A PM who kept his words few and work eloquent

Look at the newspaper headlines of the last three days. They are all filled with praise for him. Social media is replete with posts and videos related to him. For a society quick to forget even its greatest luminaries, such respect for a person who faded into political oblivion a decade ago is rare. The society will continue to respect the late former prime minister’s work.

I’ll give you a few examples to prove my point. One instance is from a time the Manmohan Singh government was considering a nuclear deal with the US. The leftist parties, whose support was vital to the government’s survival then, opposed the deal. They threatened to withdraw support if the government went ahead with the deal. And the PM seemed to concede when he told the media: “Not all our wishes need to be realized, at times we have to step back for the greater good."

But in reality, Singh’s withdrawal was tactical. His party, the Congress, had been in secret talks with Mulayam Singh Yadav, whose Samajwadi Party had enough members in parliament to save the government from falling even if the Left withdrew support. The government also held hectic parleys with the US to finalize the deal.

Singh revealed his intentions during a flight to Japan. We asked him if he would discuss the nuclear deal with the president of the US when he met him in Japan. He said, “Sure." We then asked him what would happen if the Left stood firm on withdrawing its support to government. Singh said that at times risks had to be taken in the interest of the nation and that it was up to the Left to stay with the government or not.

The Left parties withdrew their support as was expected. Samajwadi Party stepped in to keep the government from falling. And not only did his government complete its term, but also went on to win the next general election.

Singh was a soft-spoken man of few words. Loudmouth politicians spent their energies trying to prove he was weak. But was he? Absolutely not. This incident during another Japan trip proves this.

I had requested Sanjay Baru, his media adviser, for a meeting with Singh. After lunch on board, while all were resting, Baru signalled to me that the PM was ready to meet me.

During my meeting with Singh, I told him that he should go for the election campaign in Punjab. Besides addressing public rallies, he should stay for a night in Amritsar and visit the Golden Temple. It may not win him the elections, but as he was the first Sikh PM of the country his actions will help assuage the hurt nursed by the Sikh community after Operation Bluestar and the anti-Sikh riots in 1984. Along with Punjab, I suggested that he should visit Sikh-dominated areas in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand where elections were due in a couple of months as it would help the party.

Baru later came to me smiling and told me I had increased his workload: The PM had ordered him to schedule a visit to Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand. Those days reports were appearing in newspapers that the Congress hadn’t invited Singh to address any election rally.

Let me give you another example of his resolve.

We were in the beautiful Russian city of Yekaterinburg. This is the same place where Czar Nicholas and his entire family were murdered in a church after the Bolshevik Revolution. During the visit, a photo shoot was organized for him with Pakistan’s then president Asif Ali Zardari. At such events, international leaders generally keep quiet, or utter generalities. The global media was watching when the two met. Singh knew the event was being telecast live. Before Zardari could smile, Singh dropped a verbal bomb. He said, “Mr President my country hasn’t elected me twice to tolerate anyone exporting terror on our soil." Zardari wasn’t prepared for this assault. Before a stunned Zardari could recover, the photo session was over.

Can a weak person act so boldly?

Coming generations will remember him as one of India’s prime ministers who not only dreamt of a developed India in the 21st century but paved its path in the 20th century as he was a matchless visionary. Manmohan Singh, you will always be fondly remembered.

Shashi Shekhar is editor-in-chief, Hindustan. Views are personal.