Ahmedabad: Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday took a veiled dig at PM Narendra Modi, who often cites his humble background, saying that he doesn’t want pity.

“I do not want the country to take pity on me on the basis of my humble background. I do not think I would like to enter in any competition with Prime Minister [Narendra] Modi Ji on this particular matter,” Singh said.

The former PM talked about the contribution of the Congress governments. “You know that I have seen crippling poverty while growing up in other side of Punjab before Partition. I have also seen the significant strides our great nation has taken in my lifetime, building on the foundations laid by Congress governments from Pandit Nehru to Narasimha Rao," he added.

Calling demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax (GST) “twin blows which are complete disaster for our economy”, Singh said that it appears China is reaping benefits of the situation.

He was addressing a gathering in Surat that had witnessed vociferous protests against GST and several thousand shops in the textile markets had remained shut after the tax was implemented.

Commenting on the effects of demonetisation and GST, the former PM told an audience of traders that he understands the tough times they have been through over the past year.

“What is even more tragic is no lessons have been learnt from this monumental blunder. Instead of providing relief, as I had requested in Parliament, to the poor and marginalised, farmers, traders, and the small and medium businesses , the government chose to inflict on them a badly designed and hastily implemented GST,” Singh.

He said this “twin blow” hurt the SME sector. “It has broken the back of small and medium businesses. The impact in the rest of the country is equally bad if not worse. The supply chains and credit lines of our MSME sector and industrial clusters have been greatly affected, hampering production. You are aware of the damage done to the ceramics sector in Morbi and the industries in Vapi and Rajkot. Overall, as our domestic sector is not able to cope with demand, China is benefiting from this situation.”

Manmohan Singh also commented on the broad caste-based coalition that the Congress has attempted to stitch together ahead of the Gujarat Assembly elections. Besides winning over OBC leader Alpesh Thakore, the Congress has also won the support of the agitating Dalits and Patidars.

“The recent agitations of the youth cutting across different sections of the society is an indication of the deep dissatisfaction with the performance of successive BJP governments in Gujarat. The winds of change are blowing in Gujarat,” he remarked.

The Patidars, OBCs and Dalits have been protesting against the state government over the issues of reservation, basic amenities and atrocities against Dalits.