Name of the cartoonist is mentioned on the Cartoon.
A rare occasion when I am spoilt for choice, four articles on which to base the current post, must confess I am partial towards Mr. Pankaj Vohra and Hindustan Times, since this is one combination which is hard to ignore when it comes to serving Congress party and its first family. The other three articles are “Talk of the town” by M.J.Akbar in India Today This is how it has been concluded! “Indians are not supine by nature; but they do not waste their strength by putting it on constant display. Every general election is a tribute to their collective muscle. Governments which take Indians for granted, or confuse Delhi with India, are inviting a volcano to erupt. When Delhi talks there is fissure and turbulence. When India talks there will be an explosion.”
“No PM Is An Island” by Rajdeep Sardesai in Outlook This is how it has been concluded! “Maybe at age 78, it’s too late for Manmohan to transform himself from the self-effacing bureaucrat-politician to an effective mass communicator. Maybe, he will always be the Humphrey Appleby of government, a civil servant first, a neta only later. Which is also perhaps why he needs Sonia Gandhi’s help now more than ever? He has at least spoken, when will Sonia break her sphinx-like silence?”
“End of an aura?” by Arati R Jerath This is the opening paragraph. “On Wednesday, the ghosts of Rajiv Gandhi and P V Narasimha Rao seemed to hover in the background as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh protested his innocence in front of television cameras. It seemed an extraordinary throwback to the past. It was the third time a Congress prime minister was in the dock on the issue of corruption; it was the third time he was being forced to clear the air.”
I would leave the readers to form their own independent judgment on these three articles.
Let us now turn our attention to the favored one. ”A PM so helpless?” by Pankaj Vohra, Hindustan Times February 20, 2011. The most striking part of the article in question is the gay abandon with which Mr. Pankaj Vohra is articulating this time round, in contrast to his earlier works Congress must pull up its socks. , "Only the PM can get things moving again." and 2G scam: Let the PM work freely .
What a case is being made out against Dr. M.M Singh “Before going public with his limitations, Singh should have stated his piece before the CPP, which elected him as its leader and subsequently endorsed his elevation to the position of the PM. He must learn from his predecessors and dig in his heels to fight corruption and inefficiency. He must always remember that the buck stops at his doorstep.” Mr. Vohra wants us to believe that there is a democratic system of elections practiced by Congress party. Come on Mr. Pankaj Vohra you have been around long enough if not more, to try and pull this one on us. The short and sweet is that it is Sonia Gandhi who appointed Dr. M.M Singh as the Prime Minister and no one in the Congress had the spine to challenge it. Some election this was.
However hard you may try, or employ extreme vehemence in stating your case against the Prime Minister the fact of the matter is responsibility of this selections rest squarely with the one person and that is Sonia Gandhi. Dr. Man Mohan Singh’s Prime Ministership has been suffering from a severe deficiency of legitimacy from day one.
You deserve to be congratulated for an audacious attempt to deflect responsibility from the congress high command and lay it all at the doorstep of Prime Minister. Indians are not naïve, we are witness to all credits being laid at feet of the High command and all failures diverted to persons other than Sonia Gandhi, life does not work in the manner you wish it to. Success and failure are two sides of the same coin. This time blame shall have to be placed which is deservedly most appropriate and that is the door step of congress high command.
Updated on 14th Jan 2012
“Mr. Singh has his work cut out for him. Either he begins finally to deliver on reforms or he gets used to the idea that history will remember him not as someone who rescued India's economy, but as the leader who prevented it from attaining its full potential.” The Reformer Who Never Was. Link
Updated on 05th Aug 2012
Why has Singh failed to repeat his 1990s feat? Is he really a reformer he is made out to be?
And, finally, is he a good man in a bad party, forced to do things against his will?
I welcome a debate and discussion on this…As always, please keep your tone civil, your language polite…no sweeping generalisations please and no personal abuse. Thank you.
