It was a little over two years ago when Narendra Modi said this about Manmohan Singh in Parliament: “People should learn from Dr Singh how to bathe in bathroom wearing a raincoat.”
He was talking about the corruption allegations that the Manmohan Singh government faced, but Singh’s integrity has never been in question.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Modi seemed to hail Manmohan Singh, saying that the Congress doesn’t even talk of his contributions. Modi said he had given Bharat Ratna to Pranab Mukherjee. The statement made people speculate if Modi intends to give a Bharat Ratna to Manmohan Singh as well.
If Pranab Mukherjee can get a Bharat Ratna, why not Manmohan Singh? But just as Mukherjee didn’t deserve it, neither does Manmohan.
Make no mistake: Manmohan Singh was a terrible prime minister; so terrible that his term ended with Narendra Modi becoming the prime minister, that too, with a clear majority, a first since 1984.
Since Manmohan Singh left office, there’s been an effort by the Congress and by liberals to re-write the history of UPA-2. ‘Manmohan was such a decent man, just compare him to Modi’. ‘UPA-2 was a great, scam-free government, no charges have come to a conviction’. ‘India misses Manmohan’. Not really.
Also read: Modi’s 5 years have been the most traumatic, must be showed the exit door: Manmohan Singh
History will be harsher than the media
History will be kinder to me than the media, Manmohan Singh said as he left office. Perhaps, history might be harsher. Manmohan Singh ran a government without political authority. In three of UPA-2’s five years, he was a ‘lame duck’ prime minister, a tragic hero too meek to even defend himself before the press. Had it not been technocrat Manmohan Singh but a real politician in the chair, people would have said he’s glued to the chair. The lust for power isn’t letting him do what he should in the circumstance: resign.
Had Manmohan Singh resigned around 2012, he would have been a real hero today. But he couldn’t have resigned because he was a placeholder first for Sonia Gandhi, then Rahul Gandhi. His loyalties lay not to the nation but the party president. He kept pleading Rahul Gandhi to come and join the cabinet, but Rahul did not.
Manmohan Singh ran such a bad government that his ministers weren’t loyal or answerable to him. They were independent republics, running to the real power centre at 10 Janpath at the slightest hint of assertion by the prime minister. It was a government by GoM, of GoM and for GoM. That acronym used to be a daily affair: Group of Ministers. The only time Manmohan Singh asserted himself was over the Indo-US nuclear deal and that was that.
Manmohan Singh never over-reached, always under-performed. History will remember his prime ministership as a warning against nominated prime ministers. It is important that the prime minister be a popularly elected leader, drawing his power from the people rather than the party. Had he been such a PM, UPA-2 wouldn’t have failed so spectacularly.
Also read: Modi has been smarter & braver on political economy in his 5 years than Manmohan’s UPA-2
Zero legacy
Manmohan Singh’s legacy as PM is zero. He was not known for ‘good governance’, not known for ‘managing delivery of programmes’, not known for ‘oratory’ skills, nor for winning elections. Credit, if any, went to Sonia and Rahul Gandhi. Whatever was left went to the ministers. Right to Information or MGNREGA, all credit went to the party.
UPA-2 makes UPA-1 look better, and no doubt the party did well in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. But Manmohan Singh’s first term had its own problems. Sonia Gandhi’s kitchen cabinet of NGO-wallahs, called the National Advisory Committee, almost seemed more powerful than the government. The things that blew up in the face of UPA-2, from the Commonwealth Games to allocation of coal blocks, were all from the days of UPA-1.
It is ridiculous to say there was no corruption in UPA-2. There was scam after scam. Whether or not Manmohan Singh’s ministers made money, the larger problem was his failure to manage the political narrative. Had it been Modi instead of Manmohan, he perhaps would have sold the 2G spectrum allocation for cheap prices as a matter of national interest to further the mobile revolution.
The inability to manage the political narrative often made it look like the Congress didn’t even want to. The party feared Manmohan Singh becoming too powerful if there was public PR in favour of him. Manmohan feared being seen by the party as someone rising above his rank as placeholder. The government fell between two stools.
The crisis brought the government to a standstill. Policy paralysis, it was called. I remember meeting a senior bureaucrat at the time who told me that the bureaucracy was very happy. They didn’t have to take any decisions.
Manmohan Singh did not even have a say in crucial bureaucratic appointments. His principal secretary, Pulok Chatterjee, was a Gandhi family man. As a result, the bureaucracy wasn’t loyal to the PM either. There was T.K.A. Nair, who made sure the top bureaucracy became a Malayalee club, which made things worse.
Also read: Why RSS is doing to Modi what Congress did to Manmohan Singh—the accidental PM
Retrospective tax on truth
Manmohan Singh was the finance minister who ushered in economic reforms in 1991. The credit goes more to Narasimha Rao for showing the political will to do it despite having a minority government. Manmohan Singh as PM did not have the political will to rule over powerful ministers like P. Chidambaram and Pranab Mukherjee on many matters. The banking mess and the unfinished business of a viable land acquisition bill are things we suffer from even today.
The worst decision perhaps was the retrospective tax law brought in by Pranab Mukherjee as finance minister. There hasn’t been a bigger setback to foreign investment since then. This is what happens when an economist is the prime minister and a politician is the finance minister.
Like Pranab Mukherjee’s retrospective tax, making Manmohan Singh a great PM is a retrospective injustice to truth.
Views are personal.
This piece is so biased, shame on you Mr Vij.. How brutally u have trolled Former PM Manmohan Singh, for a record- it was Manmohan Singh who rescued India out of impending crisis n brought LPG reforms, had it not been the case, you would have been living life in comfort. Just biased n pathetic piece , I request Print to take it down.
History will be kinder to him. Mark my words
The Print should shut down… they always publish crap…
It gives impression as if Bharat Ratna is conferred only on the basis of performances as Prime Minister.
Not a balanced piece at all and full of preconceived notions. Like every PM, MMS had some good achievements and some bloomers as well ( We can say that of Nehru and Modi as well).
Some big achievements are the nuclear deal, the Aadhar launch, MNREGA , high agri and export growth rates . In his time a few important defence milestones were achieved- the indigenous nuclear sub launched, the LCA getting Initial Clearance, over 170 Sukhoi 30 assembled, induction of submarine hunter aircraft P8 I C-17 and C-130 and the commissioning of the INS VIkramaditya. His faults were also there for all to see. Non intervention in the 2G license procedure, disinterest in finalising the Rafale deal, maybe a few others. None of these are worse than what we see in the current NDA or previous Govts.
Bharat Ratna has now become a purely political statement , so he’s better off without it.
What a skewed view !!! Don’t expect The Print to endorse such foolish writers. Mr. Vij, your insights are too shallow. Please mature !!
What a foolish proposal? Manmohan Singh was a disgrace to the chair. Spineless and gutless, he only acted as a rubber stamp (very much like Zail Singh to Indira) to Sonia and Rahul and their cronies. People try to imply that he is a “great”. economist, but through his suservience to Sonia, he obeyed the disastrous instructions of Amartya Sen and destroyed the economy. He did mothing to bring credit to the position of a PM. Even after losing the chair, he continues to be a mindless follower of the corrupt relics of the dynasty.
Awarding Bharat Ratns to Manmohan Singh will set a bad prededentand all future PMs may start claiming it as a matter or right and routine.
sanctimony. what is the contribution of this know-all journalist to the nation other than going on criticizing all under the sun. no humility , no decency. print must kick out such type of arrogant upstarts and maintain certain standards.
Why must idiots write?
Did MGR deserve Bharat Ratna ?
Buttock shaking and chasing semi-clad girls old enough to be his grand daughters brings this award?
Did Pranab Mukherjee deserve bharat ratna, NO. Still he got one cause BJP wanted to make inroads into West Bengal. Man mohan Singh does not have any vote base of his own, so he doesn’t deserve it… Though no politician deserve bharat ratna, its the thought behind the process that counts. BJP has only election in its mind…
“History will remember his prime ministership as a warning against nominated prime ministers.” – So you prefer the prime ministers elected by incompetent and ignorant voters to the nominated or appointed ones! What is your criteria for your such a preference?
What makes you think you are not incompetent and ignorant? Writing a few sentences in English? Understanding the nuances of grammar? The simple illiterate voter yku lo down uponbis much superior in human nature than you an ever be.
As if your comment is full of compassionate and kind words that reflect what being humane is.
Strong Prime Minister….in parliamentary democracies that too in a banana republic is not possible until unless the person is holding top power of the political party and has presidential type of image among masses. We all shout in hail that ours is a parliamentary democracy but actually the elections in this country were fought in presidential style elections only barring very few occasions of intermittent minority Govts it was the prime ministral candidate face which sent law makers to parliament be it Nehru, Indira, Rajiv, Atal, Manmohan 2, Modi. Had we been truly parliamentary democracy, the quality of representatives sending to the loksabha could have been very high comparatively. And today neither fundamentalist could have survived nor dynasties in Indian politics. We lack maturity of parliamentary democracy and has risk authoritative regime if allowed presidential election system with the current maturity level of Indian voters
To the other commenters here just because you don’t like what he’s written doesn’t mean it’s a lie. Factually everything was right there, we just forget the wrongs because so much time has passed. Modi is bad and UPA2 was bad, both things can exist.
Modi awarded Bharat Ratna to Pranab but he hardly deserved it on merits. He may have served Congress honestly but was a conservative and backward looking in his approach as finance minister. Manmohan does not deserve at all. Modi should have given it to Narsimha Rao, who deserves it fully. On MMS contribution to India, it is indeed zero and sadly so. Difficult to imagine someone just holding the PM post without real authority, just like a government secretary. Integrity and honest by themselves have no meaning in such context. In fact, we should look to award Bharat Ratna only for social services and definitely not to politicians.
The Moderator seems to be keeping irregular hours.
Flog innocents like Manmohan Singh, or abuse the dead horse Congress. Favorite past time of columnists and journalists.They have no courage to take Modi who virtually destroyed the Indian nation, its ethos, its social fabric,Now they are singing Paeans to Modi whose only enduring legacy is pogrom 2002. Because they don’t have the courage to expose Modi for what he is These critics ,columnists will be found in the waste bins sooner or later
I would prefer Indian ciitzens & voters to be illiterate than have such “educated doctors ” like you in this country. You and your type with your superior attitude are the nouveau illiterates of this country
True Bhakt.
I would prefer you to leave the country man!
Paid article !! Shame on you Shivam Vij !!
I will fail Manmohan if he takes economics test under my watch.
Paid by whom? Yesterday the same writer was bashing Yogi Adityanath as worst CM ever and was mouth full of negativity. Today it is Manmohan’s turn. Read and forget about. The information here is mostly facts.
Vij should first learn to think before Ink. Because he has a lap to or I pad, he can simply type anything that comes to his hand not mind.