It will be a long wait to find someone like Manmohan Singh
Manmohan Singh’s personality proves that oxymorons are alive and kicking in Indian politics and that seeming paradoxes can succeed beyond imagination
Dr Singh, or MMS as per the acronym frequently used for him, was a rare species in public life, precisely because he was not a “politician”, a respectable word which has progressively fallen into disrepute, disrepair and degradation, especially in India. His list of sterling qualities of head and heart started with his innate humility. It never left him, through the zooming trajectory which took him from being a refugee from Gah in Pakistan, reading books under streetlights, to envious educational paths at both Cambridge and Oxford, to academia in Delhi School of Economics and at prestigious institutions abroad, to foreign trade adviser with Lalit Narayan Mishra, to chief economic adviser to the government, to deputy chair of the erstwhile Planning Commission, to governor of RBI, to finance minster during the watershed years for a new economic India, and finally, to two terms as PM! MMS dedicated his life to the service of the nation, and the nation celebrated him as few others in the history of independent India. Since his public achievements are well known, let me write about my personal and anecdotal reminisces as they reflect the quality of this great man.
His humility included getting up and receiving any visitor, irrespective of rank, even as a sitting PM. He unfailingly phoned to thank me after delivering speeches where, on many occasions, he had sought my inputs and drafts. He would boost my ego by graciously adding that he was happy to ask me even at short notice because he would rarely find it necessary to alter my drafts. There was no need for him to do anything of the sort, but it came to him naturally.
When I asked him to write the forewords to my two books (collections of articles in Hindustan Times and other newspapers titled Candid Corner and Straight Talk), a few years apart, he hesitated just momentarily, because his second trait, honed by years of government service, was to go by the rules, as far as possible. When reassured that neither protocol nor rules were being violated by a sitting PM, he readily wrote two great and appreciative forewords and always remembered to ask me regarding my writings.
Thirdly, when convinced of something, MMS was clear headed and firm beyond consequences. His unbending stand with the Left and, indeed, within sections of the Congress party, during the nuclear 123 deal, is well known. His tensile inner strength on something he genuinely believed was good for India, led him to cross the Rubicon on that one. Fortunately, it worked out well in the end. What is lesser known is how he micromanaged the whole issue. The nuclear 123 issue led to two parliamentary debates, many months apart. They were the most important and most controversial of those times. On both occasions, he personally intervened — something PMs rarely do or even know about — to ensure that I opened the debate for the treasury benches in the Rajya Sabha both times. He then ensured that the then rising star of the foreign office, Shivshankar Menon, was tasked to brief me comprehensively. He cut through the usual intraparty politics which decides, frequently wrongly or inappropriately, the choice of the opening speaker in any debate, much more so for the debate of the decade.
Fourthly, what most persons misconceive, is that MMS ceded ground easily and readily or that he agreed immediately to party diktats. Possibly, MMS got his way more times that the other way around. Not only the nuclear deal, but MMS had the knack of getting what he wanted on issues which mattered to him (though his ask list was never over ambitious or too long). But if he got his service appointments, political appointments, economic policies and core decisions through, it was no doubt because of his strong convictions but even more so for the hugely deferential, accommodative and highly supportive presence of Sonia Gandhi. I once told the latter, not entirely jocularly, that while Sonia ji could afford to be dictatorial, since she was the unchallenged master of the party, she was excessively democratic in her decision-making. As far as MMS was concerned, her deference and regard for him extended from the smallest to the highest. For example, at a dinner at the Ashoka, she was walking out with me, when suddenly she turned to me and asked me to check if MMS had departed. It had not entered my mind but she then waited patiently till the PM walked to the door a full 10 minutes later. She also forbade her staff to hurry him up. It was ultimately her decision which led to unqualified support for the nuclear deal.
Fifthly, the MMS personality proves that oxymorons are alive and kicking in Indian politics and that seeming paradoxes can succeed beyond imagination. He taught you the value of substance over form; of understatement over ostentation; of solidity over glamour; of the possibility of introvertedness succeeding over fake bonhomie in politics; of principles over expediency; of precision & accuracy over rhetoric & jumla; and of decency over cleverness. He also proves that simplicity and incorruptibility are not oxymorons in Indian politics; that straightforwardness and deviousness need not be the calling card of all politicians; that unelectability need not be a vice but may well underline several virtues of one who has not succumbed to the vicissitudes of populist pressure; and that the public does and & appreciate such alternative personas.
India will have a long wait to find another person as extraordinary as MMS.
(*Fourth Term MP; Jurist; former Chair, Parliamentary Standing Committees on Commerce, Law & Home ; Member, Congress Working Comm; former Additional Solicitor General of India; senior National Spokesperson, Congress; Chair, Cong Department on Law, Human Rights & RTI. Views are personal.)