Comparisons, they say, are odious, but they are made all the time. Nobody has made them more than the right-wing establishment of the past ten or so years; and with abrasive insistence.
So, here are a few things that our current prime minister might have usefully imbibed from the governing example of the noble and spartan Manmohan Singh:
- that it is possible to deliver “growth” and “development” at high levels without impairing the system of constitutional democracy;
- that an average GDP growth rate over ten years of 8% could be attained by a government whose main political component had less than 240 seats in parliament;
- that this could be done without lamenting the frequent elections that take place in the republic, without seeking more than 400 seats in the Lok Sabha, and without preparing to strike a mortal blow at the representational prerogatives of “we the people” and of the states by shifting to a single election every five years;
- that it is not enough to be prostrate at the portals of parliament to the accompaniment of cameras, but that the executive numero uno must never be seen to be creating a PR opp for himself with a prominent Bollywood family while parliament is debating the state of the Constitution – of which “parliamentary democracy” is one of the unamendable “basic features”; (just to recall, that the late Manmohan Singh was seen attending parliament even in a wheelchair, and the late Jawahar Lal Nehru cancelling his foreign trip in order to be available for questioning in parliament);
- that you could hold some 100 press conferences over a ten year tenure, never seek scripted questions, answer all questions without mock, without levity, without abuse, without impatience, and without sophistry, and still deliver growth at 8% ;
- that you could look upon the political opposition in the country and in parliament not as enemies and unpatriotic security risks but as compatriots in common causes with ideas that differed from yours, and still deliver growth at 8%;
- that you could be spartan and poetically vernacular in your pajama/kurta and yet be the cynosure of world leaders without seeking or gloating in their accreditation, and without commercial back-up worth unconscionable sums of money;
- that when accusations come to be hurled against your people, you can let institutions of state take their own course, and wait for exoneration from the judiciary; exactly what transpired in the matter of the allegations in the so-called coal scam, instead of screaming treason or nudging official agencies to look the other way;
- that you could continue to deliver 8% growth rate without seeking “double engine” sarkars in all states of the Union, and without either coercing or buying up political adversaries;
- that your self-esteem or desired place in history need not require rubbishing all that and all those that went before;
- that you could provide example to keep in place the pluralist ethos of our composite culture, rather than make politic dog whistles from time to time while also pretending that all Indians are one and the same to you;
- that you could make certain at all times correct information be provided to the nation on the basis of statistics and data never to be doubted;
- that you could avoid drawing capital from your humble beginnings, refusing to press such narratives into political one-upmanship, while remaining hand-in-glove with the richest and the mightiest; no one had humbler beginnings than Manmohan Singh with the exception perhaps of the late Lal Bahadur Shastri;
- that when it came time for you to leave the stage, you do so without fanfare, without grouse, and without risking the credibility of the constitutional order; and much more.
Thus, be it in the matter of economic growth or in preserving the letter and spirit of democracy, Manmohan Singh left us a rich legacy, one that we could do well to emulate in the days to come.
A word to those amongst us who are leftists – We despise capitalism with good reason, but we have not yet provided a credible and workable alternative.
That the regime of Manmohan Singh was cognisant of how “reforms” could run riot and trample underfoot the unprotected, labouring citizens is evidenced by the scheme of legally-enforceable rights they inscribed into the laws and the constitution.
Hard as the subsequent regime has wanted to dismantle that edifice of rights to enable a cronyism to go berserk, at least, like the other liberties still enshrined in the constitution we still can battle to obtain the fulfilment of the right to information, to work, to food, to education, with the judicial branch of state obliged to make the executive answerable on these counts.
Badri Raina taught at Delhi University.
This piece was first published on The India Cable – a premium newsletter from The Wire & Galileo Ideas – and has been updated and republished here. To subscribe to The India Cable, click here.
