Though many large scale scams had their origin in the
first term of Manmohan Singh as prime-minister of India, more or less, he delivered a
good five years to the country till 2009.
Not on ground, but at least in perception, it was there.
It can be rendered safely so given the aftermath his
second term in the prime-ministerial has created where nothing genuine seems to
get its run, have its due. Instead, his machinery is put to crush or manipulate
event and activities whenever any dissenting voice raises its pitch.
Since 2009, it has been a shocking downfall that washes whatever
good that was there in his first term.
Once, he was used to be known as the man of integrity.
Once, he was used to be known as the man of economic
wisdom capable enough to handle a poor country’s resources for the optimum
utilization.
Once, he was seen as sincere and pro- to ‘the common man’,
the mascot that his party (the Indian National Congress) always exploited to be
in the power corridors but seldom looked to work for the its betterment.
Once, it seemed the apolitical man in him would see the
writing on the wall and would do something concrete, something un-Congress
party type, on the ground to reach out and help the ‘miserable aam aadmi’.
Instead, he himself has washed out every such notion.
Instead, he himself has decimated every such hope.
The history is long but even if we take in some of the recent
political events, they are more than enough to corroborate of what has become
of Manmohan Singh – a shocking downfall of a persona.
He is doing every thing that rightly tells us that ‘him
being known as the man of integrity’ was a misplaced public imagery. When he brazenly
endorses the Law Minister Ashwani Kumar on the shameful episode of the Indian
democracy, where an elected representative and a guardian supposed to preserve
the democratic values kills them by calling the investigating agency to his
office to discuss the report being prepared to check his government’s
culpability, it tells us he was always like this because it is not the
standalone event.
He should have asked the Law Minister to go. Instead, we
had this: “There is no question of the law minister resigning. The matter is
now in the court and it is sub judice. Therefore it is not proper for me to do
anything, but there is no question of the law minister resigning.”
See! This has become of Manmohan Singh.
If he is so sincere and honest, why doesn’t he face the
probe and come out clean? But asking such things and expecting that Indian
politicians would abide by them is like reading a peace of history that tells
us that Adolf Hitler organized a supper for the Jews at his house in 1939.
Instead, there are more sorry developments for the Indian
democracy that has elevated Manmohan Singh to the highest governance office of
the country.
His party’s chosen yes-man, P C Chacko who is heading the (JPC)
Joint Parliamentary group to probe the massive 2G Spectrum Allocation scam has again
shot down every democratic value in giving the clean chits to Manmohan Singh
and P Chidambaram in one of India’s
biggest loots.
But, Manmohan Singh is justifying the act.
He justifies why he didn’t think to appear before the JPC.
He justifies the ill-placed notion that there was no need
for it.
If he has been so honest, he could have easily cleared his
name by appearing in person. Okay, he might not be the actual beneficiary of
the scam, but his silence over the years, when the scam was in making, and his
refusal to come to the talking board to answer and clear out the suspicion tells
us that something is fishy.
It tells us that this is not the person what he was told
to be in 2004.
Mr. Manmohan Singh, the prime minister of India was
supposed to be an efficient executive leading the country of over a billion
people to the future of growth and prosperity. No one would have expected (in
2004) that he would become a favourite outlet for satirists and jokes.
Unfortunately the later prospect has gained the ground now.