“History will be kinder to me,” Dr Manmohan Singh said during his last press conference in January 2014. These words were not merely a statement, they were a prophecy. As we bid farewell to India’s accidental yet extraordinary Prime Minister, it is essential to reflect on a man whose legacy swung between resounding triumphs and staggering criticism.
It was 2004, and a scholar-bureaucrat with no electoral base found himself seated in the most powerful chair of Indian democracy. He was an outsider in the chaos called politics, but his record spoke volumes. He was the man who pulled India from the brink in 1991, driving crucial economic reforms that changed the trajectory of the nation.
“If they want to withdraw support, so be it,” Dr Singh said in an interview addressing the Left after they threatened to pull their support over the Bharat-US Nuclear Deal. This moment, which broke decades of nuclear isolation, marked a key point in Singh’s tenure. It was a decision on which he staked his prestige and chair, displaying an unexpected resolve to go ahead with what he believed was best for the country. He played every card to ensure the deal went through, and when his government survived a floor test in the House, he was hailed as “Singh is King”.
However, just four years later, the narrative shifted. Scandals—CWG, 2G, Coalgate—emerged, and Dr Singh’s characteristic silence, once seen as dignified, was now mocked as weakness. The media, which had once celebrated him, began mocking him with the pun “Singh is Sin’king”.
He didn’t speak out more forcefully than he should've against the corruption within his government, possibly placing too much trust in his colleagues or prioritizing loyalty over confrontation. Leading a coalition government, Dr Singh was often constrained by a party that undermined his authority.
What remains undeniable, however, is the dignity with which Dr Manmohan Singh carried the weight of his office. In an era of shouting matches and name-calling, Singh remained different—a man who let his work speak for itself. Though his tenure ended with a tarnished image, the economic foundations he laid, his visionary foreign policy, and his unwavering commitment to honesty continue to resonate today.
I have often said that I am a politician by accident. I have held many diverse responsibilities. I have been a teacher, I have been an official of the Government of India, I have been a member of this greatest of Parliaments, but I have never forgotten my life as a young boy in a distant village.
Every day that I have been Prime Minister of India I have tried to remember that the first ten years of my life were spent in a village with no drinking water supply, no electricity, no hospital, no roads and nothing that we today associate with modern living. I had to walk miles to school, I had to study in the dim light of a kerosene oil lamp. This nation gave me the opportunity to ensure that such would not be the life of our children in the foreseeable future.
Sir, my conscience is clear that on every day that I have occupied this high office, I have tried to fulfill the dream of that young boy from that distant village.
— An excerpt from Manmohan Singh’s written speech on the Motion of Confidence in the Lok Sabha, which he never got to deliver. It was tabled and circulated to the media instead, as the Opposition disrupted the session, denying him the opportunity to speak.
The world has always taken the power of the spoken word seriously, and the silence of the written word, though not put behind bars, has not received the recognition and applause it deserves. However, whenever people have sought assurance, they have insisted on the written word, as it bears testimony to promises made. Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh was a man of the written word. In today’s world of growing technology, where people have increasingly lost interest in the silence of the written word, perhaps it’s no surprise that the world of that day was not moved by Dr Singh’s presence. The catapult of rhetorical words persuades the masses only to regret it in the future. Singh, on the other hand, ensured that momentary gains never overshadowed the long-term objectives.
While people may not remember Dr Singh as one who won by word of mouth, they will surely be reminded of the man who worked within the regulated corridors of power—constrained by the political turmoil of a coalition and the president of the Congress. Despite these extra-constitutional constraints, he did his job in a way that was resonating yet silent. Mr Prime Minister, you have done it in your own way.
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