Story of last 100 days….

Manmohan Singh, from a “Hero” to “Tragic figure”

ADITI GYANESH

Last three months of Manmohan Singh’s career is not less than a nightmare for his whole life. All those specialities of being incorrupt and having better command on financial policies have now proven to be the main cause of his downfall.

FDI in retail, price hikes in the country and uneven economic reforms by Manmohan Singh and his ministers has landed him into the position of complete declination. Manmohan Singh being Prime Minister of India is targeted everytime. Bharat Bandh on 20 September by his own supporting members of UPA Government proved that he is alone with his policies and reforms. Public is continuously against his policies then to he is rigid on implementing them, even after so much of protest.

Mamta Banerjee has plugged out her support from the collation government which has brought the UPA II in minority. Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav had also decided to take political alternative and support the government if he does not take rollback on FDI in retail and price hikes.

For all criticism that Singh’s government has received till now on corruption and economic policies were supposed to be his strength throughout his career. Manmohan Singh and his closest advisor Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairperson of planning commission are both economists from Oxford University. P. Chidambaram, finance minister of India is MBA from Harvard University and last but not the least D. Subbarao, Governer of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is former Finance Secretary and World Bank lead Economist. With such gems studded team it is quite difficult to find out the reason why Prime Minister is overseeing the problems like price hike and corruption in country like India, which has one of the major economy in the world and has miserably failed to control the brutal inflation in the country.

After the resignation of former Finance Minister and UPA’s trouble shooter Pranab Mukherjee, time had changed the complete picture of Manmohan Singh and his government in front of the public. Last three months brought many unexpected things in Singh’s life that withered his image completely in front of his people. Price hikes, immeasurable corruption, continuous failing reforms, scams etc. are enough features today, when one starts defining about Indian government. Tags on him like The Underachiever and Tragic Figure, by TIME magazine and Washington post respectively, clearly shows that how rapidly the name and fame of Indian Prime Minister is degrading day by day not only in India but in other countries also.

The US magazine featured Manmohan Singh on the cover of its Asia edition dated July 16, 2012 with the blurb: "The Underachiever. India needs a reboot. Is Prime Minister Manmohan Singh up to the job? The issue came three months after it featured Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on its cover and praised him for development of the state.

The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), reacting promptly, said the magazine's criticism of the prime minister had "reconfirmed" the views of people on the United Progressive Alliance UPA government.

Time magazine also stated when India cannot afford a slowdown in economic growth, "laws that could help create growth and jobs are stuck in Parliament, sparking concerns that politicians have lost the plot in their focus on shorter-term, popular measures that will win votes”. This edition of TIME was out when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh took the charge of Finance Ministry temporarily.

If we compare the two time periods of Manmohan Singh’s life 1991, when he was finance minister in P V Narsimha Rao’s cabinet and 2012, we could clearly see the downfall graph today. It was Manmohan Singh himself who said, in a 1996 interview, that “it is only a crisis that concentrates the mind.” But faced with too many crises to count in second term, the man who helped India in his peak time of economic growth and was known for his capability of solving the problems anytime has lost his command over the financial aesthetics today and has turned down to the image demolished King.  “The fall has been so dramatic,” said a former Union Cabinet minister who has known Singh since the 1960s.

If one start checking out the history of UPA II, it’s is full of scams, unfortunate riots etc. , scams that astonished India, scams that landed the country into a huge loss. As soon as Manmohan Singh took the charge for finance ministry temporarily after Pranab Mukherjee’s resignation from ministry to contest President Elections, breaking news of Coal scam attacked him. Coal scam is related to illegal allotment of the coalmines in the area of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and Uttarakhand etc. to the private companies. This allotment, according to CAG report was made in the time when Manmohan Singh was coal minister in 2006 to 2009 apart from being the head of the government.

BJP asked the Prime Minister for his resignation in Monsoon session, and they suspected his involvement in Coalgate. But he said, “I will resign from the post, if CAG is able to proof my involvement in coal scam.

However, the controversial scam is still under the magnifying glass of CAG for further decisions.

The biggest role in downfall of Manmohan Singh has been played by the social activists Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal, and how one can forget our most controversial Baba Ramdev. The famous three personalities of the society opened up the book of corruption and irregularities in financial structure of government, which ignited the country against him and his government. Furious campaigns and anshans throughout the weeks by these leaders made him loose the support of country people which is needed by the ruler.

The passage of Lokpal Bill in parliament is still pending which was supposed to be considered in Monsoon session. Anna Hazare has been campaigning for this from last 2 years but still all efforts have not shown its results. All those bills that are in benefit of the country are lying pending in Parliament till date.

The story of downfall of the ruler of India does not end here. Recently the Washington post stated him as “Tragic Figure” on 5 September in his newspaper. 79 years old, Manmohan Singh who is shy, humble and soft spoken by nature. He is known to be the architect of reforms in India and also a person who actually set his country on the path of modernity and prosperity is now in danger of going down in history of failure.