Manmohan Singh – remembering India’s ‘kind leader’ with a steely resolve

The prospect of a disgraced politician is hard to imagine. Except that politician is Manmohan Singh.

Starting from The death of the former Prime Minister of India on Thursday, much has been said about the “kind and soft-spoken politician” who changed Indian history and it has touched the lives of millions of people.

His state funeral is being held on Saturday and the Indian government has announced a seven-day mourning period.

Despite his high-profile career – he was the governor of India’s central bank and federal finance minister before becoming prime minister – Singh was not seen as a great politician, indifferent to many of his colleagues.

Although he gave interviews and held press conferences, especially in his first term as prime minister, he chose to remain silent even when his government was in trouble or when his ministers faced corruption charges.

His polite ways were mocked and loved in equal measure.

Admirers said he was conservative not to choose unnecessary battles or making lofty promises and that they only focus on results – perhaps that was best demonstrated by trade changes he became the finance minister which opened India’s economy to the world.

“I don’t think anyone in India believes that Manmohan Singh can do anything wrong or commit fraud,” he said His former Congress colleague, Kapil Sibal, said,. “He was very conservative, and he always wanted to be on the right side of the law.”

His critics, on the other hand, derided him, saying that he showed the kind of chaos unbecoming of a politician, let alone the president of a country of over one billion people. His voice – wet and breathy, almost like a tired whisper – is often a joke.

But the same speech was also appealing to many of his allies in a political world where loud and boisterous speech was common.

Singh’s image as a shy, egotistical, arrogant politician has not left him, even as his contemporaries, including his own party members, have also undergone major changes.

However, the dignity with which he handled every situation, even the difficult ones, was what made him unforgettable.

Born into a poor family in what is now Pakistan, Singh was India’s first Sikh Prime Minister. His personal story – that of a Cambridge and Oxford-educated economist who overcame incredible odds to rise to the top – combined with his image as an honest and thoughtful leader, has already made him a hero to India’s middle class.

But in 2005, he shocked everyone when he publicly apologized in parliament for the 1984 riots in which nearly 3,000 Sikhs were killed.

The riots, in which several members of the Congress party were accused, began after the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and her Sikh bodyguards. One of them later said he had shot a Congress politician in revenge for military action he had ordered against separatists who had taken refuge in Sikhism’s holiest temple in northern India’s Amritsar.

This was a bold move – no other minister, including the Congress party, went so far as to apologise. But it gave healing to the Sikh community and politicians across the board respect him for his bravery.

A few years later, in 2008, Singh’s less-than-stellar administration was widely praised after he signed a landmark deal with the US that ended India’s decades-long nuclear isolation, allowing India to acquire nuclear technology and oil for the first time since its first attempt. in 1974.

The deal was strongly opposed by opposition leaders and Singh’s allies, who feared it would undermine India’s foreign policy. Singh, however, managed to save his government and the alliance.

The period of 2008-2009 also experienced the global financial crisis but Singh’s policies were known to protect India from it.

In 2009, he led his party to a stunning victory and came back as Prime Minister for a second term, putting his image as a good leader, or rather, an interesting idea that leaders. he can be kind.

For many, he became a good man, a “reluctant Prime Minister” who did not appear and refused to do anything extraordinary, and was not afraid to take bold decisions for the future of his country.

Then things started to go wrong.

A series of corruption scandals – first the hosting of the Commonwealth Games, then the illegal allocation of coal fields – plagued the Congress party and the Singh government. Some of the corruption stories were later found to be untrue or exaggerated. Other cases from this period are still pending in the courts.

But Singh was already under pressure. During his tenure, he made several attempts to reconcile with India’s arch-rival Pakistan, hoping to end the decades-old diplomatic relationship.

This method was widely requested in 2008 when a fear A terrorist group from Pakistan killed 171 people in the city of Mumbai.

A 60-hour siege, one of the deadliest in the country’s history, opened up a flurry of lawsuits, while critics blamed the government’s “softness” on terrorism for the tragedy.

In the years to come, some of Singh’s decisions backfired badly.

In 2011, an anti-corruption movement led by grassroots activist Anna Hazare toppled the Singh government. The frail 72-year-old became a symbol of the middle class, as he demanded stricter laws against corruption in the country.

As a central hero, Singh had to deal with Hazare’s demands strategically. Instead, the Prime Minister tried to break up the movement, allowing the police to arrest Hazare and end his protests.

This move made him hate many people. People who once admired his down-to-earth style wondered if he had misjudged the politician and began to see his quiet ways with an ungenerous eye.

The feeling was heightened the following year when Singh refused to comment on the brutal gang rape and murder of a girl in Delhi for more than a week.

To make matters worse, India’s economic growth was slowing. Corruption increased and jobs decreased, leading to public anger. And Singh’s unassuming personality, which once made everything seem like a revelation, has been known to show indifference, frustration and arrogance with others.

However, Singh never tried to defend himself or explain himself and was quietly condemned.

This lasted until 2014. In an unprecedented press conference, he announced that he would not seek a third term in office.

But he also tried to make things right. “I sincerely hope that history will judge me more kindly than today’s media, or at least, the opposition parties in parliament did,” he said, citing some of the best achievements of his tenure.

He was right.

As it turned out, the Congress, or Singh, could not recover the damage they had lost the elections to the BJP. But despite many obstacles, Singh’s image as a compassionate and insightful leader has stuck with him.

Throughout his tenure as prime minister and despite the fact that he had a controversial second term, he was considered honorable and loyal.

His policies are seen as middle-class and poor – he agreed to increase the wages of middle class workers, keep the inflation rate down and start. strong plans for education and work.

It may not have been enough to lift him out of political trouble or protect him from other failures of his career.

But his shame added to it; he was a determined leader.