The writer is a columnist. He is also a former editor of the Mumbai-based English newspaper Mid Day and the Gujarati paper Divya Bhaskar
aakar.patel@tribune.com.pk
In his final meeting with reporters, he announced his retirement and sent some criticism the way of India’s brightest political star, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) prime ministerial candidate.
Singh told reporters: “Without discussing the merits of Narendra Modi, I sincerely believe that it will be disastrous for the country to have Modi as the PM.” Reports said he “declared (this) in a low voice, without altering his expression”. But why is Modi disastrous for India? Should Singh not have revealed this? Why did he not want to discuss the merits? Given Modi’s popularity, the idea that he will be a disaster is not self-evident. I think it was incumbent on Singh, who has been prime minister for a decade and finance minister for five years to elaborate. If there is anyone in India who can tell us on the basis of information, why Modi is fit or unfit for the job, it is Singh.
If an event many think is probable and perhaps, even inevitable, is going to be a disaster, surely Indian voters who are undecided should know why this is so.
That Singh chose to run away from the issue is, as I said, a matter of disappointment.
The reports of his press conference indicate that he had opportunity to pick up this thread again. One report said: “He continued to be harsh on Modi, seen by many as the next prime minister of the country, when a journalist asked him his reaction to being viewed widely as a ‘weak prime minister’, Manmohan Singh replied: ‘If by strong prime minister you mean you preside over the massacre of innocents on the streets of Ahmedabad, that is not the kind of strength I will like to have.’”
In one of these incidents, the murder of former member of parliament, Ehsan Jafri, Modi has been found recently by a court to be not involved. If Singh had something to add to this, he should have used the stage, probably his final meeting with the press, to do so. Modi has often been blamed, not particularly successfully, for allowing the violence to go on. Is that all that Singh has against him?
What about Modi’s economic ideas and his notions of providing firm governance? What about his promise to rid India of corruption? Singh did not touch upon these. The prime minister was also reticent, or so it seems from the reports, about the other important matter, the worthiness of Rahul Gandhi to be prime minister.
The Congress scion is often caricatured as a clueless simpleton. If this is untrue, Singh didn’t tell us why.
Answering a direct question on this, Singh said: “Rahul Gandhi has outstanding credentials to be nominated as the prime ministerial candidate, and I hope our party will take that decision at the appropriate time.”
Again, what are the qualities that Gandhi has (and which Modi in Singh’s opinion doesn’t have) that we should know about? It is all a mystery and Singh hasn’t brought any clarity to the issues. The prime minister has been reluctant to engage with the Indian press in the past, and I have understood why. But this was an important moment and he should have done more than mouth the obvious. More understandably, given what an awful last two years he has had, Singh was also unwilling to defend his performance in office.
Reports said he “appeared not too worried about contemporary criticism that has dogged him and his government for two years, saying repeatedly that ‘history will judge’ him differently”.
Lastly, asked why he did not speak on issues that would be considered vital, the prime minister said: “I have been speaking whenever there was a need and will continue to speak.” The reports said that “this evoked some laughter in a hall where senior officials, too, were present”.
It is sad that one of the brightest minds in India is exiting the stage in this fashion, without telling us what darkness he thinks the future is about to bring.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 5th, 2014.
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COMMENTS (40)
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@Rex Minor: The only occupied territory is Pakistan occupied Kashmir which was occupied by Pakistani Non state actors. The Indian part was signed over. THe UN resolution asks Pakistan to vacate its occupied territory before anything else is done
ET Mod. please let me explain to NP what I have stated in my comments.
@np:
I assumed that Mr Modi will continue Indian current policy of trade only without any peace accord with its neighbours namely China and Pakistan. This will inevitably allow the chinese to dominate, being the largest Economy in the world, to set the standards and dictate the specifications for all commodities and products in the region, obliging all including India to conformity. Indian current joint military exercise with New Japan who is the ally of the USA will then be challenged by the powerful Chinese military. In other words what I am suggesting is the potential military confrontation of the Groupand A with Group B, all currently pursuing Trade only policy but stregnthing their military will lead them to ww3 scenario. I have nothing against Mr Modi; the question you must ask if he is the person who seeks peace and accomodation with its neighbours or Trade only venture and holding on to current occupied territories?
Rex Minor
@Gp65: Your argument is the standard one that I gave my friend Vijay as its the one known to all, but he stuck to his position.........so all I could gather was that conspiracy thoerists exist everywhere and untill an authentic source does not verify stuff like this it remains simply fabricated stories, mostly generated on the nett and I doubt his intention was to make false accusations for any particular reason.
@Gp65: Your argument is the standard one that I gave my friend Vijay as its the one known to all, but he stuck to his position.........so all I could gather was that conspiracy thoerists exist everywhere and untill an authentic source does not verify stuff like this it remains simply fabricated stories, mostly generated on the nett and I doubt his intention was to make false accusations for any particular reason.
somebody rightly advised Indian prime minister to become the first word of his name ie MAN...
A nicely written article about the incumbant Prime Ministter who is a burnt out dishonest or call him a machiavilean politician or what ever. His forecast about the opposition leader is nothing more than the primitive story of the person who prophesied the survival of the sinking boat people. Mr Modi is the next Prime Minister and India is heading for trouble with his Trade only drive and not peace with its neighbours including China and Pakistan but military venture with New Japan and US
Rex Minor
An open letter to the Indian PM Manmohan Singh
Dear Mr. Manmohan Singh,
Greetings.
We in Pakistan, really appreciate your desire to visit Pakistan, as informed by you today, in your first press conference in three years.
In this regard, I would like to suggest to the current leadership of both the countries, to take advantage of the conducive atmosphere prevailing in the region; and let India and Pakistan try a NEW APPROACH towards the peace: by first deciding upon a list of such core thorny issues, which are complicated and can only be resolved after full confidence between the two nations is restored; and freeze all such issues or problems, for a short period of just one decade.
In the meantime, India and Pakistan should restore full friendly relations, by genuinely restoring cooperation in all fields of economic activities, visa free to and fro, travel of citizens of both the countries, facilities for the businessmen of the two nations for opening of trade offices, banks, business shops and show rooms in each others country, removal of all restrictions on cultural and sports teams visits and full permission of the TV channels, to be viewed in each other’s country.
It will be just of a sorts of a no war pact for a limited period of ten years. It is expected it may work wonders, like a magic, in the economic emancipation of the teeming millions of both the countries.
Mr. Manmohan Singh, hope you know very well that ordinary people of both the countries are fed up with the acrimony between the two closest neighbours; and earnestly desire hundreds of years of peace, for which the only impediment, is the lack of statesmen and visionary people in the policy making arena of both the countries.
Now, your and our leadership has got a golden chance of a life time, to jointly work for the peace of about 1.5 billion humanity.
Please extend your hands to meet the gestures of genuine peace, already offered by the Pakistani PM Mr. Nawaz Sharif, to make the dream of peace aspirations of the hundreds of millions of residents of the sub continent, come true.
Remember, may be this golden chance for the peace between the two nations if missed, may not come again in the decades.
Also please inform all those military and political planners in your country, not in favour of genuine peace with Pakistan that low intensity war or other covert hostile methods, are no more a long or short term options for, as well as, against any nuclear power(s). All such paradigms are out dated in the ultimate nuclear scenario. Such policy planners have no business to stay in the past non-nuclear status frame of mind; and they must develop a NEW and FRESH vision, to guide a major nuclear nation, like India.
Policy makers of nuclear powers must not have a mindset of a non nuclear state. And the foremost responsibility of these policy makers must be to ensure, at all costs, that under ALL circumstances nuclear flare up or provocation has to be ruled out: irrespective of the defined policy of no first use of nuclear weapons or retaliatory use of WMD’s.
Last but not the least, it must be a very clear objective of the leadership of both the countries, to ensure that India and Pakistan must not live like divided Korea, rather, we should live, like the united Europe.
Seasons Greetings and Best Wishes for a very Happy New Year 2014.
ET mods - please allow response to Parvez.
@Parvez: Rahul has Indian citizenship.. This is a pre requisite for even contesting an election in India and Rahul has contested and successfully won elections. Sonia had an Italian passport in 1982 when Rajiv - her husband was general secretary of Congress and india was PM. this issue created a media scandal after which Sonia gave up her Italian passport. At that time she was not in politics but had to do so - to support her husband's electoral career.
There are many legitimate charges against Sonia and Rahul. There is no need to make p absolutely false accusations.
Although this does not directly concern the article but could someone confirm or clearly deny that Rahul Gandhi holds an Italian passport and according to Indian law he has to surrender his Indian passport. This info was passed onto me yesterday by a Hindu friend who once worked with me. I was sceptical of this and he could not convince me. I bring this up simply out of curiosity.
@C. Nandkishore: Wow , it is a news to me that Ehsan jafferey had a direct and hot line connection with Sonia Gandhi to speak to her within moments ( i mean when mob was just outside his residence). Congress & SP always tried to create a fear among the Muslims that they must vote them else BJP will come to power and they will be marginalized/ persecuted and what not. Congress did nothing for the modern education for Muslims and allowed them at the mercy of religious cleric. This resulted in status quo of the economic strength of Muslim leaving comparatively less opportunities to prosper. Appeasement of Muslims have been another strategy for amassing bulk votes from the Muslim society and this appeasement is being objected by Hindu community and Narendra Modi symbolizes their voice.Muslims who eat, drink and wear religion will remain last in the queue vying for economic development which will come from the modern education only.
@C. Nandkishore: Idiot, no one get any punishment for Sikh massacre so for. Bcz. it was done by congress leader. As for 2002 goes you must read newspaper carefully or google that how many people are sentenced for their crime. (In 2002 Beside Muslim, Hindu were also murdered whereas in 1984 it was only Sikh). I pity people like you who are blind by mind.) ET Please.......
Lalit, we should not even be using the term 'minority appeasement' for what the Congress does. It is the exploitation of Muslims. After all Sikhs are Minority too and the Congress showed no inclination to bring their murderers to justice. And the Congress does not just appease, it exploits the emotional issues by playing on religious sentiments.
C. Nandkishore, you have blinded yourselves in your prejudices, ignoring the role played by the Congress in the massacre of Sikhs. You are too eager to let Congress off the hook and too eager to implicate Modi when Modi has repeatedly found to be not guilty by the courts and investigators. Give it a rest.
Congress after Indira. "Democracy in India is greatly celebrated and much interrogated. The upshot of this interrogation has been a certain disquiet that with all the rigorous observance of formal procedure – regular elections, a well-established compact on the division of powers, and few barriers to the entry of new political players – the ethos of democracy remains weakly diffused. Unflattering epithets such as “patronage democracy” and more disparagingly, “bandit democracy” have been coined in the academic literature to characterise the curious amalgam that is political practice in India." http://www.epw.in/book-reviews/no-more-transmission-belt.html No More a 'Transmission Belt'
@C. Nandkishore so who do you feel APJ Abul Kalam is ? or Shahnawaj Hussain or for that matter a vocal Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi ?they were made what they are by BJP.I would also like to add many like Najma Heptullah but alas it would hardly make any difference on your thought process. Congress knows very well that Hindus do not vote in bulk,coming general elections may become an exception.if at all Hindus vote in bulk for Modi,its the policies of Congress which have pushed them towards this fate.minority appeasement in the garb of secularism has been the single most contribution of Congress to Indian Politics. secularism is the most misused word in Indian Politics and this is the legacy of Congress.
ET is not the leading Pakistani publication.
Interesting times.A staunch Modi supporter writing for a leading Pakistani publication.
@Gp65: @Lalit Why don't you say the other way round? Within seven tears of 1984 Congress had a Slkh Finance minister while even after 12 years Muslims are still living in ghettos in Ahmedabad? Riots are bad. 1984 was the worst. But the aftermath is more important. Even 12 years later BJP could not find one Muslim as their candidate for assembly. So you want to reward Modi for doing a same but worse offense for which you want to punish Congress.
@Mandy: With due respect to Mr Singh for his personal honesty and integrity, you must understand that the people of India need a leader with a vision, someone who can push for Indian interests locally and abroad. Dr Singh, undoubtedly a brilliant academician, hardly displayed qualities of a "leader". He probably would be best suited to the role of an advisor to the PM. And if the PM of this country does not have the courage or capacity to prevent his own cabinet ministers from looting the exchequer, who else can?
Coming to your point of "corruption is in our roots", please care to explain why I should be paying bribes to get my passport, my ration card, my driving licence, if the Govt of the day really cares to provide these services to citizens. Think with the head of a Govt servant. If he/she sees his bosses and ministers taking money, who can stop him/her from abusing his position in power. It's a chain and effect at the top does trickle down slowly to grassroots.
Lastly, Modi is not an ideal leader, but a less worse among those left to choose. If the UPA Govt had done its job honestly and sincerely, there would be no vacuum left for regional leaders like Modi to rise to national fame.
Singh is right. Coz india is a big povert
Perhaps Manmohan Singh was saying Rajiv Gandhi's Congress government after the 1984 Delhi riots was disastrous for the country
@C. Nandkishore
''when a big tree falls,the earth shakes''.remember something...these golden words were not uttered by Modi,but by err...Rajiiv Gandhi on Sikh Massacre in 1984. Congress has presided over some of the biggest riots even before the advent of BJP.and here no one is ready to give credit to a riot-free Gujrat to Modi for last 12 yrs. well as usual this comment has more chances of not seeing the light of day but still...
@Feroz,"Congress a 150 year old political party,". Make no mistake. This is not the INC, that Gandhi wanted disbanded after 1947. This is Congress (I) where 'I' stands for Indira, party chief who founded it after splitting the original INC, which more or less ended in the 1970s. It only shares a name with the original INC, which incidentally was also shared by the other faction, formed after the split of INC.
@Gp65,"Manmohan Singh’s biggest disservice is that despite being a very honest man personally,". Sadly this is another Indian myth. MMS is nominated to the Rajya Sabha, showing that he is a resident of Assam, which is a blatant falsehood. Unfortunately in India, since there are no minimum standards, a person making a false affidavit, is considered honest. Being nominated Prime Minister, despite being unable to win a Lok Sabha election, is another quirk of Indian democracy, which MMS has exploited.
Lot of hype from all directions just to get attention. After all the noise for another 4 months, most likely there will be a shaky coalition govt led by Modi. If India is lucky BJP will win 250+ seats and get a steady govt. Either Cong should get out of dynasty politics ( I know this sounds like a crude joke) or AAP should grow to a strong national party. There should be real democracy where chaiwallah's son could become the PM. Instead of 5th generation PM. Is this monarchy?
We need 2 big strong national parties. Dangerous to run the country with coalitions made of the ilk of Mamta, Jayalalitha, or commies.
Creating fear cannot be a positive agenda and a ruling party must talk about its performance, where it succeeded and failed and how the mistakes will be rectified if given another term. Manmohan Singh presided over the most corrupt government history has ever known, a real shame in what is the Worlds largest Democracy. How miserable must have been the performance and public disenchantment that ordinary citizens have started supporting upstarts like the Aam Aadmi Party. It is a terrible shame that the Congress a 150 year old political party, one of the oldest in the democratic World has destroyed itself so comprehensively. Such a political legacy has taken the struggle of millions to build but complacency, opportunism and sycophancy has put the Congress party on the ventilator.
UPA-II has been a major disappointment and I hope Manmohan Singh will simply walk away into the sunset and not give any more speeches.
Manmohan's legacy has been severely tarnished with the numerous scams when he was in office. To speak now when he kept mum this entire while displays duplicity. In his latest speech, he has chosen to be disingenuous in more than one way: 1) by stating that the scams happened during UPA-I but still the people voted for UPA-II, thus putting the onus on the people when the fact is that the scams during UPA-I were uncovered only subsequently, and 2) by averaging the economic growth during UPA-I and II and stating that he did much better than the NDA when the fact is that when NDA left the economy was on an upward trajectory, but now the economy is rolling downhill and UPA has no idea how what to do with the economy.
To nip at Modi also shows Manmohan's crassness, something which we could have done without at this late stage. If Modi is guilty for 2002, then Rajiv Gandhi should have been incarcerated for 1984 because he willingly abetted the 1984 Sikh pogrom by his statements on record whereas there is none for Modi.
In a few months, we will know exactly what the people think.
@Mandy: And see the difference in deeds: MMS got India accepted into the nuclear club. Modi has been denied a visa to US and EU. Thats the international standing.
Manmohan Singh has presided over a very corrupt government. Even he has been under cloud regarding coal mining licences. Narendra Modi has been good for Gujarath and the populace of that state have elected as their leader in three elections. Like the courts I also do not believe that he has a hand in riots against Muslims. If Muslims felt unsafe they have every right to move to another state in India or even overseas. Rahul Gandhi is untested in administration. Indians cannot afford to hand over the nation's business to a person who has nothing in common with Indians having lived outside India for a long time.
In Eshan Jafri's case, Eshan Jafri contacted Sonia Gandhi telling her that a mob has surrounded his house and were bent on killing him. Sonia Gandhi contacted the then PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who then contacted Modi and told him to save Jafri. Modi did nothing. Vajpayee was so afraid of Modi that he took one full month to visit Ahmedabad. Even on the day of his visit five muslims were killed. Contrast this with two other events: 1984 Assam massacre on Feb 18. On Feb 19 morning PM Indira Gandhi was present there on the spot with just six security persons. 1993 Bombay riots: CM Sharad Power had "deliberately misled" people following the 1993 Bombay blasts by saying there were "12 and not 11" explosions, adding the name of a Muslim-dominated locality to show that people from both communities had been affected. He tried to justify this deception by claiming that it was a move to prevent communal riots by falsely portraying that both Hindu and Muslim communities in the city had been affected adversely. That is why Monmohan said it would be a disaster if Modi would become the prime minister.
Why should he have to state the obvious? You are so enamored by Mr. Modi that you now need to be told why he would be disastrous. Take the blinders off. Modi could be the most polarizing PM India has ever had. Does he have a great deal of intellect? I do not think so. Rahul Gandhi is not necessarily the best PM candidate but Modi certainly is not .
It is obvious. Con party wants to keep the godra issue alive for minority votes. Sonia wouldn't say a word because it harts her image and Rahul wouldn't because it may hit him in future. So the dispensable character is the poor Manu. They made his say so to get the benefit at no loss.
Mr. Aakar, nice article. I believe, if you had noticed the kind of language used by BJP leaders & comments made during press conferences, public speeches & filth spread by their followers on social networking sites against PM in last couple of years, you won't have written this article or atleast blamed PM having done any disservice. He is harsh only because of bashing he got all these years....for his only fault that he is not a Modi-type speaker. My friend, he has several other great qualities which general public can't see now because of these nautanki's (rallies) & paid media. His govt was barely given chance to perform, all thanks to coalition, unruly opposition & CAG but he still managed to keep India afloat. Corruption is in our roots. No Modi can change it unless we change ourselves. Stop blaming others.