Modi government damaging institutions like CBI, says Manmohan Singh

New Delhi: Former prime minister Manmohan Singh Friday accused his successor Narendra Modi of failing the electorate and eroding voters' faith as he attacked him for his silence on incidents of communal violence, lynching and cow vigilantism in the country.

He alleged that the environment in the country's universities and national institutions like the CBI have been vitiated under the Modi government.

Singh was speaking at the launch of Congress leader Shashi Tharoor's book "The Paradoxical Prime Minister" here.

"In 2014, Narendra Modi was elected 14th prime minister of India on the back of many lofty promises he made to the people of India. In the past four years, Modiji and his government have failed the electorate and eroded their voters' faith," he said.

Citing the book, he said PM Modi is a paradoxical prime minister and Tharoor has demonstrated it in his "superbly written and devastatingly accurate book".

"He (PM Modi) has spoken of being a prime minister for all Indians but he...presides over and has mostly been silent in the face of widespread communal violence, mob lynching and cow vigilantism," Singh said.

"The environment in our universities and national institutions like the CBI is being vitiated," he also said, referring to the current crisis in the CBI where the top two bosses of the agency were divested of their powers and sent on leave.