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- Pawan K. Verma’s Column If He Had Taken Some Tough Decisions, ‘Singh’ Could Have Been Called ‘King’ Again
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Pawan K. Verma Writer, diplomat, former Rajya Sabha MP.
In May 2009, when I was about to take charge as India’s Ambassador to Bhutan, I met T.K. A. Nair sent the call. He was the Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh. He told me that the Prime Minister wants me to become his media advisor.
I was pleased with this request, but I did not want it. I requested him to let me go but at the same time I promised him that I would suggest a suitable replacement for the post. By now innumerable condolence messages must have been written for Dr. Manmohan Singh and every word spoken in his praise is correct.
He composed himself. He belonged to a lower-middle-class family. After partition he came to India as a refugee. He then became one of the world’s top economists and received degrees from Cambridge-Oxford. In 1991, he was appointed Finance Minister and became the architect of India’s biggest economic reforms. He boldly ended the License Raj.
But today when I look back, I see why I did not accept Manmohan Singh’s offer to become media advisor. I understood the difficulties of working with a Prime Minister whose real powers lay at 10, Janpath. This was the address of Sonia Gandhi’s house.
Perhaps that assessment of mine is more confirmed today from the perspective of history. Because before that Manmohan Singh had succeeded in making a historic nuclear deal with America, UPA had come to power for the second time, a new five-year term was in front of them and the cover story of a prestigious magazine of that time was titled: ‘Singh is King!’
But by then Singh had reached his peak and some troubling signs were beginning to appear. His views on the nuclear deal were definitely accepted, but his determination did not get full support from Sonia. She was worried because of the opposition from the Left parties, the government’s main ally.
Singh’s success – which was partly responsible for the UPA’s return to power – contained the seeds of tomorrow’s problems. Two swords could not remain in one scabbard; And the sheath was not Manmohan’s.
This was the reason why from 2009 to 2014, UPA-2 was gripped by a kind of ‘political paralysis’. Manmohan faced the brunt of the decisions which he did not take. They couldn’t even do anything about it. This was a condition of his selection as Prime Minister.
Sonia herself did not want to become the Prime Minister, Rahul did not want any responsibility, in such a situation Manmohan was the only acceptable option. He was the Prime Minister, but he did not have the powers of the Prime Minister. This situation could not continue for long.
An aggressive BJP emerged under the leadership of Narendra Modi and the UPA government lurched from one crisis to another. Manmohan Singh seemed to be standing in the boxing ring with his hands folded, yet he never lost his personal dignity.
Personally, I feel that when Rahul publicly tore up the ordinance passed by the cabinet in 2013, Manmohan Singh should have resigned saying enough is enough. The issue was not about the ordinance, but about insulting the Prime Minister and his government.
If he had done so then, he would have been called ‘King’ with self-respect again. But he did not do so. After 2014, they slowly but elegantly faded into the pages of history. Perhaps, in his June 2014 press conference, he wrote his most accurate obituary himself: ‘History will be kinder to me!’
- When Rahul tore up the ordinance passed by the cabinet in 2013, Manmohan should have resigned saying enough was enough. The issue was not about the ordinance, but about insulting the Prime Minister and his government.
(These are the author’s own views)
