A standing ovation and emotional farewell greeted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on his last day at work after 10 years in office. Don’t know why, but my heart goes to him while watching his sendoff on television. It was a very painful moment for me. He met 110 personal staff members and expressed his gratitude towards them. Dr. Singh, who became the Prime Minister in 2004, met them in the PMO where he was also greeted by 400 peripheral staff members who gave him a thunderous applause in the corridors of the South Block. The Prime Minister will hold his last Cabinet meeting on Saturday after which he will go and meet President Pranab Mukherjee.
India in the last 10 years have missed various opportunity in transforming the nation, be it good governance, infrastructure, corruption or foreign policy gains. This UPA government has failed to live up to the expectations of a billion people. If the Congress party led UPA has not be on the expectations of common man then they should have fulfilled resigned earlier.
Despite being ‘personally honest’, Dr. Singh has failed to check corruption scandals that bombarded one after another and seemed to have been in denial mode for so long. Congress party will pay the price for it on May 16. The mood of the public is to find an alternative politics. A lameduck government and suppressed prime minister do more harm than good to the nation. Last time in January, Manmohan Singh tried to lighten the situation in kind of a farewell speech. At the same time, he opined why Rahul should be passed on the baton rather than Modi. That time the press conference of Dr. Manmohan Singh had made it official that Rahul Gandhi will be the PM candidate for Congress. It is shocking to hear that Dr. Singh has moved away from taking responsibility from high inflation, corruption and inefficient governance during his tenure. He is a great personality but in no ways a leader of India being in wrong party and leadership.
No doubt, he was a good Finance Minister under Narasimha Rao. However, he miserably failed as the Prime Minister. He said his biggest achievement was the signing of nuclear treaty with the US. What India has got out of that treaty? When Sonia Gandhi was unable to become Prime Minister, she badly needed somebody who could function under her remote control and there was Singh. Power without responsibility is the most dangerous thing in a political regime and that’s what happening in the Congress which is a democratic party with most undemocratic methods. If Sonia Gandhi takes crucial decisions for the country then what’s the reason she is not accountable for the same. If we carefully go through the statement with regard to the decisions relating to auction of 2G, Coal, PM says that he wanted to go through the auction route. Manmohan’s exit has left many unsolved mysteries of the scam world. Till the time, he is the Prime Minister, he will safeguard the entire culprit due to various compulsions.
Dr. Manmohan Singh was always one of the cleanest politicians of the modern time. However, he also proved himself as one of the weakest PM too. When the masses looked for a leader in the time of crisis, he was never there. He had a great run till the end of UPA regime. Instead of continuing for another term, it would have been better if he had left politics then only. Probably then the history would have been kinder to him too. Yes, world was going through an economic crisis, but policy paralysis and corruption made it impossible for GDP to keep growing at a respectable level. When scandals like CWG kept tarnishing our image on world stage, coal scams made sure that our electricity output will be severely affected making impossible for industry too.
If Congress gets the mandate again then you should be sure that power center of this regime also is Mrs. Sonia Gandhi. Dr.MMS would have not done entire thing which happened in UPA tenures. For instance, MMS resisted giving telecom portfolio to the DMK but he could not have his way. His loyalty to the first family-euphemism for love for Chair- made him sail along. Every scam has this kind of tale behind it. Pious expressions like history judging will take him nowhere. An upright man of integrity thus became victim of expediency.
People of this country are more concerned about inflation as it directly affects their lives. Inflation was consistently at record high during the past few years. High inflation was not only due to failure of the government, but also due to the hostile international economic scenario. In such an international scenario, it is not exactly right to blame the government completely. Yes, I agree that government should have taken more measures to control the inflation to an extent, but to a considerable extent it was uncontrollable by government. When it comes to corruption, scandals, the government deserves complete blame for their misuse of power. It is not going to be an easy job for the winning government in 2014- be it either BJP or Congress considering the current economic scenario. When times were good, India had growth rate hovering around 9 per cent, but now it has gone down to around 5 per cent. The chances that the coming government, let’s say BJP, will revive the growth are very dismal unless international scenario changes.
Most of the exit polls show that the BJP and its allies, led by Narendra Modi, are set for a parliamentary majority. Anyways, Congress President Sonia Gandhi will host a farewell dinner for Manmohan Singh on Wednesday where he will be gifted a memento signed by all members of the Congress Working Committee, the party’s top decision-making body, and union ministers. Let us all bid farewell to our beloved Manmohanji and wish him a peaceful, healthy and free life ahead.
Well done Dr. Manmohan Singh!
