.
In an apparent dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is yet to hold a press conference, his predecessor on Tuesday said as Prime Minister, "he was never afraid of speaking to the press".
Speaking at the launch of his book "Changing India", the veteran Congress leader also asserted that India was destined to become a major economic global power.
"I was not the Prime Minister who was afraid of talking to the press. I met the press regularly, and on every foreign trip that I undertook, I had a press conference on return. There are large number of those press conferences which have been described in the book," he said at the event.
"People say I was a silent Prime Minister, but these volumes (of book he released) will speak for themselves. I don't want to boast about my achievements as a Prime Minister, but the events that took place are well described in these volumes," Manmohan Singh said.
WATCH: 'I wasn't afraid of talking to the press', says Manmohan Singh
