Dr Manmohan Singh: A homage riddled with guilt

Almost the first feeling that I have as an Indian towards our late prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh is one of profound guilt: We as people were extremely unfair to the sensitive, suave leader who was all things except one - a politician.

- Harcharan Bains

Almost the first feeling that I have as an Indian towards our late prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh is one of profound guilt: We as people were extremely unfair to the sensitive, suave leader who was all things except one - a politician. And our betrayal of him came when he most needed his people to know how the people of tomorrow's India matter more than today's politics and politicians.

It should always haunt the conscience of our nation that we allowed the worthiest incumbent to be called an "accidental prime minister". Or perhaps it was a reflection of our own priorities that virtues such as integrity and humility appeared as "accidents" to us. In a country where corruption, political rowdyism and megalomania pass for "political strength and stature of a leader", Dr Singh's self-effacing refusal to demand and hog the limelight were sure to puzzle his country, especially the press and politicians, and the people. To those for whom their own ugly disdain for decency, culture and unpretentious honesty is the new "normal", Dr Singh's unassuming insistence on modesty, quiet efficiency and professional integrity were bound to appear as "accidental".

Dr Singh never claimed credit for achievements

My memories of Dr Singh are of a person for whom doing the right thing the right way was the only normal way to do anything. No surprises then that he never claimed credit either for his path-breaking economic reforms or for his absolute insistence on administrative efficiency, transparency and accountability. For him, this was the only "normal" way a government could and should function. I am not surprised then that his media adviser felt uncomfortable working for a prime minister who believed that the news needed no "doctoring", and that the media could not be dishonest and therefore required no goading or "management".