Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday criticised the Narendra Modi government, saying it's economic policy has "no sense of direction". He blamed it on the Centre's decision to abolish the Planning Commission. Singh also dismissed the suggested lack of development during the United Progressive Alliance regime as "malicious propaganda", reported PTI. He was addressing the Indian Youth Congress on the occasion of Indira Gandhi's 98th birth anniversary.

The senior Congress leader asked the party workers to inform people how the central government's decision to abolish the Planning Commission has been harmful for the country. In spite of "all its deficiencies", Singh said the commission was "a positive dynamic instrument of steering the country's economy". He said that Indira Gandhi followed Jawaharlal Nehru's path of planned development, and always emphasised the need of a Planning Commission "for a country as diverse as India and one which faced multifarious challenges".