Manmohan Singh takes vishwaroopam
The Hindu
B.S. Raghavan / November 10, 2010

There can be no doubt about the momentous nature of the visit by the President of the world's militarily most powerful and technologically most advanced country to the world's largest, as also the most vociferous, democracy. It is but natural for commentators and observers to have their own pick of highlights that, in their reckoning, were the most memorable.

Some would point to the US President's eloquent homage to those who were killed in the barbaric terror attack on 26/11 as the most evocative; some others would plump for the delightful abandon with which the First Couple danced with the children on Deepavali night; there would also be some who would give an A++ to the pluck of the students who dared to put Mr Barack Obama in a spot at the St. Xavier's College.

To me, what towers above everything else is the vishwaroopam taken by the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, at the Joint Media Conference.

All those watching it would have been clean bowled by a mild-mannered, soft-spoken and self-effacing Dr Singh coming out with blunt, forthright and harsh home truths on two issues in respect of which, till then, the American side was trying to turn the tables on India.

The first was his rapier-sharp rejoinder to Mr Obama's condescending advice to India to keep the so-called dialogue with Pakistan going as a means of reducing tensions. Dr Singh was prompt in scotching the idea as a pointless charade so long as the ‘terror machine' that is Pakistan is ‘as active as ever before' and it employs ‘terror-induced coercion' to browbeat India.

No curse

The second was the way he frontally took on those who were using outsourcing as a stick to beat India with.

His declaration that India “is not in the business of stealing jobs from the US” simply takes one's breath away for driving a portentous point home in such a graphic fashion and that too coming from one who is given to using basic English. “India not in the business of stealing jobs”! Touche, Mr Prime Minister!

He did not stop there: He went on to scratch the notion in the American minds that outsourcing has been some kind of a curse. On the contrary, it has actually “helped to improve the productive capacity and productivity of American industries.”

Those, including this scribe, who had taken him to be a meek and feeble leader (though a good and honest person), out of his depth in politics and looking to the UPA Chairperson, Sonia Gandhi, for cues to run the government, saw an entirely different Dr Singh, virtually in control of the Media Conference.

Coming to think of it, there were occasions in the past when the fire within him was evident.

The instances readily coming to mind are his spiritedly sticking to his guns on the nuclear deal, even braving a break with the Leftists, his firmly silencing the critics of the Sharm-el-Sheik statement in a debate in Parliament and his intervention to make sure that the preparations for the Commonwealth Games were completed on time.

Helpless

After all, he could not be holding the reins of the top post for more than six years, with veterans of national stature far senior to him in politics deferring to him, simply because he was Sonia Gandhi's choice.

It must certainly be because he commands their respect in his own right with his intellectual and professional prowess and the quality of the advice and guidance they receive from him.

No doubt, he is also capable of putting his foot down, when necessary.

But, then, why does he seem so very helpless in dealing with scams and scamsters and so oblivious to their tarnishing his government's reputation along with his own?