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Congress president Sonia Gandhi has been the one power centre in the UPA government for 10 years, and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh accepted the arrangement with no reservation. The Accidental Prime Minister—The Making and Unmaking of Manmohan Singh, which hit the market on Friday, has brought out instances of how the PM has been kept out of key decision-making, including appointment of Cabinet ministers.
The book, written by Sanjaya Baru, former media advisor to Singh, is being seen as more than controversial during the current election season, drawing strong reactions from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and party circles. Baru dismissed those reactions in three words—“I am amused”.
The PM is believed to have told the author that there was only one power centre in the UPA and that was the Congress president. At one point, the book says Singh conceded the greater part of the PM’s turf to Sonia and his senior colleagues. But foreign policy was one area he guarded for himself, including the nuclear deal with the US.
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In a telling sign that Singh was not taking decisions and that the buck stopped with Sonia, the PM failed to appoint people of his choice in the government he headed. For example, Pranab Mukherjee was given the finance portfolio without any consultation with the PM. Singh wanted C Rangarajan as the principal economic advisor, but that didn’t happen. Singh tried to keep away A Raja, who was to be later jailed in the 2G scam, from the UPA-II Cabinet but he bowed to pressure.
There’s more. Mukherjee, as finance minister, didn’t show the draft Budget speech to the PM till the very end. Before that, as foreign minister, Mukherjee returned from a critical US visit but headed to brief Sonia instead of the PM. When A K Antony became defence minister in 2006 and Mukherjee moved to external affairs, decisions were taken by Sonia, writes Baru.
As he was very seldom the decision-maker in portfolio allocation, it was tough for Singh to exert himself in the Cabinet.” Not surprising then that Singh often referred to himself as an accidental prime minister.
Even though TKA Nair, now advisor to the PM and earlier principal secretary in the PMO, was not his first preference, Singh had to settle for him. Pulok Chatterjee, principal secretary in the PMO who was appointed at Sonia’s behest, has been the point of contact between Sonia and PM.
It was Pulok who briefed Sonia regularly on policy issues and asked her for guidance. And, Baru calls Sonia’s trusted aide Ahmed Patel “Sonia’s chosen courier” and political link between Singh and Sonia. This is how it worked. Patel often dropped in at the PMO in South Block to discuss matters with Pulok—these could even relate to appointments on the boards of public enterprises and nationalised banks. Patel also met the PM at times, and when the frequency of those meetings increased, the buzz was that Cabinet would be reshuffled soon. The book mentions how once just before the list of MPs to be sworn in as ministers was being sent to the President, a missive came from the power centre (Congress president). Andhra MP Subbirami Reddy had to be part of the ministry in 2006; at the last minute white paint was put on over Harish Rawat’s name and Reddy was accommodated.
Lifting the veil on how the UPA government has worked, Baru says Singh hardly ever took direct briefing from the intelligence agency chiefs. National Security Advisor MK Narayanan became the effective boss in the PMO for the intelligence agencies, the book claims. On that, Baru says, intelligence chiefs may not deliver their best if they reported to an intermediary instead of the PM himself.
In the case of appointment of deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, the Congress had suggested names such as Digvijaya Singh, SM Krishna and Veerappa Moily—all former CMs. Here, the PM may have had his way in getting Montek Singh Ahluwalia. On the whole, the 285-page book, published by Penguin India, goes out to say Sonia had a decisive say in the allocation of portfolios.
On the issue of corruption, the book makes a distinction between Singh’s own conduct as against his colleagues. While he was himself incorruptible, he failed to check the misdemeanors of his subordinates. Baru calls Singh’s approach as a “combination of active morality for himself and passive morality with respect to others”.
Although the mega scams surfaced during UPA 2, the work had begun earlier. For example, Dayanidhi Maran, as the then telecom minister, was using his portfolio to help brother’s (Kalanidhi Maran’s) media business, alleges Baru while stating that he’s not sure if Singh was alerted about this by his officials. However, industrialist Ratan Tata, who was believed to have been summoned at a hotel by Dayanidhi Maran for a deal to favour his brother’s business, conveyed the incident to the PM, according to Baru.
The author has focused on Singh’s relations with Sonia as well, pointing out that there was no sign of a trust deficit. Although they did not meet often, Sonia came early for the Congress core group meetings so that she found exclusive time with the PM to discuss matters. At the end of the meetings, decisions were taken after consultation between Singh and Sonia. The book talks of a rare social meeting between the two, where Sonia sought advice on Rahul’s personal plans. Soon after, Singh and Rahul lunched together.
On the lighter side, the book describes Singh as a shy person, who finds it hard to do small talk. Also, he often memorised speeches like a good student. Though no believer of astrology, Singh was at times influenced by his personal secretary BVR Subrahmanyam’s interest in the subject—date of operation and filing nomination were some examples. His regular snack has been Marie biscuit with tea, but when he munched samosa once, the PM’s wife changed the menu to dhokla.
Even as the book makes the point that historians will record UPA 2 as a tale of missed opportunities of weak and unfocused leadership, it observes that Singh’s warmest smiles came while handing out scholarship certificates to bright young students.
