| Why it is wrong to expect Dr Manmohan Singh to try to become one
SANKARSHAN THAKUR IT IS something LK Advani needed to be a shade embarrassed about, but then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh bailed him out in a rare moment of cleverness — Advaniji was too nervous about what’s going to happen in Gujarat, he’s hurried to get himself enthroned, the PM told the press in Ahmedabad. He had, of course, meant it as a barb at Advani’s insecurities
on the leadership question, but in effect the PM had stung his own party hard in the heat of campaign. To mock Advani for being in an unseemly rush to get himself anointed prime ministerial candidate before the Gujarat results were out was surely also to admit fatal midcampaign concessions in Gujarat, it was to admit that Narendra Modi was riding back to power. Irrespective of whatever happens next week in Gujarat, the PM has already given the plate over to the adversary. And sure enough, Advani was quick to pounce on it and begin to preen when he should have been sheepish about the timing of his anointment. There could not have been a worse time for the PM to put his political naivete on display. But it is nothing to mock or laugh at. Manmohan Singh is not a political creature and it is foolish now to expect him to turn into one. He just does not possess that gene. And it is for the lack of that political gene that he was made PM in the first place. Sonia Gandhi would not trust anyone who can play the game. She has an embarrassment of political talent in her stables — Arjun Singh, Pranab Mukherjee, Digvijay Singh, ND Tiwari to name just a few of the lead horses. But does any of them stand a chance to be picked for the top job as long as Sonia Gandhi is doing the picking? Chance would be a fine thing. And should Manmohan Singh actually spring a political gene suddenly and begin to behave like a mover-shaker, he will begin to lose trust where it matters. It could well be that the PM was trying to answer demands from within the party to turn “more political”, especially as general elections approach, but then that is an unfair demand to make on him. Here’s a man whose essential talents lie in governance. Here’s a man put there because in Sonia Gandhi’s scheme of things, there should exist a diarchy — administration with the PM, politics with the party. Whatever the merits of such a scheme, that’s where Manmohan Singh has been lodged. Can’t suddenly expect a square peg to fit into a round hole. |
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From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 4, Issue 50, Dated Dec 29, 2007
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