Admitting that the emergence of regional parties is a “fact of life,” Singh expressed concern over what he called the hurdle of “growing regionalism” or “states fighting one another”, calling it a major threat to India. Making a forceful case for “parties with a national perspective” — when poverty, terror, Naxalism were the key problems — Singh said “new norms” should be evolved to ensure incorporation of regional parties in governance so that there are “no harmful effects.”

Anticipating inter-state water disputes as a major problem, Singh said states were fighting each other on this issue in the absence of an institutionalised mechanism to deal with it.

India, he said, was one large common market and there were regional parties which interfered with this concept and which could, therefore, create obstacles through tax barriers. “Regionalism may stand in the way of development. The world is moving to common markets and if India is governed by regional parties we may not be able to attain our full growth potential,” he said.

On his war of words with Advani, Singh said that his statements were carefully calibrated. “Day in and day out, BJP leaders described me as a weak PM, subservient to 10, Janpath. I did not respond to L K Advani earlier. When the Congress nominated me as the PM candidate, I thought I owed it to the people, to myself to put forward my five-year record as prime minister,” he said.

“Advani has promised to bring back billions of dollars stashed away in Swiss banks...Ashok Desai has debunked it (the figure of billions that the BJP quoted)...His economics is based on this...it’s disastrous.”

... contd.