M M S, The Closet Spiritualist
Manmohan Singh
The globally respected economist and scholar has been credited with heralding a new era of economic liberalization in India. Yet Manmohan Singh has been receiving end of several barbs of late. Criticisms range from adjectives like “ineffective”, “pusillanimous” and “understated” to “spineless” and “puppet PM”.
It astonished me that Manmohan Singh should talk so little and be so barely visible that we might be forgiven for thinking that India has an imaginary prime minister, wrote a celebrity journalist in his blog a few months ago.
In a speech he gave at a conclave held in the capital, Singh said: “I do not want India to be a superpower; I just want India to stand with dignity in the comity of nations.” So he doesn’t seem to display any signs of being power-needy.
Perhaps he has no dark side, then. Manmohan Singh could, in all likelihood, be an advanced spiritualist who perceives himself as having absolutely no stake-neither in the country, nor in the species nor indeed in the planet! He also shows great resilience in adverse situations, whether in a political, social or economic exigency. To be detached like a yogi even while living among fellow beings in the rough and tumble of politics and economics is no easy task.
Some might conclude that the Pm’s proclivity for remaining ‘Nirlep Narayan’ makes him out to be one without a stake and therefore he has nothing to win or lose. If he makes promises, they’re bound to be ones that concern issues that would get resolved.
Could one compare Manmohan Singh with King Janaka, who is the only one Krishna praises in the Bhagwad Gita for having transcended everything even while administering a kingdom.
Adapted from Times of India, 08 February 2012
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