Atal, Manmohan better PMs than Modi: Gogoi

GUWAHATI: Chief minister Tarun Gogoi has rated former Prime Ministers Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh higher as national leaders than Narendra Modi.
In his three terms in office, Gogoi has worked with all three Prime Ministers.
In between hectic campaigning, the chief minister told TOI on Saturday that there is a big difference between the leadership of Modi and that of his predecessors."Manmohan Singh is a visionary and an eminent economist. Being an MP from Assam, he knows the problems of the state and feels the pain of the people here. As Prime Minister, he not only thought of Assam, but of the whole northeast. During his tenure, Assam got lots of projects. During Modi's tenure, we have not got any big projects so far," Gogoi said.
"I've found differences between Vajpayeeji and Modi. The former has always been sympathetic towards Assam and the northeast. He, too, is a visionary and a national leader and was a much better PM than Modi," Gogoi added.
Gogoi first became chief minister in 2001 when Vajpayee was the Prime Minister (1998-2004) and entered his second and third terms when Singh was the Prime Minister (2004-2009 and 2009-2014).
Rating the Vajpayee-era BJP more highly than the saffron party under Modi, Gogoi said, "BJP today wants to destroy society. It wants to impose its ideology by attacking the Constitution. In a democracy, there will be differences of opinion but I have never seen so much confrontation and hatred. Even under Vajpayee, the country was not divided. Ram Mandir happened but subsided fast."
Vajpayee helped the state government tide over financial crisis when he was the PM, Gogoi explained. "When we formed the government in 2001, Assam was going through an unprecedented financial crisis. AGP had to resort to overdraft and could not pay salaries to its employees nor make investments for development. Our government took this as a challenge and tried to stem the financial crisis. We were supported by the Vajpayee-led NDA government."
Gogoi said intolerancehas dented pluralism of the country.