Manmohan Singh has been the most supine PM
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has trashed the talk of a dual power centre which governs the country as a “useless debate” and a creation of the media. He is wrong on both counts. The debate is very relevant because it determines how the country is governed. Also, the issue is not a creation of the media but it was raised by his senior party leaders, Mr Digvijaya Singh and Mr Janardan Dwivedi. It would be better for Mr Manmohan Singh to acknowledge the reality which is known to everyone in the country — that he is indeed a nominal Prime Minister while the real power lies with Congress president Sonia Gandhi. And, the cause for this perception lies with him. He has failed, even nine years after being in office, to assert his authority on most critical issues. The fact that he seemed to have stood his ground in the first term of prime ministership over the civil nuclear agreement with the US, is often cited as a shining instance of the Prime Minister being his own man. But regardless of his public posturing during those days, the fact also remains that he had secured the consent of the high command for proceeding with the deal before taking a strident position for public consumption. Had it really been the case that Mr Singh had taken on the party, he would have retained the trait of independence in the subsequent days to come. On the contrary, we have seen how he has had to accept various pet schemes of the Congress president — who has been goaded and guided by her National Advisory Council — despite having reservations over their fiscal viability or effective implementation. Being an economist and having presided over declining economic growth, he must surely have known that projects like the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and the proposed right to food legislation are disastrous for the country's financial health. Yet, he has acquiesced in the face of pressure from his party boss. It is one thing to take the party along in matters of governance and another to capitulate before the party president on issues that are thrust on his Government as fait accompli. He has largely done the latter.
The Prime Minister is still hoping to distract the people's attention from his rubber-stamp stature by making brave statements every now and then. He made one such remark a few days ago when he coyly said that a third term for him in case the Congress-led UPA returned to power after the lok Sabha election, is not a closed option. The problem is: Nobody even in his party foresees such a situation. In the same breath, he maintains that he would happily and most promptly make way for Mr Rahul Gandhi if the Nehru-Gandhi scion wanted to become the Prime Minister. Here, of course, he has no choice. The fact is: It's too late for Mr Singh to change his image of being a Prime Minister who is not in charge.