In defence of Manmohan Singh - the politician

Babies are deeply idealistic about love, because their prospects of mating are quite low on the probability scale. The voters who mock Manmohan Singh for being a wimp are in the position of the babies who hold others to such highly scrupulous standards in romantic love. Many Indians would want to replace him with a strong, decisive leader, but at best, this means that they are spoilt babies.The average Indian feels no compulsion to yield to the whims of Sonia Gandhi because she does not order them around. He feels no compulsion to not hold strong opinions, because it is virtually free. Not bound by such constraints, he longs to be a Rajah who would smash everything that would stand in the way of creating paradise on earth. But, the truth is that he is not a Rajah and is not likely to be a Rajah anytime soon. He does not have self-knowledge.

But, it is hard for the Prime Minister to have such fantasies. It is hard for him to “man up”, because he derives his power from Sonia Gandhi, and not from public opinion. There are obstacles to overcome, and these obstacles are real. He has to overcome the inertia of his allies and masters. This is especially true, because Manmohan Singh is an economist, and probably has more sensible views. The more sensible your views are, the less you can afford to be a chutzpahnick.

It is not surprising that Manmohan Singh failed miserably when he contested for a Loksabha seat in South Delhi in 1999. Many think this to be a flaw, but this is inevitable. A politician who knows that much of what he says is baloney cannot impress the voters. This is why economists almost never become successful politicians. This is true, even in the western capitalistic democracies. Even in the US, the congressmen with economics degrees are almost non-existent. But, this hardly proves that economists are inept. The facts lie flatly against this belief.Politicians are not a solution to a nation’s woes, but this does not mean that they are totally helpless. An economically informed politician is more capable of handling a crisis because ignoring popular opinion in a crisis is good economics. An ordinary politician would not have the sense to go against the masses because he cannot weigh the merits and demerits of unpopular policies. It is not a coincidence that Manmohan Singh, the architect of the first wave of economic liberalization in 1991 is an economist.

But, popular criticism is that Manmohan Singh is a trained economist, but not a charismatic leader. What does this imply? He probably has real skills, but cannot stir up the masses. He is not a mass entertainer. But, the fact that human societies prefer a charismatic sociopath over a trained economist should be a criticism directed at human societies, and not at Manmohan Singh. It is not possible to reform and repair a nation’s policies without a complex, detailed knowledge of economics and other relevant areas of intellectual inquiry. Charisma and popular support are not a substitute for technical competence.

The fact that economists do a wonderful job when politicians do not stand in their way is proven not just by India’s experience with economic reforms, but also by the successful record of independent central banks in the developed west. With all their flaws, independent central banks run by economists are the least harmful among government enterprises. It might be true that his political masters and allies do not grant him much of a wiggle room. But, slack would prove to be valuable only in the hands of an economically informed politician.

My point is not that Manmohan Singh could not have done better. The truth is that politicians usually do not. Serenity is about accepting this. Compromise is necessary in the game of life, in the bedroom and the boardroom, and this is even truer in the game of politics. But, the more you yield, the more adept you become at living a lie, and the less you become capable of becoming a decent fellow. Manmohan Singh’s compromises bother people, but this does not bother them. If this really bothered them, they would have looked beyond Manmohan Singh and his allies and masters.

They would have noticed the hundreds of millions of voters who elect such politicians to power. Every successful political figure, including the ones that were born and married into a dynasty derives their power from them, directly or indirectly. Despite their pretentions to the contrary, dynasties are immensely popular. If you think that Manmohan Singh is a wimp, remember: This is a matter more of appearance than substance. Regardless of how they come across, there is not one among them who did not acquire power without bowing the knee to his ultimate masters.​