A Brief History of Manmohan Singh

On a sultry May afternoon, the streets of Mumbai lay almost completely deserted. But the sweltering heat was hardly the reason for the abandoned roads and shopping malls. Instead it was the day the results were being declared for this the largest, most talked about and most complex election in recent history that involves over eight hundred million voters, many of them first time voters, exercising their franchise. There is hardly anybody who is neutral to the proceedings, hence each individual has strong opinions about the party and the person they are voting for and even stronger opinions about party and person they are voting against. They are all eager to learn how their side fared and are clung to their televisions as the results unfolded. The coverage on TV was intense with several channels competing viciously for the same eye balls, atmosphere is much like that of a cliffhanger cricket match with people cheering each time their party candidate is reported leading and sighing in dismay when their candidate trialing. But while a cricket match is forgotten a few days later, the results of these elections will decide the future of the nation.

But as the hysterical new presenters announce the results and pseuphologists speculate causes for the trends. Before India possibly enters a new era of politics, let’s take a look back the last ten years, particularly the man who led the country and his coalition of parties for two successive terms, the thirteenth Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh.

Dr. Manmohan Singh’s active political career began in 1991, when the then Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao surprised many with the inclusion of Dr. Singh into his cabinet as Finance Minister. This was another feather in the cap of Dr. Singh whose already illustrious career that included serving at United Nations as adviser to the Ministry of Foreign Trade, serving as Chief Economic Adviser to the government of India, heading the planning commission of India and functioning as Governor of the Reserve Bank of India. Under Singh’s leadership of the Finance Ministry, policies were implemented that freed up the control of the state on the economy; this allowed private enterprises function with relative independence and ended government controlled licenses that were impediments for businesses both small and big and also was a major reason that hefty bribes had to be paid to government officials to ‘smoothen the proceedings’.  Singh also eased rules to facilitate Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) that resulted in a great deal of privatization of public sector companies. Thus Singh’s vision enabled to transforms India’s quasi-socialist economy to a more capitalistic one. These measures also led to ample job creation with many multinational organizations choosing to have a base in India. But the despite these popular measures that won Singh great accolades both in India and beyond, the Rao government was voted out of power. Dr. Singh reputation was untainted; he was regarded as a man of great vision, a brave pioneer and one that would lead to India becoming a force to reckon with in a competing global climate, all this despite the general antipathy towards the Rao government.

When the subsequent coalition of the NDA (National Democratic Alliance) was in power, Dr. Singh served as the leader of the opposition. This led many to speculate whether it was possibly the first step in his journey towards becoming Prime Minister of India. Judging his tenure as Finance Minister, only great things were expected from Dr. Singh should he be presented with the opportunity of leading.
That opportunity did come in 2004, when the Congress became the party to secure the largest number of seats in the Lok Sabha, the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) was formed. Most presumed that Congress Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and widow of the slain former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi would become PM. There are many speculations about the reasons why she chose to or was compelled to opt out of the race. Some say her foreign roots violated the constitutional laws that are defined for becoming PM while others blamed in of self-realization of her inability to govern. But in a move that pleasantly surprised many, Mrs. Gandhi declared Dr. Manmohan Singh as the UPA candidate for the Prime Minister. But Singh despite his popularity had he had never won a Lok Sabha seat; many had urged him to do so, merely to assert his worth and leadership in a court of the public. But in a move that some felt showed the first signs of his lack of self-belief, he preferred a safe Rajya Sabha seat instead which saw him voted by elected members of his party, a relatively easier path than contesting elections. It was hence a great paradox that the world’s largest democracy was led by a man who actually wasn’t elected by the people. But such was the high regard that the general public held him in that the voices these criticism were drowned with voices of approval and great expectations. The appointment of Singh as the PM candidate also managed to almost exonerate Sonia Gandhi, who was looked upon by many with great suspicion because of her lack of experience. In the end if she had managed to get a man of eminence to become the PM, the country would prosper and what else could ever Indian citizen possibly aspire for.
There were few speculated that Sonia saw Singh as a soft man who could be molded into whatever she wanted. But truth was that Sonia was the party leader without any experience in running a government and Dr. Singh with his considerable experience had a great understanding of the functioning of government was just the man for the job. This was therefore a symbiotic relationship and a partnership of equals.

But the rules of the relationship are usually decided at its very beginning. During the early stages of UPA, Dr. Singh led an initiative called National Knowledge Commission; the function of this commission was to advise the PMO on policies related to education and research institutes to make them contemporary and competitive globally. It had members of great eminence such as Andre Beteille, Dr Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Sam Pitroda and Nandan Nilekani among others. This was an honorable mission and needed all the support, nurturing and most importantly protection from its initiator. On one occasion the Commission spoke out against the Human Resource Development ministry’s plans to increase quotas for backward castes in institutions such as the IITs. This was followed by the then union HRD minister Arjun Singh making disparaging remarks on their credentials of the Commission. It was largely regarded that Arjun Singh was felt that the Commission was trying to usurp the authority of his ministry and that insecurity had led him to find an excuse to go on attack mode. But what really surprised many was Singh attitude, as allowed things to happen unchecked. Arjun Singh an ardent Sonia loyalist and. reliable sources claim that Manmohan Singh didn't dare to challenge him for that reason. Arjun Singh was also an old school politician whose attitude was quite the opposite of Manmohan Singh’s forward thinking progressive ideas.  The conflict and relentless attacks by Arjun Singh and his minions led to resignation of several of the members of the commission that eventually led to it being rendered almost useless. So what could Manmohan Singh have done, it would have been unwise to have a full frontal confrontation with a fellow party member, but he could have used his influence to convince Sonia Gandhi about the importance of his initiative and the benefit both the country and the UPA would reap from it. He could also have used it as an excuse to skillfully weed out Arjun Singh and replace him with a person who was more in tune with his style of thinking, it would have been a winner for everybody, but instead Singh stood like a silent helpless spectator and allowed his idea and himself to be trampled upon.

This was perhaps the very first instance where Sonia realized that she could get her way in the party and would face no reaction from Dr. Singh who seemed so grateful to his benefactor for being made PM, totally forgetting the symbiotic nature of their relationship.  It also sent a clear message to members of the Congress, that if you were a Sonia loyalist and you paid your respects to her,  you could get away with murder while Dr. Singh would allow you to do as you pleased, but would not even utter a word if  walked all over him. It is always a bad situation when personal loyalty is considered higher than personal merit and integrity but this was the tone set rather early in the Congress Party a practice not too dissimilar from what Sonia’s mother in law, the departed Indira Gandhi practiced.

But despite these unfavorable occurrences and setbacks for Dr. Singh, the UPA did archive a lot during its first term. The growth rare was a respectable 8%, there were many economic and social reforms and a most importantly a favorable investment climate. India had become a force to reckon with. Dr. Singh managed to pick up from where he left as finance minister and all major corporates gave him their vote of confidence.  There were ample job opportunities as the Indian economy was booming. There were other achievements too, such as UPA health ministry’s initiate of the National Rural Health Mission, which mobilized half a million community health workers and provided easy affordable door-to-door health care to people in the most remote parts of the country, this received programs great praise globally.  Under Dr. Singh’s leadership, a climate was created where international thinkers and reformers were invited to discuss ideas about helping India, something that perhaps never ever happened before. There were attempts made to improve relations with our neighbors, this led to another attempt to resolve the Kashmir crisis. There was the historic civilian nuclear deal signed with support from the then US President George W Bush which elevated India’s status as a major power, but this deal didn’t please everybody within the coalition, the Left withdrew their support owing to the nuclear deal and the UPA came dangerously close to losing their vote of confidence in the parliament but quick backdoor deals manage to help the UPA to survive. This was probably the first public setback that the UPA faced.

Then there were the horrific events of 26-11 where Mumbai witnessed coordinated shootings and bombings across the city of Mumbai; the intense stand-off lasting four days. These terror attacks were conceived, planned and conducted by Lashkar-e-Taiba, an extremist Islamic terrorist group based in Pakistan. Grief, shock and dismay engulfed the nation as the saw the coverage in real-time. There were questions raised about the lack any proper coast guard since the terrorist had chosen an unlikely but not improbably the sea route to enter Mumbai.  Questions were also raised about how a complete failure of the intelligence since all the terrorists had allegedly been living in Mumbai and had surveyed the place they were to attack several times.  The UPA’s reaction to the attacks was passive in tone and nature, they began by dispatching incriminating dossiers to Pakistan, as expected Pakistan was dismissive in its reaction and strongly denied any involvement in the attacks. Weeks followed with UPA leaders making ‘strong statements’ but to no consequence at all. Nobody in their right mind expected India to attack Pakistan and enter a full scale war, but what was expected is that the PM would rile support across the world to put pressure on Pakistan and perhaps sever all ties until the Pakistanis showed some commitment in bringing the perpetrator to justice, but nothing of that sort happened. The mastermind of the attack was exonerated in what was a perfunctory case. Also greatly upsetting to many was the casual indifference of the various ministers of the UPA and the Congress Party, then Minister for Home Affairs, Shivraj Patil who was the man in charge was found embarrassed when a member of the media informed him about the latest news on the terror attacks while the purpose of the press meet was the opposite, the inclusion of his son and a film maker by the then Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh during his official tour of the wreckage of the Taj Mahal hotel after the terror attacks was regarded as grossly insensitive, and then there was deputy chief minister R. R. Patil who claimed that ‘minor incidences like this keep happening’. A day after the attacks Dr. Singh in a televised broadcast addressed the nation, the nation was bleeding, and you would have expected a speech that exuded sensitivity, reassurance and fortitude. But instead the speech was read in the dreary indifferent possible, there was no eye contact made at all, it almost gave the impression that it just didn't matter. Dr. Singh was never an effusive speaker, but the least people expected at this time were some display of emotion and empathy. Even the then US President George W Bush in his brief remarks during a White House press meet was more moving. The attacks also brought to the forefront how inadequately staffed, poorly trained and under protected and helpless our police force was, but again no immediate measures were taken to remedy this. All this brought great condemnation for the UPA, but it still had a strong record on the economy and many commendable reforms that will implemented

Also fortunate for the UPA, the opposition alliance of the NDA could not put up a concrete plan of how they would right the wrongs committed by the UPA. They went on attacks that often got personal but that was just not enough convince the voter to vote for them. Hence in 2009, Dr. Singh managed to led the UPA into its second tenure. Once again there were many who urged Dr. Singh to contest for a Lok Sabha seat, they said it would strengthen his image and give him the authority that he needed, but again he chose refrain. The public hoped that the UPA would continue to focus on growth and development like it did during its first term. But instead the UPA in its second term managed to undo all that was achieved during its first term.

But instead there was a constant barrage of scams such as 2G Scam, the Coal block allocation CWG scam, the chopper scam, the Adarsh colony scam that saw the misappropriation of millions of rupees of taxpayers and victims such as widows of departed soldiers. All this doing irreparably tainting the reputation of the UPA. The man whose personal integrity was beyond question was now leading a government that was marked by a series of corruption scandals.  But instead of condemning the acts and acting swiftly to right the wrongs by implementing regulatory mechanisms, Dr. Singh decided to stay silence again, much to the chagrin of his supporters and the citizens of India. His silence could be regarded as implicit support of corruption was when he also declined to appear before a Joint Parliamentary Committee in when for his alleged involvement of in 2G scam. The total impotence in dealing with corruption led to the mass anti-corruption protests that got immense popular support all over the country and almost the government to its knees.

Simultaneously the economy that was a strong point for the first tenure was beginning to slow down, there was inflation that led to the most basic commodities being unaffordable to the common man and the government could do very little. Regressive taxation policies did succeed in shattering investor confidence. The Indian rupee had hit an all-time low. From a strong growth was just 5% a far cry from the 8% in the first term.

Then there was the case of the brutal gang rape in Delhi, where a 23-year-old female physiotherapy intern was brutally beaten and gang raped in a private bus in which she was travelling. There were mass protests all over the country with the public urging that better protection be provided and laws be amended to provide for a swifter investigation and prosecution of sex offender. But instead of empathizing with the victims and protestors, there were several instances of members of the UPA making callous remarks that showed utter disregard for had occurred.  New laws were passed and trust funds were setup but very few concrete measures were implemented to prevent an act such as this from occurring again.

The once symbiotic partnership between Sonia and Dr. Singh was rumored to be devolving into a leader-follower relationship. The buzz was that party chief Sonia Gandhi was supposedly pulling the strings of the puppet PM, many credit this as the major reason why the UPA fell so dramatically during its second term as it was Dr. Singh who was responsible for the economic growth and Sonia Gandhi with her advisors despite their belief did not know much about running the country.  Critics who had initially claimed Dr. Singh to be weak and feckless began to gain traction.

The ever increasing cacophony of the 24X7 news channels made politics into public theater; no longer can a Prime Minister survive with carefully edited footage run by a government channel and select televised speeches like the 2K era. Every move made by a politician is micro analyzed without any restrain and every error is played and replayed sometimes in an endless loop.  A lot of it is how you are perceived is related to how you conduct yourself in the public and as a leader how you communicate with the people. This is largely where Dr. Singh’s approval began to erode. His body language of especially in the presence of Sonia Gandhi was that of subservience bordering obsequiousness. Then came his speeches, although beautifully worded was delivered with the passion of a comatose patient. The torture occurred every Independence Day and republic day when even his own ministers would doze of as he spoke. His strong track record during its previous tenure had led people to ignore his oratorical inadequacies, but the scams, the bad state of the economy and the general incompetence had made him an unfavorable figure and this rather dull public display was just another reason for the frustrated public to slam the UPA and Dr. Singh.

When he wasn’t reading out sleep inducing speeches, he largely chose to stay to himself, never submitting himself to any questioning by the media, thus allowing his critics define him. This silence was not only restricted to the media but also to his colleagues. It is good practice for PMs to socialize with colleagues and build a rapport with Chief Ministers who are responsible for their states. But all through his tenure Dr. Singh did nothing of a kind. Judging by the way the members of the Congress had began to treat him; neither did he build any ties within the party. In a move that bewildered many, he also began refused to take briefings from intelligence chief which led to believe that he was soft of matters of national security.

To add to this were instances of several Congress leaders openly demanding that the son of Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi be made Prime Minister, all this without his knowledge or approval.  There were strong rumors files meant strictly for the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) were taken to Congress president Sonia Gandhi by the Prime Minister's Principal Secretary and even ministers choosing directly to brief her instead of the PMO. It was astounding that Sonia, a relative novice to start with, had managed to seize the power from the relatively seasoned Singh.

This was fodder for humor among many who joked about Singh’s fecklessness. But far from being comical, this was a very dangerous situation that had arisen where the real power lied with the Congress President while the Prime Minister was rendered irrelevant, the government was compromised and so was the constitution. All that worked was credited to the heir apparent and son of Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and all that didn’t was blamed on the helpless and Prime Minister. The model was similar to the Bal Thackeray – Manohar Joshi ‘remote control’ model, where a puppet leader was made to hold the official post while the strings were pulled by an extra constitutional non-elected leader of the party. But while Thackeray situation was merely on a state level, this was the entire country.  The Prime Minister is the leader of the country and the face of India internationally, he is not any man, he is the man and when he is compromised, so is the country. His personal failure thus became a national failure.

It was just a question of how much could a man take before he actually retaliated. The retaliation never occurred, but instead Dr Singh announced that he would not seek re-election in 2014 and hence the second UPA would be his final term. In the end very little got done under the UPA, files never moved and policies never got passed. Singh had gradually managed to become irrelevant, whenever there was a speech to be made, there he was reading like a robot from a piece of paper, if there was a function to be graced, there he was again looking rather clueless cutting a ribbon. The nation saw him labored through his last few months in office; the only time he did get a mention was when he suffered attacks from the opposition either in parliament or on the campaign trail. In this, the final week of his leadership, a dinner was hosted in the honor of Dr. Singh, but in a move of great impropriety that shocked many, Rahul Gandhi chose to skip the dinner without any valid reason a very sad and rude way to end tenure.

The trends of the election results seem to suggest that the UPA is in for a crushing defeat. But was this Manmohan Singh’s entire fault only? Perhaps not all of it, but his unwillingness to be a strong leader led to the great diminishment of his standing both across the country and within his party.  They say that you are as good as your most recent move, so will Dr. Singh be remembered as a great finance minister who led India into a bright new phase of economic prosperity or will he be remembered as a weak PM who led to the epic defeat, most likely the latter.

Dr. Singh was perhaps a good man but placed a world where he was found to be out of his depths. Never confrontational or tough, he found himself that he was unable to deal with the likes of Sonia Gandhi and her loyalist who outnumbered and outmaneuvered him to win the power struggle.  He came across more like a tragic figure than an odious one. But had he done an objective self-assessment, he could have comprehended his inabilities, which were beginning to show at the end of the first term of the UPA. He could have quit and his legacy would have remained intact. He would have been one lauded and celebrated by everybody and his rejection of power would have sent a clear message to Sonia Gandhi who needed him equally. But instead he clung to power, despite the power being symbolic, allowed himself to be humiliated and in the process allowed reduced the stature of the PMO and the country. In one of his last press conferences he blamed a great deal of the public antipathy on the media and hoped that history would be a kinder judge. But for the Congress party that seems to be loyal to the Gandhis the only way to emerge from what seems like complete rejection from the voters is to accept defeat but sly blame it all on Singh’s weakness. They will then look to the future by claiming that Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi are they only beckons of hopes. A political leader usually has two choices, to quit at the right time and be regarded as a hero or a carry on long enough to be demonized into a villain and we all know what choice Dr Singh seems to have unwittingly made.