Remembering Manmohan Singh Ji:  Who has to be Kind to Him 

The passing of former Prime Minister (PM) of India Dr. Manmohan Singh has led to expressions of deep respect and affection for his kind of “self deprecating leadership”, less known in the high voltage and more assertive partisan politics in contemporary India. Numerous notable personalities, ranging from political allies and opponents to world leaders and eminent scholars, and millions of Indians, came together to honour the former Prime Minister, celebrating his legacy as a “visionary” and an “extraordinary statesman.”

In his seminal work “On Leadership” John W Gardner highlights the elements of motivation, shared values, desire for social cohesion, and institutional renewal as major attributes of one’s leadership, to which Dr. Saheb, as he was fondly called, and his style of leadership subscribed to a larger extent. His natural propensity for ‘simplicity and nuance’ in public life indicated his humility when at the top of political leadership in India for quite a long time. He served in major official positions as Secretary in the Finance Ministry, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Advisor to the Prime Minister, Chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC), and finally Prime Minister of India for two consecutive terms. 

Interestingly, Dr. Saheb and PM Narendra Modi share a ‘unique similarity’ of coming from humble backgrounds and having faced the hardships of life, but both have shown the sheer grit and determination that helped them become PradhanMantri of India. Dr. Singh had to face the tragedy of partition, lost his mother at an early age but stood up to many uphill tasks in his life, reaching many heights in public life. 

Both Modi and Manmohan embodied a finer expression of “subaltern India’s” leadership and ability to serve the country and its people.. The journey of Dr. Saheb illustrates the ‘No nepotism’ in Indian politics, the slogan given by Narendra Modi, and also reiterated in his Independence Day address (15 Aug 2024) calling for ‘fresh blood’ from non-political families in Indian politics. 

Dr. Saheb is a leader who will be remembered for his contribution and legacy, who tried to bring India forward, and as a man of thought, impeccable personal integrity, and wide political acceptability. At the event held on 27^th Dec in Delhi, to mark the hundredth year celebration of former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s birth convened by India Foundation and attended by this author, the organisers showed their respect by putting together the portrait of Dr. Saheb with Vajpayee’s. 

While serving as a finance minister in the PV Narasimha Rao government, the set of economic reforms introduced by Manmohan Singh in 1991 saved the economy from falling into bankruptcy. He guided India’s journey towards liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation. The duo of Rao and Manmohan held each other in deep mutual respect, and trust; as was well expressed during the oath-taking ceremony of Dr. Manmohan Singh in 2004.

The 10-year tenure of Dr. Manmohan Singh was also marked by some major developments in policy circles on the domestic and external fronts. His government is credited with a ‘right-based revolution’ in governance through the passage of major bills that gave Indian citizens the legal Right to Food, Right to Education,  Work and Information. This signaled a paradigm shift in the ‘welfare politics’ of India. While some of these policy changes remain contested and their goals could not be fulfilled the intent to empower people is less questionable. Dr. Singh also  successfully steered the Indian economy through the global financial crisis (2008) and gave early inklings of India’s ‘new role’ in the global order. 

As someone who teaches in a university, to me the biggest policy intervention by his government was the Central University Bill (2009) paving the way for the establishment of Central University in every state of the country. Under the Modi government within the framework of the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020, this decision remains a landmark in the quest for making India a ViswaGuru. 

On the external front, Manmohan Singh’s rule is credited for signing the civil nuclear agreement with the United States (US) in 2008, ending India’s nuclear apartheid and creating a more favourable geopolitical configuration. Building on the foundations of the Vajpayee government (NDA 1), this deal paved the way for building bonds of ‘strategic partnership’ between India and the US, which under PM Modi has become a cornerstone of our global strategy and foreign policy.  US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Manmohan Singh one of the “greatest champions” of the US-India strategic partnership. Similarly, in a tweet Dr. S. Jaishanker, foreign Minister of India, credited Doctor Sahib’s administration for  ‘strategic corrections in our foreign policy’.

With regard to China, the then PM Manmohan Singh and President Hu Jintao had declared  2012 as the year of ‘India China Friendship’ during Hu’s visit to India, and echoed the tone for “Strategic and Cooperative Partnership” between the two countries. In 2010, Singh remarked: “the world has enough space to accommodate the growth ambitions of both the countries”. 

Despite these achievements, his tenure was marred by major policy flaws and the monitoring limitations of the PMO. However, what hampered Dr. Singh’s governance the most was his inability to wield political authority, or even to command ‘political respect’ from his peers. Much of this has been abundantly documented in various books published during his two terms in office. His silence on the big corruption scandals, inability to stand up for his own cabinet decisions, unflinching loyalty to the Nehru family, and lack of popular appeal dented his leadership credentials. 

Being an appointed Prime Minister, on many occasions he lacked political courage, at times when he should have stood for the larger interest of people, public policy and the country. The word ‘policy paralysis’ in governance became a catchword during his second term as Prime Minister. As a non-politician, with a technocratic soft-spoken personality, Dr. Saheb  succumbed to Indian realpolitik which brought him both ‘fame and disgrace’. 

Dr Singh stands out as a reminder of a “gentler age’ in Indian politics, in a pre-social media era. It is left to history and historians to be ‘kind or unkind’ to Dr. Manmohan Singh, but as academics and political observers, all we can do is to bring out the facts in his public life and career and leave it to the public to judge him.