Where is your self-respect, Dr Manmohan Singh?

In the beginning, we had a Prime Minister called Manmohan Singh. When ministers stopped listening to him, we got a powerful PMO instead. The logic was that if people were unwilling to listen to the PM, they would at least listen to his Principal Secretary, Pulok Chatterjee, since he was reported to have the blessings of Sonia Gandhi. For a while, there was a blur of activity in the PMO as Chatterjee pushed and pulled to get various ministries moving towards solutions – especially in the crucial energy sector. But now, even the PMO under Chatterjee appears to have reached the limits of its powers. It has run into a wall. [caption id=“attachment_242201” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Is completing two terms in office as PM more important to him than honour and respect? Reuters”]  [/caption] The ministers who listened are up the creek without a paddle (Consider the Coal Ministry, which has just been threatened legal action by an investor for meddling with coal pricing, an idea pushed by the PMO). The allies who didn’t listen, are cocking a snook at the PMO, never mind collective responsibility or governance. In UPA-1, it was recalcitrant DMK ministers who were a law unto themselves. This time it is the Trinamool Congress under Mamata Banerjee that is behaving abominably. According to The Economic Times, Manmohan Singh and his office have been sending letter after letter to the railway ministry seeking action on two public-private participation projects in Bihar, but there’s no reply. Says the newspaper: “…numerous requests from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) asking the railway ministry to invite or rework financial bids on the two ambitious projects - setting up an electric-engine factory in Madhepura and a diesel-engine factory in Marhowra, both in Bihar - hasn’t generated any kind of response.” Responses to the PMO – both pre-Pulok and post-Pulok – have been a complete stonewalling of requests. A last letter dated 8 February requesting the ministry to “expedite finalisation of the bid documents” and inform the PMO has so far gone unanswered, says the newspaper (Read the full story here). While the details of the railway ministry’s refusal to acknowledge the PM’s (and the PMO’s) authority need not hold us here, this complete denigration of the nation’s highest executive is a crying shame. The real question is this: should Manmohan Singh be a party to destroying the prestige of the most important office in the country? Is the seat he occupies more important than the dignity of the office he holds? Is completing two terms in office as PM more important to him than honour and respect? In the 2G scam, he abjectly surrendered to the bullying of Dayanidhi Maran and A Raja. He did not press for his rights as first among equals when his honour as PM was at stake. If the way Mamata Banerjee’s ministry has treated Manmohan Singh and his office is not a good enough reason for the latter to resign, what is? Manmohan Singh earned our respect when he decided to defy the Left’s bullying tactics on the Indo-US nuclear deal. He is now about to lose it by playing doormat to Mamata Banerjee’s imperious behaviour.