Dr. Manmohan singh, the prime minister of India, is perhaps
one of the best politicians to have ever been born in the country. The top most
economist who helped India overcome the crisis it was facing in 1990-91 would
have never realized that he would be ruling the country he saved then.
The soft spoken, finance minister, of the Narsimha Rao
government, was highly appreciated when he first came to power. Although at the
same time it was seen by some, as a strategy to win the sikh votes, after the
1984 riots, and hence the criticism fell onto Congress led UPA, and ultimately
on Sonia Gandhi.
The petty Prime Minister in spite of being criticized for
his walk, talk and been called a puppet in the hands of Mrs. Gandhi, did
appreciable work during his term as the prime minister. One of the most
celebrated act, which also led to him winning the second term also as the Prime
Minister was the Right to Information or the RTI as it is usually called, is
perhaps his something for which he will always be remembered (most of the scams
that you read in the newspapers today, are out in the open because of this
RTI). The RTI over powered everything and made sure that the Congress led UPA
came into power once again.
But this is where it all begins, the second term, has
somewhat been a bumpy ride for UPA- II, with the RTI back firing and that
literally meaning backfiring. The biggest scams in the history of free India
came into light because of the RTI and had a direct or indirect connection with
the UPA. Hence bringing all the negative attention that it could possibly need
and to further degrade the matter Anna Hazare, a nationalist and Gandhian
started an anti corruption campaign (which is kind of ironic, "a Gandhian
on a campaing against Gandhi’”), and started to demand for Jan Lokpal Bill to
be passed in the Parliament. It must be admitted, that his agitation did stir
up things a little bit, with the people joining Anna in his campaign. But like
everything in this country, the movement too died down.
Next came, to increase the problems of the UPA-II, the
increment of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in retail sector and if the
problems inside the party were not enough, the opposition and various NGO’s too
started to disapprove of the decision. Although, one very radical thing took
place during this resistance, the Prime Minister spoke, yes he spoke, in a
national wide addressing; he listed the positives of the FDI in retail
sector.
The last criticism which came very recently to the UPA, was
the growing insecurity of women, in India, and specially in the national
capital. With huge outcry over the Delhi gang rape victim, it was thought that
the Prime Minister will speak, and he did, but his speech made it to the centre
of all jokes.
During the time between these big events, there was always,
Trinamool Congress to threatening to pull back its support, and Ministerial
comments to increase the problems of the UPA, however one thing remained
constant if you would have realized, that the Prime Minister never spoke. The
fact that India did not face as big as problems because of the economic
depression in the world and its credit should have gone to Dr. Manmohan Singh,
did not go to him only because of his keeping to himself attitude. While there
is no doubt that he is an excellent scholar, who has the ability to run this
country, must try to be more expressive, because he may be the Prime Minister
but he does enjoy the same right as the people of this country (freedom of
speech). The country is eagerly waiting what the Prime Minister has to say,
for, all the work he has done he might just be remembered as the Prime Minister
who never spoke.
