RAJESH SINGH
Speaking in the Rajya Sabha – itself a rare occurrence, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had this philosophy to offer, “Those who say demonetisation is good in the long run should recall the quote: In the long run we are all dead.” Union Minister for Finance Arun Jaitley responded with his own philosophy, “Manmohan Singh rightly mentioned that in the long run, we will all be dead. Of course we will all be dead. But when we get an opportunity to be in the Government, are we to only think about our own generation? The country will live on even when we are all dead.”
But the former Prime Minister is right: In the long run we are all dead. Some will die even in the medium run; others in the short run. That is why Governments and Prime Ministers and Ministers and bureaucrats must live for the moment. There is no tomorrow. This explains why Manmohan Singh remained silent when major scams involving the pilferage of public funds to the tune of millions of crores of rupees, erupted one after the other during his tenure. People exploited political patronage, made money, and looted the public exchequer. Crony capitalism flourished, after (or side by side) crony socialism. There was to be no tomorrow. In the long run, we are all dead. So live life full-size as long as you live. And life was indeed lived accordingly. Ask the beneficiaries of the 2G Spectrum scam, of the coal block allocation scam, of the Commonwealth Games scam, and of the various defence scandals that are surfacing now.
Manmohan Singh also decided in the course of his intervention in the Rajya Sabha, to pull up the Modi Government for its “monumental mismanagement” of the demonetisation drive. He wanted to know of one country where people could not withdraw money they had deposited. He is of course a distinguished economist. What is not so certain is that he was the “architect of the 1991 economic reforms” – as he is often referred to, in glowing terms. The architect was then Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao, while Singh was the implementer. The monumental mismanagement Singh has talked about has ostensibly to do with the inconvenience that millions of bank customers had to endure in the aftermath of the November 8 bombshell which had black money hoarders and operators running for cover.
What would he have done had he been the Prime Minister? Would he have made a public declaration, giving a deadline sufficient enough for the black to be converted into white? Would he have begun printing new high-value currency notes well in advance, thus tipping of the very sections against whom the drive was meant? Would he have ordered the recalibration of the thousands of ATMs across the country, thus leading to suspicion?
Of course, he would not have done anything of the sort, because he would not have taken the courageous decision to demonetise. The only bold move throughout his 10-year stay at 7, Race Course Road, was the signing of a civil nuclear deal with the United States. He risked his political prestige for it, lost the Left’s support, and angered many within his own Congress party. The 2009 Lok Sabha election was round the corner, and the Congress high command didn’t want to take a chance, so it too endorsed the decision.
But none of that firmness was evident in Manmohan Singh’s second term from mid-2009 to mid- 2014. It was marked by monumental mismanagement. ‘Coalition compulsions’ took over; policymaking was paralysed; people in the Government, let alone the party, began to question him; one junior Minister even refused to heed his directive to visit the site of a railway accident! A senior leader of the party publicly junked an ordinance his Cabinet had cleared days ago. In short, Manmohan Singh turned into a lame-duck Prime Minister. He lost his credibility, his hold over Government, and even his voice.
The last he regained in some measure in the Rajya Sabha in the case at hand. But his speech was listlessly delivered, almost akin to a person reading out from a script and with a gun to his head. If there was anybody who was perfectly ill-suited to talk on the subject of black money, it was Manmohan Singh. After all, public loot happens through the black corridor. He was the chowkidar then. He had allowed it all to take place not because he had fallen asleep, but that, even while being wide awake, he did not wish to do anything.
Big decisions, whether they work out well in the immediate months or don’t, need courage to be taken. There will be disruptions in the short run, there will be public outrage too, and some voters may be upset enough to switch loyalties. But what is good for the country has to be done – period. Disenchanted voters will return when they see the positivity.
(The writer is editorial director, nationalistonline.com, English)