No, Dr Manmohan Singh, the Army did not carry out any surgical strikes during your years in power. This has been established beyond all reasonable doubt by the DGMO’s response to an RTI request in this regard in August 2017.

And yet, here you are. Giving interviews to people who perhaps should be described as “pliable” journalists, making wild claims of “many surgical strikes” happening under your rule.

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What a disgrace sir! What a disgrace! A former Prime Minister effectively telling the whole world that the Indian Army lies about military operations. There is no doubt that India’s enemies will pick up on this contradiction and say that India’s “surgical strikes” are just figments of imagination, planted by the politicians from time to time to harvest votes from the public.

As a common citizen of this country, with much irritation and despair, there is only one thing that I can ask from you with folded hands: Please retire from politics. You’ve done enough.

Under your gracious ten year rule, India saw the most humongous scams in its history. Think about the great 2 lakh crore coal scam robbery. The bureaucrat who served directly under you as Coal Secretary was convicted in a coal scam case and sentenced to three years of imprisonment. But no taint could be laid on you personally and for that I congratulate you. I also congratulate your driver that he was not blamed for anything. Unlike the drivers of other famous and important people. It was the secretary who was committing crimes, not the driver and certainly not you.

Dr Singh, weren’t you supposed to be some kind of economist? So many of the astronomical loans given out by Public Sector Banks during UPA rule have turned into NPAs. We the people are still struggling to put our banks back together and get them to stay afloat after being hit by the Everest sized iceberg of bad loans given during your tenure.

So, please, have mercy on us and do not undermine this nation further.

Perhaps your bitter remarks on surgical strikes are some kind of perverse outcome of your frustration over being Prime Minister for ten years, but having no power. Did they order you to introduce an ordinance allowing convicted corrupt politicians to still contest elections? All so that Rahul Gandhi could tear up the ordinance and act like a hero, humiliating you publicly and turning you into a laughing stock in the process? I don’t know. But if that’s true, I can imagine your frustration.

But please do not take your frustration out on us. This is between you, your counsellor and the top Congress leadership. Leave us out of this.

I think this nation has already given you enough, mostly credit that you obviously did not deserve. Since the early 1970s, you were embedded in the government establishment, dutifully applying your ‘economist credentials’ to justify the disaster that was Nehruvian socialism. By the time you were promoted by the Congress from “independent” RBI governor to Finance Minister, India’s economy was in shambles, breathing its last. All because of the policies that you promoted all your life. Then, in 1991, just before you turned 60, you introduced yourself to the nation as a “reformer”.

I am curious. Did you always believe in a market economy, but keep quiet until the age of 60 so that the Nehru-Gandhis would keep approving your promotions? Or did you have a sudden change of heart around your 60th birthday? Anyway, I congratulate you for getting credit for those reforms instead of then Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao. You were Prime Minister when PVNR passed away in 2004. They say that you couldn’t even arrange to have his body unloaded from the gun carriage and brought inside the Congress office.

You are a great man, Dr Singh. Don’t let anybody tell you otherwise.

Just before you left office after losing the 2014 election, the UPA government passed an order granting free electricity to your bungalow. I hope you are enjoying that free electricity. After 58 years of Congress rule, you may not have succeeded in giving every household in India an electricity connection, but I am glad you don’t have to pay your electricity bill.

Again, with folded hands, I request you to retire from politics. This nation is still reeling from the humiliation of 26/11. Most countries still can’t believe that India did absolutely nothing to salvage its dignity after that Mumbai attack. Because they don’t understand you. But we do. So, please don’t spread gossip and rumour about surgical strikes like you are doing now. Have mercy on us. I beg you.