Speculation is rife as to why former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called on Narendra Modi at his 7 Race Course Road residence, hours after launching a scathing attack on the National Democratic Alliance government.

The news was broken on Twitter by Modi himself.

Democracy under threat

The tweet added more grist to the gossip mills in Delhi as the war of words between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party had taken a sharp turn on Wednesday when Singh lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party at a convention organised by Congress party's student wing, the National Students' Union Of India.

Singh said policies implemented by his Congress-led United Progressive Alliance had led to profound social transformation and unprecedented economic growth that helped promote a pluralistic, liberal and secular democracy.

But, Singh charged, the Modi-led National Democratic Alliance government, was out to dismantle the edifice built by the Congress. "Institutions of democracy are under threat," Singh alleged. "The entire edifice of the welfare state is now being dismantled in the guise of promoting faster economic growth, whereas they are two sides of the same coin.”

"In the last one year," Singh added, "BJP government has to manufacture, modify some statistical data to show that this last one year has not been that bad for the economy. But their people are of the view that the recovery that they talk about in the last one year is very fragile recovery."

War of words

Asserting that many of UPA's programmes were being repackaged and marketed as initiatives of the BJP government, Singh also accused the BJP of repackaging and marketing many of the UPA schemes. "What the BJP had opposed when we were in power are now being sold as its contribution".

BJP president Amit Shah responded sharply. "I believe a prime minister’s responsibility is not limited to not doing corruption himself but to also ensure others are not allowed to do corruption," Shah said.  Calling Singh a "puppet of the Gandhi family" and accusing him of "lying with a straight face," he charged: "Under Singh's rule, scams of Rs 12 lakh crore occurred and the Congress cannot run away from its responsibility by merely saying that he had not enriched himself."

Who called whom?

As the news of what was seen as an unexpected visit spread,  the grapevine in Delhi went into an overdrive with rumours and speculation about the possible reasons. Singh’s office said in a statement that he went to meet Modi at the latter’s invitation and that “they discussed the economic situation in the country and foreign policy issues”.

Officials in Singh's office were quoted by PTI as saying that Modi had sent a message on Tuesday morning, expressing a desire to meet his predecessor over tea sometime in the evening. Since the Tuesday meeting could not take place, it was scheduled for Wednesday evening.

Congress leader Anand Sharma also said that the meeting took place at the behest of Modi who wanted to discuss issues related to economy and foreign policy. They discussed economic and foreign policy issues, he said, about the meeting, which took place at 6.30 pm.

Peace overtures?

But Singh's visit to Modi's residence is being widely seen as a possible attempt to cool down the rising temperatures between the two political parties.

What has added to the buzz is that Wednesday's happenings came in the wake of recent allegations by Pradip Baijal, who was chief of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India till 2006, that Singh, as prime minister, warned him of “harm” if he did not cooperate with policies that led to the multi-crore 2G scam in the telecom industry.

In his self-published book The Complete Story of Indian Reforms: 2G, Power and Private Enterprise ‒ A Practitioner's Diary, Baijal, who was appointed head of the TRAI by the NDA government in 2003, said the 2G scam began under UPA's telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran.

Baijal is reported to have written that he had warned Singh of a possible conflict of interest when Maran was made telecom minister, as the Maran family owns a large broadcasting business, but that "the [then] PM dismissed the concerns."

Baijal is reported to have charged that Maran threatened him to abandon his initiative to end the first-come, first-served policy for telecom licenses.

"They [the CBI] had warned me in each case that I would be harmed if I didn't cooperate," Baijal wrote. "Incidentally, this was exactly what the eminent economist Prime Minister had told me would happen if I did not cooperate in their scheme of things in the 2G case."

Singh, Baijal said, urged him not to upset Maran because the DMK was crucial to his coalition government.

"I have said everything. It is 100% correct and I have evidence to prove everything," the Press Trust of India quoted Baijal as saying.

Ever since the UPA lost, Singh has been fighting various allegations and charges relating to the alleged scams during his tenure. He had been summoned to appear before a special court as accused in a coal block allocation scam case before being offered a reprive by the Supreme Court.

This is the third book in recent times to make serious charges about Singh and his government, after the book by his aide and media adviser Sanjaya Baru and the one by former coal secretary PC Parekh, who is also an accused in the case relating to coal blocks allocation.

Sad day, sad times

Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad waded in on the reported revelations in Baijal's book. “The government of Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi had to face lot of shame because of 2G scam,"  Prasad told reporters on Tuesday. "Repeatedly they used to talk about zero loss and make fun of CAG report... now if Pradip Baijal has written this  – I haven’t read his book – it is really unfortunate.”

“I would not wish to comment on it, but if it is true, it clearly reflects on how Manmohan Singh government was functioning, where every minister thinks that he is the Prime Minister,” he added.