hot646 Dr Manmohan Singh: Dignity Personified

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was someone who maintained his dignity and grace while dealing with challenging situations or difficult people.

He would never lose his cool and remain calm even in adverse circumstances. None other than Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi can vouch for this.

On September 27, 2013, Rahul Gandhi, then Congress vice-president, tore away an ordinance that was ostensibly brought by the Manmohan Singh-government to provide relief to the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo Lalu Prasad after a Supreme Court order disqualified convicted lawmakers.

As Singh was away in the United States at that time, Rahul Gandhi called the ordinance "complete nonsense that should be should be torn up and thrown out". He then symbolically tore apart the ordinance papers during a news conference at the Press Club of India lawns.

The ordinance sought to skirt around the Supreme Court by allowing the convicted lawmakers to stay on without voting rights or a salary, until cleared by a higher court.

READ | Manmohan Singh (1932-2024): The Gentle Giant

Singh promptly withdrew it without creating any fuss but the move gave a handle to the Congress party's opponents who insisted that Rahul Gandhi had disrespected the Prime Minister's chair, and humiliated its then occupant Singh. Rightly so.

Knowing Singh, he would have dumped the ordinance had Rahul Gandhi called him directly and sought its revocation. But the Gandhi scion decided otherwise and chose to make a 'tamasha' out of it.

Singh was magnanimous and never brought up the matter. In fact, he defended Rahul Gandhi's actions on several occasions. Perhaps Singh was indebted to his mother Sonia Gandhi who in 2004 stunned and surprised the world by deciding not to become the Prime Minister and instead preferred the economist-turned-politician over several Congress stalwarts to head the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.

Singh went on to govern the country for ten consecutive years till 2014 when the Congress suffered its worst-ever electoral defeat and the Bharatiya Janata Party, led by Narendra Modi, rode to power by registering a stupendous performance - thanks mainly to a sustained anti-corruption campaign against the alleged scams during the UPA rule.

Though Singh remained courteous to the Gandhi family, he never shied away from showing his respect for his political mentor and former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao.

This author is witness to many occasions when Singh would visit the Andhra Pradesh Bhavan in the national capital during his Prime Ministership to pay tributes to late Rao on his birth and death anniversaries despite the Congress party and its leaders skipping the events. It was then considered a 'cardinal sin' in the grand old party to even take Rao's name but Singh showed his exemplary character and always praised his political guru.

Singh was the finance minister in the Rao government that was in office from 1991 to 1996, and is credited with initiating the path-breaking economic reforms.

READ | How Dr Manmohan Singh Averted India's Financial Crisis | Highlights Of The Landmark 1991 Budget

Another decision where Singh remained firm and adamant and defied Sonia Gandhi was the Indo-US nuclear deal. While Sonia Gandhi didn't want to antagonise the Left parties who were against the deal, Singh was keen on signing the agreement even at the cost of losing power. Subsequently, the Left parties withdrew support to the UPA government and brought a no trust vote against the Singh dispensation. However, the Congress leadership finally surrendered before Singh andhelped the UPA tide over the crisis by winning the trust vote.

These two teams are meeting for the first time in the tournament in pool stage.

While Singh's first tenure was marked by some game-changing initiatives such as rural employment guarantee scheme, right to food, right to education and right to information, his second term was marred by alleged corruption scandals, including coal and spectrum allocation scams. Many Congress leaders, including Digvijaya Singh, also made it difficult for Singh from 2009 onwards by frequently suggesting that Rahul Gandhi should take over the Prime Ministership from him.

They would often indicate that Sonia Gandhi was upset with Singh and wanted Rahul Gandhi to replace him. They also accused Singh of being an ineffective Prime Minister and indirectly held him responsible for the alleged scams. Peeved over such accusations, Singh in one of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meetings even offered to step down from the post but Sonia Gandhi persuaded him to continue. This was later corroborated by his erstwhile media advisor Sanjay Baru in his book.

Though Sonia Gandhi stood firmly behind Singh throughout his two terms, often reprimanding his detractors within the Congress, she also at one point of time tried to undermine his authority by forming a National Advisory Council (NAC) that came to be known as the 'Super Cabinet'. The NAC comprised of the activists in different fields and to clip its wings, Singh set up his own advisory panel. The two committees took divergent stands on some key economic issues.

Singh had a poetic side a glimpse of which the people often witnessed in Parliament and outside. He would often quote noted poet Iqbal to express his feelings.

Friendly poetic banters between him and late BJP leader Sushma Swaraj were often witnessed during debates in the Lok Sabha. During a fierce debate in the Lok Sabha in 2011, Swaraj quoted Varanasi-born poet Shahab Jafri's verses to hit out at Singh.

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"Tu idhar udhar ki na baat kar, yet bata ki kafila kyun luta, humein rahzano se gila nahi, teri rahbari ka sawal hai," she said while attacking Singh over the alleged corruption charges.

Singh returned the fire with Iqbal's verse. "Mana ki teri deed ke kaabil nahi hoon main, tu mera shauq dekh mera intezar dekh," Singh retorted.

The two again displayed their poetic prowess during a debate on the motion of thanks on the President's address in 2013. It was Singh's turn this time to take the first shot. Quoting Mirza Ghalib, he said, "Hum ko un se wafa ki hai ummeed, jo nahin jante wafa kya hai."

Swaraj responded with Bashir Badr's verse to say, "Kuchh to majburiyan rahi hongi, yun koi bewafa nahin hota."

Such friendly banter in Parliament have been replaced by acrimonious exchanges nowadays.

The legendary economist had a huge fan following among the world leaders. Former US President Barrack Obama once famously remarked that "the world listens when Dr Singh speaks". That was his image outside India but within the country his political rivals berated him as a "weak Prime Minister".

In his last formal press conference as the Prime Minister in January 2014, Singh rebuffed his political rivals who had strongly criticised him over his "weak and indecisive" leadership. "I do not believe that I have been a weak Prime Minister. I honestly believe that history will be kinder to me than the contemporary media or for that matter the opposition in Parliament. Given the political compulsions, I have done the best I could do. I have done as well as I could do according to the circumstances. It is for history to judge what I have done or what I have not done," Singh said as he defended his record.

As the nation mourns Singh's death at the age of 92, the outpouring of glorious obituaries and articles in the media highlighting his remarkable career and achievements indeed proves that history has been kinder to him.

His mortal remains will be laid to rest on December 28, the 140th foundation day of the grand old party that he served with dignity for over three decades.

The author is a senior journalist and has covered the Congress party for over 15 years.hot646