Prime Minister, when will you speak?

The year was 1991, India was in a deep economic crisis and we urgently needed some major economic reforms. The Government was close to default, its central bank had refused new credit and foreign exchange reserves had reduced to such a point that India could barely finance three weeks’ worth of imports. India had to airlift its gold reserves to pledge it with IMF for a loan.

It was then, when Dr. Manmohan Singh as the Finance Minister decided to unleash a new set of bold reforms to bail India out. Quoting Victor Hugo, he said: "No power on earth can stop an idea whose time has come. I suggest to this august House that the emergence of India as a major economic power in the world happens to be one such idea. Let the whole world hear it loud and clear. India is now wide awake. We shall prevail. We shall overcome."

I guess, that was perhaps the only time he really spoke, spoke for the Nation.

Ever since Manmohan Singh was appointed (mind you not elected) as the Prime Minister, he has been nothing but a big disappointment be it Economics or Political front. Apart from the RTI Act, RTE & the Indo-US Nuclear Deal there is not much of a contribution from the much hyped Economist over the last 8 years. 

In the UPA-1 with the Left constantly carping about the policy the government always appeared to stumble but never did. The constant threat of the Left Parties kept the team together. Be it the disinvestment reforms or the much required Indo-US Nuclear Deal, Govt. was finding it hard to convince Left parties of the merits. Eventually, the government had to let go off the Left’s support. The Prime Minister smiled, for he had ensured that the Nuclear deal goes through for it had become a matter of his personal integrity. 

Even though MMS hadn’t achieved anything significant in his first term as the PM, the UPA was voted back because of the doles rolled out by the government in the guise of MGNREGA scheme & as the people didn’t see any other alternative.

 

Now in UPA-2, with the Left gone Manmohan Singh thought the field was clear for him to star. Also, the expectations from the young new faces & the dream Economics Team (Manmohan Singh, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, and Pranab Mukherjee) was huge. UPA-2 was being seen as a beacon of hope by many as lots of promising youngsters were inducted as first time Ministers & many pro-development reforms were promised. 

But the reality turned out to be drastically different. Many of the scams that were at a nascent stage during UPA-1 began to surface one by one with the CAG as the watchdog. CWG, Adarsh Housing Society Scam, 2G Scam (1.76 Lakh Crores), and Coal Scam were many of the scams that shook the country. The guilty - Suresh Kalmadi, Vilasrao Deshmukh, A.Raja, Chidambaram (though yet to be indicted) had one thing in common – they all enjoyed the Prime Minister’s confidence. The Prime Minister maintained a 'dignified' silence over all the scams and it was only when the situation turned so grim that the Judiciary had to intervene to set things right.

Because of these scams not only did India’s image took a beating globally, but also our dream of becoming a superpower was crushed. The GDP which supposed to touch the magic double figure touched 6.9% down from 8.4% in 2010-11. The Supreme Court in a groundbreaking judgment cancelled all the 122 2G licenses that were issued by the UPA-1. This has not only shaken the domestic investors but also the foreign investors. We have been ranked 132 out of 183 countries in terms of the domestic regulatory environment for doing business. We have been hit on all the fronts – FDI is seeing a downward trend, economy is returning back to the Hindu growth rate, inflation has been at an all-time high & deficits are soaring with every passing day. In order to mitigate the effects of these scams on their vote bank, the UPA has been indulging in unbridled populism. The Government's total subsidy bill for 2011-12 is a huge Rs.1.44 lakh crore, which makes up 33 per cent of the difference between the Government's expenditure and revenue! The same government which has been doling out generous subsidies hasn’t done a thing to get back the crores of black money that has been stashed abroad. 

The instances where Manmohan Singh has kept quiet are far too many to be ignored. He kept quiet when the Home Ministry cracked down on Ramdev and his supporters late night at Ram Lila Maidan, he didn’t say a word when Mr. Dinesh Trivedi was asked to quit following his pro-railway reforms, he didn’t do a thing to stop his Govt. from tarnishing his Army Chief’s image, he didn’t speak when A. Raja & P Chidambaram were blatantly misusing their capacity as the Telecom & the Finance Minister to profit certain private companies & he let economics take backseat when NAC was writing benevolent cheques for the massive corrupt schemes. One thing which has been common in all these scams has been that the Prime Minister has always found it convenient to hide behind the coalition dharma, & cite that as the main reason for inaction on his part. Someone needs to remind him that with great power comes great responsibility. Agreed, he is a man of impeccable integrity, but what good is his honesty if he has forgotten his dharma towards his motherland? While most of the politicians are easily blackmailed or threatened, I wonder as to how does one controls MMS? He has the power & authority to take on the corrupt head on, but what makes him shy away from taking any action every time? At the most, he would be asked to resign from the post of PM but at least he gets to leave in a dignified way. My dear Prime Minister, when will you realize this?

The problem with Manmohan Singh is that he sees himself as a helpless economist who lacks courage to take on the powerful who have looted the country of its resources. He sees politics as a dirty field, and he doesn’t really wants to get his hands dirty. Mr. Singh it is not you who should feel helpless, it is we the people who were helpless & thought that you could make a difference. If you loathe politics so much, then why did you become Prime Minister in the first place? If you feel helpless, then why don’t you just ask one of your advisors about the enormous power that your position gives you?

It is a ‘well-known’ secret that it is not the PM, but Sonia Gandhi & her NAC who have been calling the shots for the last 8 years. It is beyond my comprehension as to why doesn’t MMS realizes this simple fact that Sonia enjoys unlimited power with zero accountability but he has zero power with absolute accountability!

 There’s a joke doing rounds for quite some time, the only 2G that Manmohan Singh knows are SoniaG and RahulG. If only he could look beyond.