Editor,
Despite the deluge of lip service to former prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh on his last day in Parliament by overriding ideological differences, the fact remains that the who’s who of the BJP had relentlessly stooped to the level of personal abuse and character assassination of him on the slightest pretext. The nation hasn’t forgotten how Dr Singh was obscenely credited with ‘the art of bathing in a bathroom with a raincoat on’ right on the floor of the Rajya Sabha.
One holds every democratic right to dislike the policies of the Dr Manmohan Singh government – be it economic or nuclear. So there is nothing wrong in criticising it by furnishing logic and sane arguments. But it was astonishing to see how his critics used to abuse him the most by mocking him as ‘Maunmohan’, invoking his relative silence or soft-spoken behaviour. Is uttering rhetoric in the shrillest possible voice at the drop of a hat in public and abusing, ridiculing the opposition form the main job of a prime minister? Is tom-tomming his/her achievements (real or projected) relentlessly in all forums possible form the main job of a prime minister? Rather, any sensible prime minister would silently work behind closed doors or camera in their office, leaving their contribution to talk for themselves. And Manmohan Singh used to do this very thing with exceptional dignified silence befitting the chair of the PM.
When it should have been seen as a positive attribute of Singh as PM, this very quality of remaining ‘maun’ acted as his political nemesis.
Not only did Singh used to stay at the farthest distance from communalism, his government’s record on the front of moral cleanliness is also extraordinary. Though a lot of financial allegations were levelled against the Manmohan Singh government, not a single allegation has been proved. Rather, many accused got absolute clean chit by the judiciary. And far from hiding the truth, Singh used to order his cabinet colleagues to resign just on the basis of allegations, even if the main accusation was against any nephew of the minister concerned.
Manmohan Singh was indeed ‘weak’; perhaps this is the reason why series after series of fatal terrorist attacks had happened only after the end of his era – Uri, Gurdaspur, Pathankot, Pulwama – with the Chinese killing 20 of our soldiers in Ladakh.
May more and more such ‘maun’ leaders take the charge of this nation for the sake of the Constitution, secularism, democratic ethos, humanity, humility, civility, simplicity, and that remains the earnest prayer of all true sensible Indians.
Kajal Chatterjee,
D-2 /403,
Peerless Nagar,
Kolkata