Manmohan Singh defends his abysmal record
If there is any positive takeaway from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Press conference — a rare event — on Friday, it is that he will not be the Prime Minister if the UPA returns to power after the 2014 general election. He has done enough damage to the country's governance, economic climate and foreign relations to deserve a third term. In any case, it's just as well that Mr Singh has opted out of the race because the UPA is most unlikely to form another Government at the Centre.
But what is amazing is that even in his twilight moment, the Prime Minister refuses to recognise the weak leadership he has given the country, which has in turn plunged the nation into multiple crises. Quite the contrary, he believes, laughably, that history will judge him more kindly than both the media and the Opposition have. He can have his illusions, but the fact is that, let alone the country, even his own party does not want him at the helm any longer than is absolutely necessary.
The continuing and growing clamour within the rank and file of the Congress for vice president Rahul Gandhi to be declared the prime ministerial candidate is testimony to the mounting despair in the party over Mr Singh's leadership of the Government. But the Prime Minister interprets none of this as his shortcoming and insists that he has done a wonderful job. Worse, Mr Singh has refused to accept his Government's failure to check inflation and price rise and enhance employment opportunities, although he does admit — he has no choice given the stark reality — that these are matters that have seriously engaged the regime. He has attributed inflation to rising prices and has linked rising prices to ‘global' factors. Thus, lo and behold, he and his Government are not to blame for the plight of the common man and the economy.
The Prime Minister's brazen dodging tactics do not stop here. To a question on the hit that his reputation has taken as a consequence of the 2G Spectrum and the coal block allocation scams, Mr Singh had a shocking rejoinder. Pointing out that the two scandals happened during the UPA1 regime, he has claimed that since the people voted the UPA back to power for a second term in 2009, they did not consider the scams to be as serious as the Opposition or the media have made them out to be. Besides being a poor defence, the explanation also demonstrates the deep arrogance that has set into the party and the UPA Government. Mr Singh seems to forget that it is the cumulative impact of those scams coupled with rising prices which has led to the Congress's rout in the four States which went to polls only recently. His own State party leaders have acknowledged as much.
It is amusing that Mr Singh, with a pathetic track record that assures him a place among the worst Prime Ministers the country has had, should believe that Mr Narendra Modi would be “disastrous” for the nation if the latter were to head a Government at the Centre. Unlike Mr Singh, the BJP's prime ministerial nominee has an established record of good governance as Chief Minister of Gujarat and the ability to communicate effectively with the people. Neither Mr Singh nor any Congress Chief Minister can match it. It is Mr Modi’s proven best that the people of the country are looking forward to.