Manmohan Singh has at least one distinction
Stung by the latest slew of allegations that Mr Manmohan Singh failed to assert himself as Prime Minister in the face of scams and corruptions that hit his Government, and that he remained remote-controlled by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, the party has swung to contain the damage. If the recently published books written by Mr Sanjaya Baru and Mr PC Parakh have presented the Prime Minister in a sorry light, the Bharatiya Janata Party has added to the Congress's discomfiture by using the revelations to reiterate that Mr Singh was the weakest Prime Minister the country has had since independence. Soon after veteran BJP leader lK Advani reminded the people that he had long ago opined about the Prime Minister what many are saying today, the Congress tried to gain lost ground by counter-claiming that Mr Atal Bihar Vajpayee had been the weakest Prime Minister. A spokesperson of the party took pains to suggest that Mr Vajpayee had proved weak in, among other things, taking necessary action against Mr Narendra Modi after violence rocked Gujarat in early 2002. The Congress simply cannot see beyond Gujarat 2002. In its zeal to paint Mr Vajpayee as the “weakest” Prime Minister, the party forgot that just days ago it had been praising the former Prime Minister to the skies, in a bid to run down Mr Modi. Nobody is going to be carried away by the Congress's slander against Mr Vajpayee's regime, which bipartisan observers consider as among the best the country has had.
The problem for the Congress is that comparisons are not going to wash the taint of submissiveness to Congress president Sonia Gandhi and inaction in the face of scams that Mr Singh has collected in his tenure. Nor can the constant spin that the Prime Minister is a “good” man and that people took advantage of his “goodness”, sound any more convincing. Just as the book by Mr Baru, who was Mr Singh's hand-picked media adviser, has revealed the Prime Minister's subordination to his party's president, former Coal Secretary, Mr Parakh's book, Crusader or ConspiratorIJ Coalgate and Other Truths, has pointed out that had the Prime Minister asserted his authority, the massive coal block allocation scam could have been averted. Both Mr Baru and Mr Parakh have essentially made the same point, which is: Mr Singh chose to become captive to vested interests in and outside the Government, and showed no spine to act against the wrong-doers. He could have spoken out, and he could have quit if his voice was not heard. He chose to do nothing instead, and clung on to his position — as if that alone mattered the most.
It is difficult to understand how the Congress can defend these allegations. One tactic it has adopted is to cast aspersions on the authors and question the timing of the release of the books. Both are dubious measures and do nothing to address the key issues that the books have raised. On the contrary, the more the party demonises the authors, the more it will sound desperate. It is also ironical that the Congress, whose leadership clearly did everything within its means to demean the office of the Prime Minister, should now be scurrying to suppress the stink and portray Mr Singh in good light.