Dr Manmohan Singh would go down in history as a great visionary and the architect of Liberalization, who besides being a distinguished academic was also a pragmatic leader familiar with the circumstances of his times. There are a number of accounts which would put him on top as an economist and a reformer and some would rate his navigation of the Indo-US nuclear treaty as one of the highlights of his glorious innings. However, he was a designated survivor, who managed to retain his position and cool despite the most diabolic political maneuvers by some of his erstwhile colleagues. He was a humble man who empathized with the ground level reality and his story is about a person who had very modest beginnings before being pushed to a fame which made him a household name both in India and abroad. There are many untold stories concerning him and it would be worthwhile to recall some of them. The general belief is that he was picked up by Sonia Gandhi to be the Prime Minister in 2004 after she decided to withdraw herself from the race on account of multiple reasons, the security concerns of her children, being one of them. The fact is that when the Atal Behari Vajpayee government was toppled by one vote on the floor of the House in 1999, and Sonia was shown on the TV screens stating “that we have the numbers, 272’’ to form the government following her visit to the Rashtrapati Bhawan, she had recommended his name for the Prime Minister’s post to President KR Narayanan. It was a closely guarded secret. Madhav Rao Scindia, who was considered close to the then Congress president had figured that he would be the obvious choice and when he somehow learnt that it was Manmohan Singh, who was the preferred choice, he was very upset. He summoned his close friend Amar Singh and asked him to convince Mulayam Singh Yadav, to withdraw the Samajwadi Party from the proposed alliance. Rest is history and the Congress was unable to lead the formation of an alternative government leading to elections which brought back Vajpayee. What transpired during the elections which followed in 1999 had also a story which is not there in public domain. Manmohan Singh was granted the nomination from South Delhi and it was a foregone conclusion that he would win by defeating Vijay Kumar Malhotra of the BJP. However, certain Congress leaders in order to prevent him from entering the Lok Sabha, ensured that he was defeated. While covering the polls, I had predicted that Manmohan Singh would lose, though no one believed me including my colleagues in the Hindustan Times, since I could see the sabotage of his election by Congressmen themselves. Sonia Gandhi who was aware of what was happening was unforgiving and was determined to deal with the saboteurs.
In 2004, after she declined the post, there were multiple aspirants including Pranab Mukherjee, Arjun Singh, ND Tewari and P. Chidambaram. However, Sonia Gandhi had made up her mind and was not bothered about what others in the party thought of the decision. She first released a letter declining the position and then opted for Dr Manmohan Singh. The letter was drafted by my former Editor Vir Sanghvi who was on a vacation to either Thailand or Singapore and was contacted by me after receiving a call from Ten Janpath. First Madhavan and later Ambika Soni called me to trace Vir and get the draft, which finally arrived and was sent to a specific email at 10 Janpath from Vir’s office. Sonia had wanted Singh to be elected as the leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party but on the insistence of Makhan Lal Fotedar, she first allowed herself to be chosen, and after being empowered by the CPP, nominated Manmohan Singh for the post. Several attempts by Congressmen to dislodge Manmohan Singh did not succeed and the closest was when in 2006 during the Congress Chief Minister’s conclave in Nainital, a move was initiated to make Pranab Mukherjee as the deputy PM. Ms Gandhi’s political adviser Ahmed Patel was privy to this and the plan would have been silently executed. However, at the press conference which marked the culmination of the conclave, I had asked Manmohan Singh whether he was in the process of appointing a deputy PM.
Before he could answer, Sonia Gandhi sitting next to him, took the mike and categorically stated that this was never going to happen, thus putting to rest all speculation over the matter. Manmohan Singh survived and also ensured that his government did not fall when there was voting on the Indo-US nuclear treaty. During the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, LK Advani, the BJP prime ministerial face, ridiculed Manmohan Singh by describing him as the “Nikamma PM’’ (useless PM). This boomeranged on the Saffron Brigade and the middle classes, which held Singh in high esteem, voted for the Congress instead of the BJP. This resulted in the Congress winning in most Urban areas including Mumbai and Delhi. The tally went up from 145 in 2004 to 205 in 2009, an increase of 60 seats. Sycophants tried to give the credit for the Congress performance to Rahul Gandhi but the reality was that this was due to Dr Manmohan Singh. Political intrigue had already commenced in the Congress and an effort was on to dislodge him from his chair. The 2G scam and the controversial report of the then CAG, Vinod Rai, followed. And it was evident that a section of the party wanted to force Singh to quit so a new PM could take over. Fortunately, these designs never succeeded and instead unfortunately for his rivals, the entire game resulted in the Congress losing power at the Centre. In people’s perception, the Congress was seen as corrupt but not Manmohan Singh, who politically managed to personally survive.
