Manmohan Singh could have been more honest to himself, nation

Once upon a time, not so long ago - much before India had even heard of Arvind Kejriwal - Manmohan Singh was a middle class hero. In the closing months of 2008, India suffered two body blows: the first from the global economic crisis (it was the first time that the middle class LOST jobs) and the second one in the form of 26/11, when terror quite literally stalked the streets. In its most vulnerable moment since the tumultuous early 1990s, India chose to give a resounding mandate to the mild-mannered economist by electing him to rule for another five years in the summer of 2009. Like Narendra Modi now, LK Advani the BJP’s then PM candidate had targeted Singh as a “weak” Prime Minister. But India chose the honest economist, trusting his personal integrity and technocratic competence to steady and lead the ship of state.

There may have been no Arvind Kejriwal if Manmohan Singh had seized his mandate. Manmohan, not Arvind, would have represented the clean (one of us) politician middle India wanted. Instead, Manmohan Singh spent the next five years giving honesty and economists a bad name. Never has a Government been so corrupt, so utterly incompetent in managing the economy as UPA 2 has.

Today’s press conference was always going to be too late to do a course correction. But Manmohan Singh could have been more honest to India as he announced his retirement from Government post the General Election. He was honest when he said the Indo-US nuclear deal was the best moment of his time in office. But he was dishonest when he said he had not thought about the worst moments. Even the most successful politicians have their troughs. If indeed he never ever thought of resigning as he claimed in the press conference today, then he hasn’t been honest to himself. Did he never have a sense of moral responsibility to what was happening around him?

For those who still sympathise with him, Manmohan Singh was simply a fall guy for the Congress party and its first family. Perhaps. But thatdidn’tstop him from making other people and events the excuses for his failures. He continues to blame the global economy for his economic mismanagement. He blames the states for not managing food inflation. He blames coalition pressures for corruption and bad decision making. Not once in his press conference did he admit that he may have been at least somewhat responsible for at least some of these problems. After all, he was the minister-in-charge of Coal when Coalgate happened. It was Congress ministers (not from allied parties) Jairam Ramesh and Jayanthi Natrajan who stalled project clearances. He was their boss, the Prime Minister. Slowdown in economic growth may be a global problem, but what about inflation which seems particularly acute in India?

At this stage, Manmohan Singh has nothing to lose, except five more months in office. He could have said so much more than he did. But then is his obsession with history - he mentioned it several times in his presser - simply about numbers, the number 10 in particular?

Any historian would tell him that historyisn’tonly about facts and figures but their interpretation too? And while Manmohan Singh would go down in history as one of India’s longest serving Prime Ministers, his list of achievements will be much shorter. In the end he may be less known for what he did, than he what he left behind: a country in a mess.