My Icon

An election is won by a co-alition. The party that held the highest stake wanted to give the highest seat to it's own prima donna, its President. But, due to some nationwide protests because her being a foreign national, the party chose a laconic in political sense, an austere aging intellectual to the highest title of the Election. Just because he got the seat which a woman threw away and just because he does not indulge in unnecessary political banter, people tend to term him "the weakest prime minister" ever and when I saw this phase being attributed to my icon Mr. Manmohan Singh in a blog of my friend, I felt a sense of pity for all those who consider him that.

As do many Indians of my age, I don't like many politicians around, but two exceptional and outstanding figures whom I like and adore are Mr. Manmohan Singh, Honorable Prime Minister of India and Mr. P. Chidambaram, Finance Minister, Union Cabinet, India. Mr. Manmohan Singh may be silent, may not have command over the Left, yet the work he has been able to extract out of ministry is awesome on comparison with the previous cabinets we have had. Ofcourse, I am not talking of JawaharLal Nehru and times when I say cabinet. I only intend to speak of say around 5 cabinets before this.

The first funny thing about terming Mr. MMS "the weakest PM" is the short memory we Indians have. Otherwise how can that title be snatched away from one Mr. Gowda who slept away to glory while India was rustling in chaos.I don't say Mr. MMS has shown us the elixir of prosperous India, but with intelligent team setting analogous to a formidable team in sports, he has proved that he is a man of less words and more actions. We want more people like him.In his one year at the helm of the Indian nation, he might not have worked wonders, but he has done more good than bad.

Any other PM with Left in his coalition would have told and compelled his FM to go for a Communist budget so as to keep the four legs of his chair intact. But, the PM showing his first act of prudence in selecting the FM, chose Mr. Chidambaram and encouraged him to come up with a moderaltely reformist budget, where the government took enough care to pierce a hole into pockets of people who spend in 5 figures and some big time corporates that enjoy unnecessary benefits among others.

Later, after the budget session came the news of selling portions of PSUs including ONGC and BHEL. The increasinf FDIs in telecom and Insurance were already there and now comes the news of FDIs in Retail too, which means we could soon see some success stories like Walmart in our own countryland.When in an argument people tend to leave aside the economic reforms, because he himself is the father of Indian Economic Reforms, aptly termed so because of his reformist Budget under the P.V.Narsimha Rao regime in the early 90s. But, he has done much more than economics to the country.

From peaceful relations to prosperous planning, he has done it all. And none of them is a shot in the wild because the positions he held speak for him. He held some highly esteemed positions like President, RBI, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commision, Advisor to the PM etc... in his long career.The way he selected his cabinet shows his prudence and eye for detail. His apt selection of Mr. Arjun Singh for HRD ministry is one of the reasons IIMs are at freewill today. The Indian Entertainment Industry has time and again expressed its happiness over Mr. Jaipal Reddy, I&B Minister. Then the young and powerful guns like Mani Shankar Aiyer, Petroleum, Dayanidhi Maran, Miniter of Communications and Information Technology are worth a mention.

Mr. Maran especially has been instrumental in some constructive reforms in Telecom sector and the points of highest priority in his agenda today are Calls all over India at local rates and To sell or not to sell 3G Spectrum. Not to forget this is the cabinet that passed the 'Right to Information' bill which means every Indian is now entitled to know all the information of government working and structure. This is the PM who suggested a report card system to beaureaucrats to hold them answerable to the public.

On the flipside people may comment inclusion of Lalu Prasad Yadav in the cabinet. But thats the price you need to pay for being prudent.

All in all, Mr. Manmohan Singh is a role model and is "one of the strongest Prime Ministers" we have ever had.