Manmohan Singh the Indian Pm an Underachiever: He Is Also a Historical Aberration
Introduction
Manmohan Singh was the prime minister of India from 2004-2014 but two points stand out. Firstly, he was not a member of the Lower House of Parliament (Lok Sabha), equivalent to the House of Commons. Secondly, he had no political base of his own, having been installed in his present chair by Ms. Sonia Gandhi, the president of the Congress party.
There was a time when the Congress party was led by men of the caliber of Mahatma Gandhi, who believed in 'swadeshi' meaning Indian. They boycotted Western goods and propagated a non-violent path to freedom. But now the same Congress party is led by an Italian who for 12 long years after her marriage to Rajiv Gandhi did not opt for Indian citizenship. The wheel has turned full circle.
She is the one who foisted Manmohan Singh as the prime minister of a nation of 1.2 billion people. The sad part is that Manmohan was a puppet and beholden to Ms. Gandhi for his survival and the result was misgovernance and the prime minister allowed things to drift.
The general election
The general election brought out the fragility of Manmohan Singh. The election was a verdict on 10 years of misgoverning and drift. The noted writer Kushwant Singh once commented that Manmohan Singh could not win even a panchayat( Municipal Election) and it is a wonder that such a man held the post of Prime Minister for 10 years
Man Mohan Singh as prime minister turned out to be the weakest Prime Minister ever in Indian history. This is understandable as he had no base of his own, in both the party and the populace. He, in fact, presided over a cabinet that never listened to him and all decisions were taken by the chairperson of the UPA, Ms. Sonia Gandhi.
The results were disastrous as a series of corruption scandals unfolded and cabinet ministers partook in looting the national exchequer of billions of dollars. One has only to look around to see that the one enduring aspect of this prime minister is scams like the coal scam, Commonwealth Games scam, 2G scam, cash for votes scam, railway recruitment scam and many more. To list all of them would require a full page and Manmohan Singh smugly sat over these scams like Nero who fiddled when Rome burnt.
Liability of Singh
His indecision and naivety came to the fore in foreign affairs. He could not talk from a position of strength as his peers knew he had no say. Moreover, he committed innumerable faux pas in his meetings with foreign heads. His agreement with Pakistan to stop action in Baluchistan is a case in point when India has done nothing in Baluchistan. This was a cardinal blunder.
Manmohan Singh began to articulate Ms. Sonia Gandhi's voice as he began a series of measures to improve the lot of Muslims. Unfortunately, this was only on paper as the Muslims under his tenure became poorer. His sole aim was to garner votes and in this, he resorted to mudslinging of the worst kind( at the behest of Sonia Gandhi) on the BJP candidate Narendra Modi.
Singh talked of Muslims being killed in the 2002 riots but turned a blind eye to the massacre of 10,000 Sikhs in 1984 under orders of Congress party goons. it is sad to think that Manmohan Singh is himself a Sikh, but so powerless he was that he could do nothing to punish anyone for the killing and murder of Sikhs. This will surely prey on his conscience if he has one.
A Historical Aberration
MM Singh is not just an underachiever brought out by Time magazine but a toady, I am afraid one has to use this word. His sole aim was to have the trappings of power and pomp. India be damned.
A bigger point is that no leader in world history is a man who holds power without a mandate. Even Hitler came to power in a general election. Unfortunately, Man Mohan Singh came to power without any mandate from the people and this is a historical aberration. No wonder he was booted out of office with the Congress party having bagged the least seats ever in the history of India after independence.
© 2012 MG Singh
