Apropos A V Rajwade’s article “A vacuum of leadership” (June 27), we can understand the reason Dr Manmohan Singh was an effective finance minister but is not an effective prime minister if we assess the two positions separately. As finance minister, he enjoyed autonomy and the full support of the then prime minister who had invited him to join the Cabinet as an expert. As prime minister, Dr Singh is a nominee of the ruling family, holding the office in trust for Rahul Gandhi. He does not have the authority to choose ministers from his own party or from the coalition parties. So, he is saddled with a team of loyalists more beholden to the party bosses than him. Besides, as T N Ninan points out in his article (“PM-in-hiding,” June 25), Dr Singh seems to harbour the notion that his government would fall if he took action against his erring colleagues. As the case of A Raja shows, this is a misconception. Though no one doubts Dr Singh’s personal integrity, people could start thinking that it is the lure of office that makes him play safe.
Y G Chouksey, Pune
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