Three days after Narendra Modi attacked the Congress and called the prime minister a “night watchman” keeping guard for the Gandhi family, an unusually combative Manmohan Singh hit out at the BJP in Lok Sabha on Wednesday evening. Stressing that the main opposition party was trying to belittle the UPA government's achievements, he said the party will fail at the hustings next year, like it did in 2004 and 2009.

In an apparent reference to Modi's attack on the Congress as "termites" at the BJP national council meeting in New Delhi on Sunday, Singh said the party hurled the "choicest abuses" against the Congress leadership but made it clear that he would not reply to them in "that language".

"Humko hai unse wafa ki ummeed, jo nahi jaante wafa kya hai (we hope for loyalty from those who do not know its meaning)," Singh said, quoting Mirza Ghalib, during his speech on the motion of thanks on the president's address to Parliament.

"Jo garajte hain, woh baraste nahi (thunderous clouds do not bring showers)," Singh said, taking a dig at BJP's use of words of criticism during the two-day conclave over the weekend.

Leader of opposition in Lok Sabha took to verses to make a counter after Singh’s 45-speech got over. Quoting Hindi poet Bashir Badr, she said, "Kuchh to majbooriyan rahi hogi, yun koi bewafa nahi hota (there must have been a reason, no one is disloyal sans reason)."

Going one up on Singh, Swaraj broke into a second verse: "Tumhe wafa yaad nahi, humein jafa yaad nahi; zindagi or maut ke toh do hee tarane hain, ek tumhein yaad nahee, ek humein yaad naheen (you don't remember loyalty, we don't remember disloyalty; life and death have two rhythms, you don't remember one, we don't remember the other)."

While BJP president Rajnath Singh gave Singh a backhanded compliment — “in the last nine years I have never seen so much attacking sentiment from the prime minister” — and tried to recoup the advantage — “ I believe that before a flame goes out it burns brightest (which) indicates the UPA government is about to come to an end” — the day certainly belonged to the PM.

Ripping into the BJP, Singh said, "You used choicest abuses against us. (But) it is not my intention to reply in that language because our performance is the best judge."

Employing Urdu and Hindi couplets and proverb deftly, the usually soft-spoken Singh took pot shots at LK Advani, saying the BJP lost the 2004 polls after its "India shining" campaign and faced defeat against in 2009 when the party pitted "iron man" (referring to Advani, without taking the senior BJP leader’s name) against the "lamb that Manmohan Singh is". He added: "I am confident that the people will again elect us in the next elections based on our performance."

Singh gave a comparative analysis of the performance of his government and the previous NDA government under Atal Bihari Vajpayee to highlight that the country has progressed better under UPA in all sectors, including agriculture and manufacturing. He noted that economic growth had slowed down in 2012-13, because of a difficult global situation and expressed confidence that the slowdown will not persist, and that the country will return to high growth rate of 7-8 percent in the next two years.

Singh noted that the average economic growth rate of the country in nine years of UPA rule was 7.9 percent, while that of the six years of NDA rule recorded a GDP growth of 6 per cent. He said while the current slowdown in industrial growth remains a concern, his government will continue to focus on inclusive growth and would need more investments. There was a need for further efforts to boost growth, he said, adding "Our growth rate is impressive but we are not satisfied ... We need to do a lot more".

Singh also compared the industrial growth rate, saying while the average growth for the past nine years was 8.5%, in the NDA regime it was 5.6% for six years. The prime minister said in the UPA period, poverty declined at 2% per annum, while in preceding period the rate was no more than 0.8%.

"Inequality is not increasing ... Even BIMARU states have also done much better in UPA period than previous period," Singh said, adding that the country has fared much better in areas of higher education, skill development and environment protection.

Singh also spoke at length on issues like keeping India's options open on the US resolution against Sri Lankan at the UNHCR vote, ties with Pakistan, and the situation in Maldives.