The Underachiever PM

By Subodh Jain:

“Dr. Manmohan Singh is the first Sikh Prime Minister of India who has spent a long career as a bureaucrat. The Indian Prime Minister is described as a sophisticated former economist, who has played a key role in the country’s emergence as one of the rising powers of the 21st century, engineering the transition from stagnant socialism to a Spectacular takeoff in the global economy.” This is what you will read in almost every article regarding Dr. Manmohan Singh.

However, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, has been dubbed as an “underachiever” by a top US magazine which says he appears “unwilling to stick his neck out” on reforms that will put the country back on growth path. So the question stands, how true is it and how accurate?

Formerly he has been the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (1982-85), Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission (1985-87), Minister of External Affairs (2005-06), and Minister of Finance (2008-09). With these various feathers in his hat, Dr. Manmohan Singh, was chosen as the Prime Minister in a coalition government of the UPA comprising of 14 different ideologically led political parties, which might be a bottle neck in taking decision and implementing outright.

79-year-old Mr. Singh is currently into his seventh year in office. He is seen as one of the leaders who has won respect and is described as “the leader other leaders love” for his sincerity and honesty. He is not a crafty and shrewd politician but a successful official, who has worked at various important posts. He is polite in nature, simple, plain, far from deceit and stratagem. In the 90’s, during the era of liberalization he steered the Indian economy to greater heights and brought the country in the global map with social, economic and political developments. He has led the country amidst turbulent global down trends. He has been a hallmark of national pride and prestige as an individual as well as a statesman.

Today the same dynamic persona is termed as the underachiever. No doubt, there are many reasons to support the fact that in previous 3 years, the UPA government has failed in many backgrounds. Country is facing severe economical setbacks. But not a single person is to be blamed for this. And one might suggest by mere opinion that a virtual comparison of different P.M’s at different times and situations is the most likely basis, but there is no 100% realistic parameters to judge and say that hypothetically there exists another P.M who is universally successful.