The Irony Of Being Manmohan Singh

At the onset; I really don’t agree with Team Anna when they say our Prime-Minister is corrupt. For me it is at least one silver lining on the engulfing dark UPA cloud is the clean image of the person who is pretending to lead a bunch of entities who on any given day can loot their own parents and children without a hint of remorse; let alone the nation and its citizens. At least there is one person among the lot in the ruling coalition, whom we can safely associate with various adjectives like lethargic, ineffective, useless, hopeless or for that matter even a headless chicken but not corrupt. I am not sure if he is not corrupt because of his strong moral or shy enough to come forward and loot himself amidst the notorious kind of thugs that fill his cabinet; but whatever the reason it may be he still is clean or at least comparatively clean (for his diehard critics).

Few days back a friend asked me, what would be the first thing I will do if I made the PM of this nation? I don’t know how but it came pretty spontaneously – ‘I will resign the next second if I am told to fill in Dr. Manmohan Singh’s shoes’. I am sure I can’t be an exception with the kind of reply that I delivered as I am quite confident there won’t be many who would fancy themselves in the position that is Dr. Singh currently in. I would be heavily surprised if I see mothers passionately dreaming their kids growing up to become the PM of this nation in future if the PM of the world’s largest democracy has to be the kind that Dr. Singh has molded or forced himself into. The repeated inaction or the missing intent on the part of our PM to catch the bull by the horns in matter related to corruption among his colleagues, national security, foreign policies, our economy or even social equality has made Dr. Singh the kind of PM that any democracy (even Pakistan) should be better off without. While the urge of the hour was for the PM being the CEO of the nation to stand up and take tough and uncomfortable decisions, Dr. Singh always invariably looked the other way and allowed the mess to pile up so much so that as a nation we now stink from every corner. What else one can term the enormous number of scams involving money laundering to the tune that nobody ever imagined is possible? How one can explain why the thugs who looted the nation so rampantly were never taken to task early but rather allowed to even settle down with their loot? How it can be digested that the PM himself was completely unaware of the loot till some media thrown open the can of worms? How one can tolerate the hogwash that been carried out on the apprehended scoundrels in the name of some shoddy investigation, the result of which is nothing but the highway robbers getting bail one after another so systematically?

Admitted, it is Manmohan Singh who is always blamed for the fault of his cabinet; admitted, it is Dr. Singh who having no hand in the pan-India loot but yet questioned of his own ethics and moral; admitted it is the PM who always was kept in the firing line for mistakes done by others but shouldn’t it be that way? Shouldn’t the nation be unforgiving towards individuals or institutions if they commit hara-kiri which at the end of the day affects the nation at large? Shouldn’t Dr. Singh be blamed, for he being the PM and yet allowing the mess to pile up right under his nose. Shouldn’t he be questioned for his inaction against the corrupt even after repeated urge of the nation? Shouldn’t he be held responsible and accountable for all the wrong meted out to the citizenry by his own ministers while he himself remained oblivious of the state of affairs by design?

A close inspection of Manmohan Singh of last eight years would give you jitters if you are a strong believer in democracy. For him all that he is not ordered to look at or talk about cease to exist. Be it corruption or nepotism or even issues of burning importance, it is always has to be ordered by his high-command before he takes a stock of the situation. For him arrogance of his own men and highhandedness of few like Kapil Sibal or Digvijay Singh doesn’t matter. Establishing an international political clout doesn’t hold much importance for him. The savaged state of our healthcare or our education system is a non-issue for him. Falling standard of governance and rampant corruption in every stage of our government never bothered him. Art and culture going haywire has never featured in his list of agendas. Sabotage of fundamental rights and freedom of expression has never let him lose his sleep. Our investments getting into a situation of naught is not of that importance. Food prices already going through our roofs is something which is exaggerated by useless people like us. Frog leap growth of our neighbor China in comparison to us is never alarming to him. In fact all that hampers the growth of the nation are non-important issue for him. The odd times we saw him getting involved are issues concerning foreign policies and that too which involves trade and commerce. Even in that sector we are struggling to stand tall as our economy is already nose diving at an alarming rate. An economist PM who once was been hailed as a man with some courageous vision is now struggling not only to hold his own government together but also our rapidly thinning out economy.

Time and again our prime-Minister has failed the nation and himself in last nine years. Whether it is because of his lack of leadership qualities or he being told to behave like a lackluster leader; it always has been a pain for the populace to see their PM all dressed up with a neatly tucked turban and going absolutely nowhere. Be it his style and authority of governance or his confidence in coming before the nation to discuss the issues or put his viewpoints forward, it always has been lot to be desired. It is always been a shocker for the nation to observe the dismal amount of clout he enjoys among his own ministers or the amount of respect he commands from his subordinates. Time and again he has been taken granted by one and all on issues where he himself has clarified the nation earlier. Be it the promise he made to Anna Hazare on bringing a Strong Lokpal bill in 100 days or the absolute cleansing work with 100 days or even that promise of setting right the inflation within three months; his words were always been dumped to dustbin by his own men. Little talked about that ‘We Care Damn’ about our cabinet head and the grossly unacceptable nonchalant behavior of the UPA members towards what their boss has to say is better. Time and again it is people like Rahul Gandhi having no substance, quality, qualification or standard have dictated their terms on him and arm-twisted him to agree on an entire reverse direction to what he has promised to the nation half an hour back. He is time and again humiliated and was forced to eat his own words since it would have heart the personal interest of few, had it been the other way. The nation can go to hell for all that anything matters. In nutshell - Our PM is a puppet in the hands of how many even God might not be aware of.

That said I can’t blame Dr. Singh entirely. A Television set doesn’t play the channel of its choice by its own but what you press on the remote to view. A TV set can’t act, react or even oppose even if you wish to view porn movies on it, though it is an utterly filthy thing to do. A TV set doesn’t show emotions if you press the mute button since you feel it is making too much noise for comfort. For me our PM is nothing better than a Television set, if not worse. A kind of TV set which is installed specifically and intentionally by few so that he can be used as a rubberstamp before the world. He is made dumb, deaf and powerless by design so that he can easily be blamed for anything and everything and most important, can be dumped in the nearest gutter when time comes without any objection whatsoever. He is fabricated to look the other way for every loot that is accomplished so that the real power centers can fill their black money accounts elsewhere. In nutshell, he is ordered to act like a retard all the time with exceptions when he is told to open his mouth announce his innocence and lack of knowledge when the corrupts are in the dock.

Truly; Being a Manmohan Singh could easily be the toughest job in the world since you are not only expected to behave like Ghajni all the time but also your acting skills need to look tremendously natural to even shame the likes of Nana Patekar. I feel pity on Dr. Singh than being angry or worried. God help the poor fellow.