The Hindu Business Line : The PM's position

ON THURSDAY, the former Deputy Prime Minister, Mr L. K. Advani, said that Dr Manmohan Singh was "the weakest among all the Prime Ministers of India". He based his view on the ground that it was "someone else", and not Dr Singh, who was running the Government.

To quote him: "Everyone in the country knows that Congress president Sonia Gandhi and the Left parties were playing a `decisive role' in the Government and their word is final. Dr Singh has hardly any say in Government matters and he is nothing more than a dummy Prime Minister." It is strange that for someone who has been a seasoned politician all his life, Mr Advani has, through his remark, given the impression that Prime Ministers operate in a political vacuum, that there is nothing called `collective leadership' in parties, and that the imperatives of `coalition Government' have no role to play in political and economic decision-making.

It is universally known that although he was chosen as the Prime Minister by the UPA coalition, the automatic first choice of the Congress party was none other than its chief, Ms Sonia Gandhi. What is important here is that, in a manner of speaking, having almost literally stepped into the shoes of Ms Sonia Gandhi, Dr Singh could not but discharge his Prime Ministerial duties giving more than the usual attention to the views held by the Congress party president. The question is: Does this make him `weak' in the sense that he is overly dependent on cronies and the like, who have no power base of their own and who thrive on the power and influence of their Prime Minister friend?

This is the reality of Dr Singh's Prime Ministerial position, and it can be said that, within the constraints of the prevailing situation, he has discharged his duties not only to the best of his ability but in a manner which perhaps cannot be bettered. It can be said that it has been a long time since the nation has had such a Prime Minister. The only two occupants of that position who can be said to have excelled Dr Singh are Jawaharlal Nehru and his daughter Indira Gandhi, whose imprint on the nation's affairs still survives.

In fact, Dr Singh is having to operate in a political situation which would have tested politicians even as seasoned as Mr Advani. Not only is there this popular perception that he is always having to play second fiddle to Ms Sonia Gandhi in the direction of the Government (which is a great disadvantage particularly when the Prime Minister has shown that he has a personality very much his own), he is also having to take into account the views of the Left partners who, by virtue of their numerical strength in the Lok Sabha, can exert significant pressure on the Government in the formulation of economic and social policies.

Surely, Mr Advani cannot cite this as `black mark' on Dr Singh's overall performance because, if he does, one will have to conclude that the former Deputy PM is totally unaware of the exigencies of coalition governance (which, by the way, he is not given his experience of the political exploitation by the TDP of its electoral strength under the NDA dispensation).

In a way, it is good that Mr Advani has brought up the subject of the Prime Minister's weak and strong facets now because the one point that needs to be doubly underscored at this juncture is that the nation is fortunate in having such an economist-turned-politician at the helm of affairs — at a time when the country is poised to take the big jump into `economic-tiger territory' and when the nation's enemies are leaving no stone unturned in spreading chaos and destruction in civil society by their cowardly, surreptitious terrorist acts.

Ranabir Ray Choudhury

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