This refers to T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan's column "Dr Much Maligned Singh" (Line and Length, April 5). The writer rightly points to Manmohan Singh's innate decency and the lack of assertiveness, needed in the rough and tumble of Indian politics, as one of the two primary reasons for his political career ending in failure, even tragedy. But Srinivasa-Raghavan is wrong when he identifies the other cause for Singh's failure as Sonia Gandhi with an overriding blind spot for her son.
In fact, Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh together have been one of the best things that could have happened for the country. She, the more aggressive pugilist (remember "maut ka saudagar" and recently "zehr ki kheti"), and he, the quiet behind-the-scene worker. Together they have achieved much - highlighting civil society concerns, lifting large swathes out of poverty, giving mainline politics a welfarist orientation and acquiring a standing in international economic parleys. True, there have been mistakes - some of them avoidable. The "maut ka saudagar" speech is one we could have done without because it caused the Bharatiya Janata Party to give up its role as a responsible opposition party. In the process, the country lost valuable time and opportunity inside and outside Parliament.
And Gandhi has displayed ample "maternal" instincts but these are directed towards the poor and needy of India, and not only or exclusively towards her Bonnie Prince Charlie.
Does Srinivasa-Raghavan seriously think Gandhi set up a greasy pole for Singh to to rapidly slide to the bottom while her son zoomed upwards in a red-carpeted, high-speed lift? No, the analysis needs to be more subtle.
In the end, Singh achieved less than his potential by: (a) his innate decency and (b) the very institutions that he, or any modern state, could legitimately ask to play a constructive role. The hyperactive media playing out the corruption game for their TRPs, the auditors feeding this frenzy and the judiciary moving into the areas proper for the legislature and the executive are examples of the latter.
Jai Oberoi Gurgaon
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