A quiet salute to a quiet ex-PM, ex-MP
Manmohan Singh on Thursday from Rajya Sabha — and, for all purposes, political life — the country marks the exit of a figure who managed to hold on to the paradoxical tag of practitioner of 'decent politics'. This was no mean feat in a career that started in academia, moved to policy, and orbited into politics.
It was also no mean feat in a cultural terrain where rhetoric-driven OTT politics grew to become not just de rigueur, but laudatory. But Singh's deceptively quiet, abacus-like approach bore bountiful fruits in his stints as RBI governor, finance minister and PM.
In this, there was nothing 'accidental' about Singh's trajectory.
What was, was his tipping over into the prime minister's seat. As an economist-bureaucrat-politician, Singh's understanding of this trifecta has arguably shaped contemporary India, firming up its belief that 'it's the economy, stupid'.
His effective style was based on his innate suspicion of what he deemed as 'conspicuous consumption'. His quiet, incremental approach to see the India-US nuclear civil deal into existence was just one example of both his creditworthiness, as well as his going under-credited by peers and people.
Singh's capabilities were more suited to a world where governance, administration and policy-setting took consensus for granted, and the political flight path already cleared.
But like a referee made to stop a game of football too many times on a chaotic field with uncontrollable players, Singh became victim of realpolitik — euphemistically better known as 'coalition compulsions' and 'policy paralysis'. With the ex-PM — very likely the last to have been born in pre-Independence India — now ex-MP, history will judge his quietude as a strength.
