Oh yeah, the boy can play.

Two weeks ago, this column had suggested that the time had come for the Prime Minister to redeem himself. He has done so with such a characteristically quiet flourish that even his worst critics are now conceding what a rock musician once sang:

“He got the action

he got the motion,

Oh yeah, the boy can play

dedication, devotion;

turning the night time into the day…”

And thereby hangs a tale.

For several years after he became the finance minister in 1991, the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, when he met his economist friends would sheepishly tell them that he was now a politician and, therefore, immune to sound economic advice. Not many took him seriously but a few amongst the lowlife of Lutyen's Delhi knew that he had always been one.

How else, they would snigger, would a mere economic advisor (1971), that too in the ministry of commerce become, first, the chief economic advisor in three years (1974), then a secretary to the Government of India in two more (1976), then Reserve Bank Governor in six more (1982), then deputy chairman of the Planning Commission (Cabinet rank, mind) in three (1985) and, finally, finance minister in a mere 20 years from the time he left the teaching profession — that too immediately after having served as economic advisor for four months to Prime Minister, Chandra Shekhar, in 1991? And then, in 2004, just eight years after he ceased to be finance minister in 1996, there he was as Prime Minister! This, after not having had anything to do with 10, Janpath between 1987 and 1997. And this after having had his Planning Commission called a ‘bunch of jokers' by Rajiv Gandhi in 1987.

His trump card

Dr Manmohan Singh's great strength lies in the fact that his rivals and opponents always underestimate him. He manages to lull them into a sense of complacency by his outwardly meek demeanour, good manners and seemingly hesitant ways.

In fact, however, Messrs Hazare and Co have discovered what the Comrades of the Left did in 2008 — that Dr Singh is deadly as the cats that wait patiently in the grass for hours, unmoving, silent, watchful and which finally spring like a fork of lightning at the bird which thinks it is safe.

Indeed, even the malcontents in the Congress, who were sniping at Dr Singh, have had a rude shock. He is now fully in command because Sonia Gandhi is unwell; Rahul Gandhi is too wet behind the ears and reluctant to face genuine fast bowling; Pranab Mukherjee is not trusted by the Family — and the rest, oo la la , don't matter.

Suddenly, he is able to keep A. K. Antony waiting outside the room for not having countered the talk about succeeding him as PM; he is able to make a passionate speech in the Lok Sabha about what a nice guy he is, leaving the Opposition furtively wiping its eyes even as Congressmen weep buckets in sympathy; he is able to get Rahul Gandhi to read out the Government's position on the Lokpal which, amazingly, negates his own speech, leaving the Hazare camp in total disarray; before that he inserts Pranab Mukherjee to negotiate the deal with a clear instruction: split, isolate and pick off.

Match over

And split, isolated and picked off they were.

Swami Agnivesh went one way, Kiran Bedi and Arvind Kejriwal another. That isolated Prashant Bhushan and Anna Hazare, who cried victory and ran.

One can only quote from the song once again:

After all the violence and the double talk;

There's just a song in all the trouble and the strife;

He can do the walk,

He can do the walk of life.

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