Using the medium of his blog, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Arun Jaitley on Tuesday described Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as a wise man, but found him wanting in asserting himself as a leader.
"Dr. Manmohan Singh became a Prime Minister on account of certain circumstances which compelled Smt. Sonia Gandhi to withdraw her name from the reckoning. He was literally a Prime Minister announced by Soniaji. He had to function within that limitation," Jaitley says in his blog.
"There were two strong qualities of Prime Minister that I discovered. Firstly, whenever you discussed a serious subject with the Prime Minister, he came out as a man of scholarship. He was what we call "a Syana aadmi". His words were measured and he would reflect before making a comment. Secondly, his personal integrity was always above board. With an element of scholarship, he was always well read and well prepared on any subject that he dealt with." Jaitley remarked.
Jaitley, however, did not shy away from pointing out loopholes in the prime minister's persona, remembering his inability to overrule people who affected his functioning. He gave instances like not standing up and cancelling the coal blocks allocation once the fraud was revealed or, cancelling the 2G licenses himself rather than waiting for the court to do it or, even his refusal to question the blatant manner in which Rahul Gandhi tore apart a Cabinet-approved ordinance on criminalisation in politics.
"Thus, when the reform process was blocked on account of decisions of the National Advisory Council or, when Rahul Gandhi tore apart the papers of an objectionable ordinance, the prime minister was perceived as a non-leader who had to accept everything without his opinion mattering significantly," Jaitley said.
"If he had stood up and cancelled the coal blocks allocation once the fraud was revealed or, cancelled the 2G licenses himself rather than wait for the court to do it, I have no doubt that history would have recorded him very differently. It was the inability to speak up within his own party that may compel the historians to take a different view of the man," Jaitley added.
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He praised the prime minister for his role as finance minister in the P.V. Narasimha Rao government and also said that he takes along with him his dignity and grace as he demits office.
"Unquestionably, Dr. Manmohan Singh was a very good finance minister. He got a lot of support from his Prime Minister, PV Narasimha Rao, for initiating the economic reforms in 1991. For a Congress Party Government which had always professed the virtues of regulation, a reformist approach was creditable. P.V. Narasimha Rao has never been given the level of credit which he truly deserved. I am sure history will reassess him. I had recently suggested to the prime mMinister that I personally would be interested in reading his memoirs, particularly those relating to the period 1991-96. The footprints he left behind as a finance minister during this period will be remembered for a long time," he remarked.
"As curtains draw to a close and a ten-year-long period of providing leadership to the Government of India, the Prime Minister goes out with dignity and grace. He will remain an elder statesman and a man of credibility to guide the nation. Only if he had stood up at the right time and disagreed, he would have been regarded with still a greater honour," Jaitley concludes.