[Reader-list] PM IS HONOURABLE MAN, BUT IS THAT ENOUGH?

[Bipin Trivedi]

http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Mindboggling/entry/pm-is-an-honoura
ble-man-but-is-that-enough

BY SHALINI SINGH


Two years ago, I buttonholed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at a meeting
organised by the Indian Women's Press Corps, asking him how he reconciled
his two roles: of being a distinguished scholar with an unblemished record
and the head of a Cabinet in which allegations of venality have stuck on
against his ministerial colleagues.
 
Without a moment of reflection, the Prime Minister replied: "There have been
some charges of corruption but they have not been proved." And he turned his
head away.
 
The telecom scam was then screaming headline news in every financial daily.
The Times of India was furnishing hard evidence of how a select few were
stuffing their pockets with money that rightfully belonged to the public.
Editorials cried out for justice. Letters to the PM beseeching him to
intervene piled up. But Manmohan Singh, and he is an honourable man, did
nothing.
 
The telecom scam is not an isolated blot. There are many other blots: the
Satyam scam, the IPL sleaze and then the CWG bust-up. On the political
front, we have the Sharm el-Sheikh shame, rocketing inflation and the
Kashmir flare-up.
 
The PM, being an honourable man, has been compelled to modify his clipped
responses to control the damage from this sweeping canvas of spectacular
failures. Since he can no more claim that his Cabinet is clean, he now says,
“The guilty will be punished.”
 
That's a non sequitur. In all likelihood, it means nothing will be done. It
reeks of paralysis at the highest level of government, something India can
ill-afford. Is this because, as some in the precincts of power say, Singh no
longer enjoys the trust of his party president? Or is it despite the fact
that he faces no authority deficit?
 
Either way, it shows him up in extremely poor light. Indeed, there's no
justification for his defeated silence on his squabbling Cabinet colleagues,
corruption, price rise, Kashmir, the Maoist insurgency, and the CWG mess.
 
The people of India expect Singh to demonstrate moral outrage. But for that
he must first gather moral courage. When Sonia Gandhi — despite being the
head of the single largest party — chose to abdicate power in 2004 in favour
of Singh, we believed she had done the right thing. Singh represented the
most acceptable face of the Congress. Indeed, being an honourable man, he
himself has remained above board. Newsweek recently described him as a most
respected international statesman.
 
Which is why Singh's lack of moral fibre, now when it is most needed, is all
the more galling. His trust quotient with the people at home is abysmally
low. While Singh’s apologists say the pressures of coalition politics are
cramping him, others contend that it's apparent he is unwilling to renounce
the trappings of power. The honourable man is revealing his tragic flaw. He
can still make history and be the extraordinary statesman by refusing to
shield his corrupt colleagues and officials. He could quit his high office
and lead by example.
 
India craves a clean and visionary leadership. Singh, with his weak approach
to issues bedeviling his party and the people at large, has established that
he is not that leader. The Prime Minister is an honourable man, and the
course of honour, as opposed to the course of law, demands that he exits
while his honour is still in tact.