Why India Failed Manmohan Singh

5/22/2014
Why India Failed Manmohan Singh - Youth Connect
Why India Failed Manmohan Singh

Elections 2014
India
Opinion
Politics
May 15, 2014
India's injustice to Manmohan Singh
Indias Injustice To Manmohan Singh.

(With inputs by Shagufta Khan.)
MMS is Maun-Maun Singh, not Manmohan Singh. He is the puppet of Sonia Gandhi, not
the Prime Minister of India. Every other Indian today is guilty of ridiculing and mocking a
world-class economist and a global leader who was mishandled by the Congress party.
http://www.youthconnectmag.com/2014/05/15/india-failed-manmohan-singh/
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Here is why we need to give the Father of Indian Economic Reform a break.
Circa 1993. The opposition is demanding that the Finance Minister resign after it was alleged
that he slept through a $1.8 billion stock-market scandal, now popularly known as the
Harshad Mehta scam. Dr. Manmohan Singh, the then Finance Minister, took little time to
draft his resignation letter and put it forth to PV Narasimha Rao, the then Prime Minister.
Singh took a leave of absence and moved to his residence. Ref. 1
Only recently had Dr. Singh introduced several economic reforms for the country that would,
a decade later, be recognised as the most important reform in Indias history. Dr. Singh had
been serving as the Finance Minister since the government was formed in 1991; he was
handpicked by Prime Minister Rao. This was a time of crisis for the government and the
cabinet, as only a week earlier had Dr. Singh submitted his resignation to Rao, who in turn
tore up the resignation immediately. A week later, Prime Minister Rao gave a clean chit to Dr.
Singh and announced in the Parliament that his finance minister will continue to hold office.Ref.
2 Only after his name was cleared and removed from the Joint Parliamentary Committees
report that alleged Dr. Singh of having slept through the scandal, did Dr. Singh return to
work.
Fast forward to May 13, 2004. The NDA led by Prime
With Dr. Singhs way of
Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had just suffered a shocking
maintaing his political office in a
defeat in the General Elections, with Sonia Gandhi, the
very low-key fashion, this first
leader of the Congress party, all set to become the
Sikh to become the Prime
countrys Prime Minister. Three days later, citing lack of
Minister of India was barely
support by the allies, and keeping in mind the recent
recognised by the Indian
protests made by the NDA camp that Gandhi would be a
public. Unfortunately, so, Dr.
foreign prime minister, Sonia Gandhi used her
Singh was tagged the puppet of
extraordinary powers to amend the Congress partys
Sonia Gandhi, even before he
constitution and decided to nominate a person for the post
sworn in as the Prime Minister.
of the Prime Minister, after she respectfully and humbly
declined the position for herself. The then President Dr.
APJ Abdul Kalam, Mrs. Sonia Gandhi and Dr. Manmohan Singh met during the afternoon of
May 19, 2004, and the brief meeting confirmed that Dr. Singh would be Indias 13th Prime
Minister. Newspapers reports affirmed that Sonia Gandhi would retain the leash and the
reins of the government. Ref. 3 With Dr. Singhs way of maintaing his political office in a very
low-key fashion, this first Sikh to become the Prime Minister of India was barely recognised
by the Indian public, except for a few who were aware of the politics of the 1990s.
Unfortunately, so, Dr. Singh was tagged the puppet of Sonia Gandhi, even before he sworn in
as the Prime Minister.
Known to be an apolitical person, who ate frugally, loved his fish and his dal-rice, and someone
who was never idle, spending most of his time reading, Dr. Manmohan Singh was the most and perhaps the only - intellectual man to have served as the leader of the worlds largest
democracy. If there was one man qualified enough to be the Prime Minister of India, Dr.
Manmohan Singh was your man. It was his stint during the Rao administration that made this
lightweight politician an extremely popular personality in the upper-class political circles; so
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much so that 13 years later Mrs. Gandhi handpicked this former academician to be the Prime
Minister of India.
Known for being a person of high honor and regard, Dr. Singhs valorous stories go way back.
His resignation over the Harshad Mehta scam was not the only time that Dr. Singh had tabled
his resignation during the Rao administration. There was another instance when Dr. Singh
tried to resign from the Rao administration, and it was only a few months after being
appointed as the Finance Minister in 1991. Dr. Singh and Prime Minister Rao happened to
have a difference of opinion over the issue of the hike of fertiliser prices that Singh had
proposed. When Prime Minister Rao suggested that the hike be cut by half, Dr. Singh sent his
resignation. Rao went on to persuade Singh as he explained that this was an act of
statecraft and that the partial cut would still mean a hike in the fertiliser prices. Manmohan
Singh withdrew his resignation and this incident was never publicised for at least a decade,
but it cemented certain notions about Dr. Singh that defined the kind of person he is.
What may come as a surprise to many, is that in the five years that Dr. Manmohan Singh
served as the Finance Minister in Narasimha Rao Cabinet, he drew no salary. Ref. 4
The choice of appointing an apolitical and intellectual academician and economist, for the
significant post of the Finance Minister, was clearly an odd one. At the time, Dr. Singh was the
chairman of the University Grants Commission, his role and position now fading after having
held more significant positions in the past, including that of the Chief Economic Adviser to the
Government of India, Economic Affairs Secretary, Deputy Chairman of the Planning
Commission and the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India.
When Rao ascended to power in Congress and was appointed as the Prime Minister, he
wanted to get rid of the socialist policies of the previous governments, especially those that
the Rajiv Gandhi administration left behind. Indraprasad Gordhanbhai Patel was Raos first
preference to handle the finance portfolio. A noted economist and a former RBI Governor just
like Singh, IG Patel had relinquished office of the Director of the London School of Economics
less than a year ago. But when Patel declined the offer, Rao reached out to Singh, who was
surprised by the offer.
Dr. Manmohan Singh put forward two conditions to accept the offer: a) full support of the
Prime Minister for Singhs proposals, and b) that he will not allow the administration to make
him a sacrificial lamb for unpopular decisions that werent taken by him. Rao accepted Singhs
conditions, and well before the formal announcement of the portfolios was made, Dr. Singh
already had the job of the Finance Minister of India.
When Dr. Manmohan Singh assumed office, India was facing the worst economic crisis it had
ever seen. Its foreign exchange reserves were not going to last more than three weeks, the
government was close to defaulting and the Reserve Bank the countrys central bank had
stopped giving any credit. Immediately after taking office, Singh made four remarkable
decisions to ensure a stable economy: he scrapped the export subsidy throughout, he delicensed all but eighteen industries, he opened up all but eight sectors to the private sector
and he depreciated rupee by 18%.
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In the milestone budget that followed, it was clear that this

man was going to turn India from a state-controlled
system to a market economy. In fact, the 1991 Union
budget had enough provisions to call India a market
economy. The economic liberalisation had been ushered in,
and there was no looking back. Under the aegis of the
visionary PV Narasimha Rao, and with Manmohan Singh
steering its economic ship, India would warmly welcome
the reforms with open arms and be on its way to becoming
one of the strongest economies of the world in the
upcoming decades.
It was clear that this man was

going to turn India from a
state-controlled system to a
market economy. In fact, the
1991 Union budget had
enough provisions to call India
a market economy.
13 years later, in 2004, soon after the prime ministership of this world-class economist was
confirmed, the stock markets picked up a bullish trend, marking the start of a new beginning,
a prosperous one at that. Only a few days earlier, the markets had taken a nosedive after
NDA suffered an unexpected defeat. The markets were not so happy with the idea of a
Gandhi running the show, but the positive market sentiment came rushing back in when an
economist was made the leader of the government.
In the 10 years that Manmohan Singh presided as the Prime Minister, India rose from being
the worlds tenth largest economy to the worlds third largest economy, beating Japan to
become the #3 only earlier this month. Foreign investments rose 500% during Manmohan
Singhs first term and 850% in the second, whereas the fiscal deficit dropped to an average of
2.5% during Singhs first administration, from 5-6% during the previous governments
regime. Indias poverty declined thrice as fast during Singhs governance from 0.74% to
2.18%; while exports have doubled from 17% during 2003-04, to 35% in 2013-14.
Infrastructure spending increased to 7-8% rising from 5-6% before Singhs leadership, and
the Sensex rose significantly well during Singhs governance: annualising at 15% during his
first term and 13.9% during his second term, as compared to 5.9% during the previous
governments leadership. Ref. 5, 6
Not to mention, Dr. Singh struck a historic nuclear deal with the United States, where as
successfully enforced a significantly stable foreign policy, maintaining cordial relations with
the likes of US, Russia, China, Japan, Germany, UK and others. The Right to Information act
was passed soon after his government took over, and became a sheet anchor that would help
activists expose scams worth billions of rupees.
The success of Singhs leadership perhaps, became his worst enemy. What his government
achieved during the first eight years, it could not replicate during its last two years. The
success of the former part of his rule developed high expectations, and when the government
could not live up to them, the tables turned. A lot of blame for the governments failure must
be pinned on the global economic conditions, but there were faults in the administration
nonetheless. Singh and his administration could not control the scams during their tenures,
and when the scams saw the light of the day, the public and the market lost the little trust
they had on the government.
Ref. 7
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In his recent book, The Accidental Prime Minister Ref. 7 , Sanjaya Baru, the former media
advisor to the Prime Minister, who is understood to be close to Dr. Singh, claimed that, during
the second Singh administration, there came a time when the interference of Mrs. Sonia
Gandhi in governance increased to a point where the Prime Minister was not allowed to
choose the finance minister of his choice. Barus book further claims that, around the start of
Singhs second term, various ministers began to snub the Prime Minister, creating an
atmosphere of chaos. The dual-power model was now beginning to show its dark sides, as
Manmohan Singh tried hard to hold the reigns.
Political paralysis within the Congress party, the puppet image of Dr. Singh, the scams, and
an opposition that was raring to come out victorious in the upcoming general election, were
enough factors to topple Dr. Singh and his administration. These factors combined, effectively
created a poor and a shabby image of the Prime Minister an image that reeked of
incompetence, indecisiveness and corruption. This image was created by handpicking certain
flaws in Dr. Singh and his administration, while ignoring most of the good that Dr. Singh and
his government did.
The perception of Dr. Manmohan Singh through this image ensured that he would receive
ridiculous jokes, puns and mockery in return. The only prime minister, after Nehru, to have
returned to power after a full-five year term, for another full five-year term, was being poked
fun at by the highly critical Indian public, and the media, which cherry-picked his flaws,
ignoring his rather significant good deeds.
Unfortunately for him, Dr. Singh did not make for a very good orator; neither was he good at
marketing his good deeds. Not that Dr. Singh was required to, but these factors would end up
becoming the most important reasons as to why the Congress party would likely fail to return
to power. But, should that take away the fact that Dr. Singh did a fine job of stabilising the
Indian economy in times of volatile global economy strain, perhaps single handedly?
No country is perfect, no government is perfect, and no political leader gets away from the
ridicule and publics mockery but did Manmohan Singh deserve the mockery he received?
On May 17, 2014, Dr. Manmohan Singh will deliver his farewell address to the nation an
address that will mark an end to a highly illustrious career of a brilliant, celebrated economist,
an excellent statesman, and above all, a courteous, gracious gentleman someone who spent
precious years of his life in the service of his country.
Its mighty easy to mock and ridicule someone while hiding behind the safety of your laptop
screen. The experience of this man can perhaps teach us the dangers of half-baked
knowledge, public trial and widespread ignorance. Maybe we can learn to get all the facts right
before we ride the judgmental wave?! Lets give the due credit and throw the due brickbats
only after we are convinced they deserve it, not because some one tells you they do. Spare the
scapegoat, eh?
Lets give this man a gentlemans farewell. He deserves it, grey shades and all.
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References:
1. Lucky 13: The Call That Changed It All The Times of India May 20, 2004.
2. Indian Leader Bars Key Aide From Quitting in Stock Scam The New York Times January 1,
1994.
3. SINGHING IN THE REIGN: But Reins Stay Firmly With Sonia The Times of India May 20, 2004.
4. Economist chosen to become next prime minister of India The Seattle Times May 20, 2004.
5. India Macro-Economic Summary Planning Commission of India March 10, 2014
6. The myth of UPAs disastrous economic performance moneycontrol.com April 7, 2014.
7. The Accidental Prime Minister Wikipedia
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apj abdul kalam, Atal Behari Vajpayee, Congress, Elections 2004, elections 2014, Manmohan Singh, Prime
Minister Office, PV Narasimha Rao, Sanjaya Baru, sonia gandhi, The Accidental Prime Minister
Rahul Bhagchandani
Rahul Bhagchandani is the founder and editor-in-chief of Youth Connect and

takes care of the overall operations of the organisation. He leads the
editorial, technology, design & art, social media, and outreach departments. A staunch
patriot, Rahul loves to write, design & teach. He is also quite nocturnal.
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lonetwin
This article seems to make the assumption that the only reason people blame MMS
is out of ignorance of his past. That is not true. People hold him responsible despite
...in fact ...because of his past. When the congress came to power his appointment as
PM was indeed seen as a positive sign by all of us that remember the 90s (or the 80s
even). The post liberalisation India was indeed welcoming to MMS. However, one
cannot make excuses for the bumbling, directionless, incompetence of the past 10
years by citing the successes 3 decades earlier. Being the PM meant more than
economics. How did MMS perform as a leader ? What did he do about the rampant
corruption ? All the things the article cites as successes like the nuclear deal, the RTI,
the economic growth rate didn't just magically appear when MMS became PM. You'd
be intentionally ignorant and in denial if you do not accept that the wheels for those
were put into motion much earlier[1]
Pontificating that "Its mighty easy to mock and ridicule someone while hiding behind
the safety of your laptop screen. The experience of this man can perhaps teach us
the dangers of half-baked knowledge, public trial and widespread ignorance. Maybe
we can learn to get all the facts right before we ride the judgmental wave?!" ..just
makes this article come across as arrogant and presumptuous. There are enough
*young* people who although in their early teens in the 90s were well aware of what
transpired.
[1]
nuclear deal was the direct result of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PokhranII#Political_Momentum:_1988.E2.80.931998
RTI: Was being fought for since 1996 afaict, possibly
earlier:
http://righttoinformation.info/about-us/brief-history-demand-for-thehttp://www.youthconnectmag.com/2014/05/15/india-failed-manmohan-singh/
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right-to-information/
economic
growth
has
been
predictable
and
steady
since
1991
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_liberalisation_in_India#Impa
ct_of_reforms
themobilegeekblog
You talk as if he did what he did in 1991 out of choice, the reforms of 1991 were out
of compulsion rather than choice..the economy was in such bad shape that there was
no way out..otherwise the Congress would have never gone back on the Nehruvian
style of economics and India would have continued with the infamous Hindu rate of
growth.
A good economists doesnt necessarily make a good PM, not only was he guilty of not
doing anything on the economic front(which is his speciality), his government did
nothing(absolutely nothing) when we faced terrorists attacks and the Chinese army
took over our land, instead we got someone who wanted peace with Pakistan
irrespective of what they did to us. He may be a good person but he was an atrocious
politician with no control over his own government.
You cannot judge a person based on what he did in 1991, he was a good finance
minister, but he was an absolutely shockingly terrible PM , especially in the last 5
years when it became apparent the he had no respect or control within his own
party, maybe you should show this article to members of the Congress and try to
remind them of his good deeds in 1991, I assure most of them will have the same
reaction as mine after reading it....a hearty laugh...
Manju1961
I thought of thanking you personally, for the simple reason that I had been and I am
still, a great admirer of Dr Manmohan Singh, a great patriot, a statesman, honest,
brilliant, respectable, and so on. Many a times even I had doubts why is he still
sticking on to the chair, when we know he doesn't aspire for power, but something in
me reassured me he is sticking to the chair to do whatever good he can do to the
nation, despite the efforts by all the self serving politicians, including from his own
party. I have stood by this conviction till date. I wanted to write my views and
thoughts on Dr Singh, and your article simply reflected my thoughts, may be with
more facts and figures. Please permit me to add, bringing the brilliant Raghuram
Rajan, person who could predict global melt down three years before it happened, is
yet another contribution. Adhaar, if it were allowed to go as it was planned,
corruption ( and black money) would have been minimised to a great extent. But
politicians of all hues, saw to it that it did not succeed the way envisaged by Dr Singh.
The only thing lacking was, he did not have even 0.01% of the Goebbles in him. He
never claimed anything, simply did it as a service to the nation. Hats off Sir!.
Ratnadeep12
8/28
5/22/2014
I don't believe he was ever mocked. People were venting out their anger at him.
India did no injustice to him, India welcomed when he was elevated to the rank of
our PM. In him people saw hope, strength and wisdom. He did injustice to himself,
and no one liked it.
He was a hero to millions and an icon. If my hero, whom I would like to visualize as
self-asserting and strong becomes a puppet and does nothing about it, I shall be
angry at him for letting it drag on rather than the people using him. MMS wasn't a
nobody, his voice commanded respect. I would not buy the argument that someone
of his stature and standing can be used with coercion. I wouldn't still convince myself
that meekness forced him. India did't force him to do injustice to his name and his
reputation.
nirajchaudhary
One simple question, raised by many, demolishes the entire article - why didn't
MMS resign during those 10 years. Besides rahul needs to do a better research. The
provision of removing license for certain industries wasn't carried out by MMS but
Rao himself who had ministry of industries in his portfolio. Also why do we forget
that a bunch of these reforms happened at behest of world bank.
sunam
sunam
Policy of 'Don't talk bad about the dead' I guess :/
sachkaushik
And therefore:
Dont ask why the nation failed Dr. Singh - ask why Dr. Singh 'eventually' failed the
nation?
sachkaushik
With all due respect to Dr. Singh who I believe is the finest our country has
produced:
1. Ridiculed is one who let's himself be ridiculed. Why didn't Dr. Singh resign in the
past 10 years. Coal scam, interference by Ms. Gandhi are but a few reasons he had.
What changed from the 90s?
2. The true father of economic reform was Mr. Rao - who had the political will and
vision to enable Dr. Singh, Mr. P Chidambaram (then commerce minister) and Dr.
Montek Singh Ahluwalia to implement the reforms.
3. Unfortunately history evidences that for all good one does, the worst performance
is one's least common denominator - because the darkest hour is the truest judge of
character.
Does Dr. Singh deserve a gentleman's farewell? Definitely, but not without the grey
shadows of the past decade. He will not be remembered as a respected prime
minister of this great nation. Maybe sad for some, unfair to others but is the hard
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fact and the truth - for reasons stronger than to the contrary.
lopaborah
I have not seen failure since last few years in the economy as well as the standard of
living in India... All i could see we are becoming better and better... Neither
intellectuals failed us nor the system failed intellectuals... but yes, we citizens makes
a system and unfortunately majority of citizens are AAM AADMI, who just can see
the flashing lights of the moments and not see the future... so, yes then I would
blame the system.. We are being able to walk along with the developed economy,
controlling unemployment, literacy and poverty... its only because of Abdul Kalam
and Manmohan Signh's silent leadership..and ofcourse Transcend leaders do not wait
for followers.... and do not wait for appreciation nor majority.. they are objective
oriented.. FOOL are we, who never understood their worth..
JenendraJain
Typical attitude of glorifying the past and ignoring the present. Judging someone by
what he has done years ago and not by what he did or did not do in the situation that
is at the hand.
Nobody is questioning his actions and decisions as a finance minister. Everyone is
questioning is actions as a Prime minister.
You demonstrated so many examples of why he was the awesomest Finance
minister. Do you have even half the number of examples to demonstrate he was a
good Prime Minister?
He might be a personal ideal for you and nobody is judging you for that. But yes, all of
us are judging him for his prime ministrial term.
He did not demonstrate any leadership principles as the PM of the country, and
that's why its not the country who failed him, it's him who failed his country and
people who believed in him.
RJSingh
All of us are digressing from exact problem that either the system has failed
intellectuals or educated/intellectuals have failed the Nation. Do than we can
handover the reins of this nations to semi educated goons at the national level who do
not know what they stands for. We had these semi educated goons at state levels
who have infact more responsible for failing the Nation and now promoted
themselves to national level. Otherwise we do have to find out solutions to reform
both state and national level election systems may be something like Presidential
type or else.
RJSingh
The exact question is do there was better choice with congress and more
appropriately acceptable to Gandhis with no threat to the transition back to the
family. One should not expect Gandhis to dissolve Parliament inspite majority saying
some other party can rule as Rahul has not yet matured(or probably will never
mature)
RJSingh
10/28
5/22/2014
All parties are a bunch of goons with vested interest but question is do we put the
biggest goon as their head. Do we handover crucial Ministries to Togadia, Ramdev
Giriraj or people with intermediate intellect like Jaitely who are sycophants to Babas
Ramdev as economist.
Pranab Mukherjee having best of memory but of
intermediate intellect for economic matters not made as PM by Gandhis took
portfolio of Finance Minister as challenge.His policies ruined economy and what the
nation paid for last few years. Further Pranab Babu has paid in return to Gandhis for
denying PM job by ensuring decimation of party and Rahul.
lopaborah
India was mocked even before 10 years of his service.. but the difference is that he
made us aware and kept us in loop of what is happening and thats why we can see
the negative and positive growth.. but as human nature we count the negative more
than positive.. the best thing that happened during his service.. that he made Indians
aware and people like ANNA Hazare and kezriwal got chance to raise their voice..
before 10 years many Anna and many Kezriwal tried but failed to be in the limelight..
nd Indians were less awakened and less participative in nation matters.. He has no
voice cause He let us to speak....and thats what a true economist will do....
munish4130
Take example of a cricket captain. He is an excellent player, has won many a games
for India. But he is leading a team where many players are fixing matches. And it is
happening right under his nose and he knows it. What options does the captain have?
Either start fixing matches himself, take action against the culprits or step down
from captaincy claiming that he can't do this immoral task. This is precisely what Dr.
Manmohan Singh should have done. No doubt he was one of India's best economists
but we are talking about being the leader of the nation and this needs a different skill
set. You can not play cricket with a hockey stick!
Rahul Bhagchandani
moderator
Around the time the public started questioning the prime ministership of Manmohan
Singh, the government faced significant friction from its supporting parties and its
coalition partners; along side the opposition's determination to disrupt the working of
the Parliament, with a number of no-confidence motions that were moved against
the government.
For those of you who are of the opinion that Manmohan Singh should have resigned,
know that the resignation of a Prime Minister dissolves the cabinet, and the
government ceases to exist. In a coalition government, such as the UPA-2 where
UPA had only 229 seats of its own - making the support of the allies crucial - the
resignation could have forced the supporting parties to pull their support, thereby
swinging the majority in the Parliament. This would have been followed by the
dissolution of the Lok Sabha; and fresh, unexpected general election.
In such a situation, the economy would burst, as local and foreign businesses and
investors would frisk away. No one likes a country whose Prime Minister has
resigned because of internal politics and disagreements. An unexpected general
election would also destabilise the defence hierarchy, and hamper legislation. Not to
mention, the excess expenditure to the exchequer.
This was 2010 for Dr. Singh now, not 1991 when he was just another Finance
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Minister, who could have easily put in his papers. With so much on the line, would
you have rather preferred him to resign, making matters worse for the country; or
keep office for the remaining part of it and battle out as much as he could for the
couple of years that were left for the Government? Till 2010-11, the public at large
had little complains against the performance of the government; it is around that
time after which the questions started making rounds.
And, for those who are wondering what did Congress have against Dr. Singh
anyway?, well, who knows? The Congress party has ruled India for much of her time
since our independence; they ought to know their politics, right?
ashish2725
Congress should have projected some of these points in their election campaign. This
is the case of a great king with lackluster army troop.
Raghu_Jain
lol ...Scamgress supporter ...Why don't you talk about world record scams under UPA
Nona Shah
"A lot of blame for the governments failure must be pinned on the global economic
conditions" but if there are good global economic conditions (as was the case in 20012006) we must give credit to the government. Wow! That is some line of thought -- I
think most of us Indians will like. If you do good, take all credit; if things go bad, it
was all someone else fault.
AbhishekBhatnagar
I just want to say that the numbers for the size of the Indian Economy are wrong....
India is still 8th or 9th in terms of nominal GDP, it was a change of methodology (now
based on PPI GDP) of ranking by IMF that India is now ranked as third... please
dont misrepresent and misstate simple facts....
AdarshVRaj
1. I wouldn't look at him to see the best leader, because the words intellect and
leader are not synonyms.
2. Why did the man of integrity chose to be silent when he was made a sitting duck
by the Gandhis, if he had that will not to allow the administration to make him a
sacrificial lamb for unpopular decisions that weren't taken by him when he was the
FM, did someone drain him of his juice?
3. And i don't think the public need to give credit to him and simply blame others for
when he chose to be silent, he was the PM and not the Gandhis, if he chose to still
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5/22/2014
hang on to that chair, he should to take the full responsibility for the current
state(though that wouldn't relieve gandhis of their greed for power & their wrong
doings) and he can not run away saying his hands are clean. He always had a choice
and he chose what contradicts certain points that the author is trying to ascertain.
4. Numbers provided are really fancy, i loved reading those. What was in it for the
people? India gradually would develop, there is no doubt, but whats his extra
ordinary contribution. When he was the FM, the author gives full credit of
everything to him, then why not give the latter number's credits to Chidambharam?
5. And please, number games presented in the article related to BPL, everybody
knows how that happened, it was no economical magic, it was all the mathematical
magic.
6. RTI, many people fought for it, credit cannot be given to any political party.
7. No argument on the part, he is a great man, but he simply wasn't a leader, no

leader would have bowed down to the bullying of any or what ever family it may be.
They had nothing against him, still why he chose to remain silent? If they had, then
the greatness is at doubt.
8. Okay, may be public hand picked certain recent flaws and ignored many good old
actions; a- reference not provided here, b- just cos Shewag had played good 2 years
back, you cant make him the team captain now.
9. and the last para, its easy to sit behind a laptop and judge that more than 3/4 of
the population are ignorant & stupid.
Nobody is here to give him a character certificate, he was responsible for this
country, and he failed many a times, he was the face, he could have stood up for
whats right, he failed to do so and that does make him not so a good leader, pardon
ma ignorance, but am just a mango man.
VaidehiAdithyaNair
No performance. No respect. period. all justifications are a proof that there is a guilt
of non performance and greed.
MaunikShah
I truly believe when one of my friend told me that "History will do justice to this
great man". However we as an whole nation can not appreciate MMS's contribution
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5/22/2014
in Indian Economy, future generation will look at him with honor.

A honest great economist mishandled by congress and misread by country.
anku94
A lot of informed people don't doubt his abilities as an economist, but there's a reason
you don't need to be a Harvard graduate to become a Prime Minister.
As the Prime Minister of a nation, you have the responsibility not just for yourself,
but for the entire government. Herein lies his weaknesses. He saw scams, Sonia
Gandhi overruling and mismanagement all around, and allowed it all to happen, while
making feeble attempts at containing them. He was a respected academic, but a
weak leader. A true leader would have resigned in protest of Sonia Gandhi's attempts
at influencing and overriding his decisions. A true leader would have kept his
government on a tight leash and not allowed such gross mismanagement to happen.
His energies would have been better directed as an advisory role in the finance
ministry. He was a weak and toothless administrator and no amount of
romanticization of his personal abilities changes that.
gitansharora
@ss94 Resignation Letter was not a blackmail, it was his way to express disregard
for the populist measures that the govt. take to please Indian people, for vote bank.
And for your information, Scandal occurred and have been occurring from the time
Human being was born. Not only in our country but in every, the thing is that you
can't put a someone who can go good for the public as a scrape got for those who did
scandals.
And as if you don't know , let me tell you Indian people, or for the matter of fact
people of every country , is a mob. They will berate you for the negatives, rather
than the positive s/he done.
Nice article i must say, at the time when people are blind due to media. :)@Rahul
Bhagchandani
ss94
I just read the first two paragraphs and I am unable to understand why you are
romanticizing the indirect black-mail of presenting resignation letter? So according to
you it is enough to present a resignation letter to get a clean chit? Is it really justified
that just because he tried to resign (if you ask me it was really convenient to let the
other members deal with the crisis and return when they have been pseudosuccessful in defending him.) he should be praised as a martyr? After all , his
resignation didn't change the fact that the scandal occurred and he could do nothing
in stopping it.
VishalKamlani
Get your facts right! What do you mean by no public life and no political background
14/28
5/22/2014
and no seat in either house of parliament?

Dr. Singh when became finance minister in PVN's cabinet since then he was in public
life and since then he is a member of Rajya Sabha (Upper House) and was leader of
opposition in Rajya Sabha in Vajpayee lead NDA government.
He even fought the 1999 LS Polls from South Delhi but lost!
So Dr. Singh was no new to public life!
Regarding the man, he truly deserves a grand farewell for being such an integral and
loyal worker, FM and not so huffy-puffy PM!
RajdeepSingh1
@Ratnadeep12 if u read it full, it is very welly said, as the market condition

detrioed world wide, some things were out of control and even sonya's interventin in
the last 2 years made him not choose the right person...
let make it clear whom shd v blame buddy...
AdarshVRaj
@lopaborah Fool are we, none of us understood your point.

No offence.
Rahul Bhagchandani
moderator
@JenendraJain "In the 10 years that Manmohan Singh presided as the Prime
Minister, India rose from being the worlds tenth largest economy to the worlds
third largest economy, beating Japan to become the #3 only earlier this month.
Foreign investments rose 500% during Manmohan Singhs first term and 850% in
the second, whereas the fiscal deficit dropped to an average of 2.5% during Singhs
first administration, from 5-6% during the previous governments regime. Indias
poverty declined thrice as fast during Singhs governance from 0.74% to 2.18%;
while exports have doubled from 17% during 2003-04, to 35% in 2013-14.
Infrastructure spending increased to 7-8% rising from 5-6% before Singhs
leadership, and the Sensex rose significantly well during Singhs governance:
annualising at 15% during his first term and 13.9% during his second term, as
compared to 5.9% during the previous governments leadership."
"Dr. Singh struck a historic nuclear deal with the United States, where as successfully
enforced a significantly stable foreign policy, maintaining cordial relations with the
likes of US, Russia, China, Japan, Germany, UK and others. The Right to Information
act was passed soon after his government took over, and became a sheet anchor that
would help activists expose scams worth billions of rupees."
"The only prime minister, after Nehru, to have returned to power after a full-five
year term, for another full five-year term."
"Dr. Singh did a fine job of stabilising the Indian economy in times of volatile global
economy strain, perhaps single handedly."
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5/22/2014
And "failed the country"? Can you explain how India stands as a failure today, given
how until 2 days ago it was Singh's administration that was running the country.
lopaborah
@JenendraJainI guess you didnt read his article properly.. to help you out, this is
few para from the article on which you commenting '
"In the 10 years that Manmohan Singh presided as the Prime Minister, India rose
from being the worlds tenth largest economy to the worlds third largest economy,
beating Japan to become the #3 only earlier this month. Foreign investments rose
500% during Manmohan Singhs first term and 850% in the second, whereas the
fiscal deficit dropped to an average of 2.5% during Singhs first administration, from
5-6% during the previous governments regime. Indias poverty declined thrice as
fast during Singhs governance from 0.74% to 2.18%; while exports have doubled
from 17% during 2003-04, to 35% in 2013-14. Infrastructure spending increased to
7-8% rising from 5-6% before Singhs leadership, and the Sensex rose significantly
well during Singhs governance: annualising at 15% during his first term and 13.9%
during his second term, as compared to 5.9% during the previous governments
leadership. Ref. 5, 6
Not to mention, Dr. Singh struck a historic nuclear deal with the United States,
where as successfully enforced a significantly stable foreign policy, maintaining
cordial relations with the likes of US, Russia, China, Japan, Germany, UK and others.
The Right to Information act was passed soon after his government took over, and
became a sheet anchor that would help activists expose scams worth billions of
rupees."
WAKE UP!
SuryaS
SuryaS
@RJSingh you are absolutely an ignorant to state that ministries would be

transferred to Togadias and Ramdevs,
doubiouslogic
@Rahul Bhagchandani
"The Congress party has ruled India for much of her time since our independence;
they ought to know their politics, right?"
By this logic, nothing that's old should fail. But alas, that's not how the real world is.
MMS underperformed in his last political years. We may choose to ignore it and focus
on his brighter days, but that does not change a thing.
lopaborah
@AdarshVRaj Define me A Leader????
16/28
5/22/2014
Rahul Bhagchandani
moderator
@VishalKamlani The lightweight politician as he is, Dr. Singh indeed was barely
recognised by the public when the rumour mills about his prime ministership started
to make rounds, back in the day. The fact that he lost the 1999 Lok Sabha election
speak highly for his alienness to the public.
Thank you for pointing out the factual error though; we stand corrected.
lopaborah
@RajdeepSingh1 @Ratnadeep12we dont have to blame anyone and is it

necessary to blame someone for our current situation, then my dear friend, we got to
blame ourselves. we citizens are bounded by the so called half baked knowledge, only
can see what media shows.... but cannot have our own judgement... inorder to have a
good leader, we have to first define what do we want from him... A very good
example, Kezriwal few months back was like a Massiah for India, the only Indian
upon whom our hopes can be vested... and we made him win too.. But when the
question came to lokpal bill, if he dont quit,we would call him "Fake" and when he
actually quit for the bill, he still victim of the blame game... in this kind of scenario,
what anyone can do... so, in true sense, leadership is actually vested upon us and we
make the govt. and we rule the Ministers..Now similarly, incase of MMS, if he would
have resigned, he still would have been blamed and when he didnt resign thinking
about the bigger picture and peace, he just silently did what was capable and within
his limit..
If we citizens do not wake up now, this country would have to go through destruction
phase for real clean up.... Mahabharat will repeat... but the question is who would be
the Pandava??? and that answer we would only get when we citizens can actually
define what we need..currently we have become too comfortable with our current
messy, noisy and confusing situation... .AWARE, AWAKE and ARISE!
AdarshVRaj
@lopaborah @AdarshVRaj
Leader: the person who leads or commands a group, organization, or country
Intellectual : a person possessing a highly developed intellect.
intellect: a clever person
If u combine the above and read through his career..you will pretty well understand
what i meant.
any more doubts, please feel free to post a reply.
yours sincerly
manjukesan
So many instances of putting papers in the past... but nothing done when that
ordinance was commented Nonsense by party VP? Should ve shown some dissent to
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5/22/2014
caution the next gen congress leaders that he cant b taken so casually. ..... real
gentleman anyway
lopaborah
@AdarshVRaj @lopaborahlets take an example of a basket ball game, as well

know there is a captain and the team... now imagine if the captain keeps dictating
each of his team member, when to catch the goal and how to throw during the game,
then now way they would win, infact will be disaster.. so in basket ball each of the
team actually is leader and they demonstrate their leadership each time the ball
comes to their hand.. India needs now every citizen to be a leader, A captain with a
team that has no leadership quality is equal to no team... A government is not a
single man PM show... if it would have been we will be like Iran... Again if we expect
Obama, we first need similar citizens who gave birth to Obama...MMS is not a leader
but a transcend leader and played the game by being within the rules and that was
hardest.....
AdarshVRaj
@lopaborah @AdarshVRaj No a leader can command, he can show a path, when

he see things go wrong. A leader don't bow down in front of any madam putting his
countries future at risk.
Let me put it this way. I am some one who have a lil defense background, when we
wanted to choose someone to lead us at any point, we never went for the most
studious one, we simply went for the one who can guide us, someone with balls.
MMS wasnt a leader, accept it my friend. he might have been a great man, with lot of
knowledge and stuff..but he never was a leader. he never lead anyone. He was just an
employee who did very well what his seniors asked him to do!
lopaborah
@AdarshVRaj @lopaborah If a leader is the one who commands, then he is not a

leader, he is a dictator...
well, a leader is the one who is driven by a goal with a purpose.. and an intellectual is
the one who dives the deep ocean one end to another but do not claim that he has
conquered the ocean.... Rest, live it to you to understand...
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38 Things A Common Man Wants The Next Government To Do.
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