The Fallen Legend

If Che Guevara is the chosen symbol of resistance, a day will come when Former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's picture will be used as a symbol of helplessness on T-shirts and coffee mugs.

Indian National Congress stared at a shocking defeat in the Lok Sabha Elections 2014. Although Rahul Gandhi, who puts on an odd smile while addressing media these days, took full responsibility for the defeat, the Gandhi family retainers are struggling hard to shift the blame of the party's defeat away from Mr Gandhi.

Congress leaders keep on saying that they have accepted the people's verdict and that the party would do introspection. Once they reach there, a certain section of party would want to make Manmohan Singh the fall guy.

That is unfair. Afterall, it was party chief Sonia Gandhi, and second in party's hierarchy, Rahul Gandhi who called the shots. Along with their close aides, the two decided everything - from candidature to the campaign strategy. The Congress party chose to fight the election with Rahul Gandhi's face as its emblem.

But Manmohan Singh Cannot fully escape the responsibility, either. It may be unfair to turn him into the fall guy. But he surely fell down, long ago, and then forget to get up. The genius economist is indeed the fallen legend.

In the last few months, the images of a meek looking Manmohan Singh triggered off anger induced acidity among a majority of Indians. And not all of them were necessarily the pro - Hindutva types. They just could not reconcile with the idea of a Prime Minister who found it difficult to even shoot an arrow properly at Ravan's effigy during the Dussehra celebrations at Delhi's Ramlila ground. They felt that he had lost his identity so much that he even begun to speak Hindi like Sonia Gandhi.

Many people hated Narendra Modi when he spoke. He reeked of an arrogance, displaying his alpha - male behaviour. He beamed at the compliments paid to him over his dressing style. When he walked, he puffed like a flashy boy who may have been pumping iron at his neighbourhood gym for a few weeks.

But atleast he talked, he was assertive. People could actually hear him when he made a speech. They felt that Narendra Modi is the man who could set things right. "Sabko seedha kar dega", they would say, while munching on a piece of pizza at a Domino's. They completely forgot that the man who enabled them to have their pizza i none other than the genius economist, Dr Manmohan Singh.

On July 24, 1991, Dr Singh made his debut speech as India's finance minister, ushering in an era of economic liberalisation. His turban had the colour of the clear skies. He invoked the Victor Hugo. "Let the whole world hear it loud and clear. India is now wide awake.", he said.

In a 2005 interview with the British journalist, Mark Tully, Dr Singh recalled how PV Narasimha Rao had sent his Principal Secretary to ask him to join his cabinet and how he didn't take it seriously. He recounted how an angry Rao called him the next day, asking him to get dressed up and come to take oath as Finance Minister. He also remembered his Cambridge days where he was influenced by the economist, Nicholas Kaldor, and his teacher Joan Robinson, who he said, "sought to awaken the inner conscience of her students in a manner that very few others were able to achieve."

While Dr Singh awakened India to a new beginning, he let his inner conscience put to deep sleep induced coma soon after Sonia Gandhi made him the Prime Minister. In December 2004, Narasimha Rao passed away. As he stood next to his mentor's body, Dr Singh could see clearly how the Congress would treat his former Prime Minister. No arrangements had been made to receive Rao's body. Later, it was not even allowed a customary stopover at the Congress headquarters. Mrs Gandhi made sure it was sent to Hyderabad for cremation.

Dr Singh chose to remain passive about the treatment meted out to Rao. It took him nine years to redeem Rao's legacy when he finally spoke about his contributions during his Independence Day speech last year. But by that time, Rao had been extirpated from the collective memory of the Congress party.

The only extra ordinary thing that Dr Singh did against the treatment he got from Sonia and Rahul was during his farewell function in Delhi on the evening of May 14, 2014. Dr Singh was standing next to his wife when the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, walked in and greeted him. He reciprocated the gesture and left her there to meet his ministers and other Congress leaders. His wife followed him.

Later, there was another photo opportunity where Sonia Gandhi offered Dr Singh and his wife a bouquet of flowers each. Dr Singh received it nonchalantly without even looking at her.

This small gesture is a major leap for Dr Singh. But it has come 10 years late. In fact, there is an undated video in circulation on the social media that has gone viral. It shows Dr Singh, his hands loosely in attention, waiting at some event for Congress Supremo, Sonia Gandhi. She alights from her car behind him and, as Dr Singh turns to greet her, she walks past him without as much as acknowledging his presence.

It was very clear that Mrs Gandhi had carefully chosen Dr Singh in 2004. She was confident that he would keep the throne warm for Rahul Gandhi, and would faithfully step down when asked to. But in the 10 years of his tenure, barring his assertion during the India - US nuclear deal, Dr Singh was quite happy with the tokenism his post offered. Right under his nose, massive scams in his ministries kept blowing up and he simply chose not to do anything about them. He even let his spin doctors argue that he knew nothing about these developments, subjecting himself to further ridicule. He made speeches without communicating anything. His conviction about what he said was so weak, he sought its validation from a TV technician.

In September last year, when the Congress's baby, Rahul Gandhi publically denounced an ordiance while Dr Singh was on a foreign trip, many hoped that atleast then he would take a position and resign. But he remained resigned to his circumstances. The phrase 'Goongi Gudiya' (dumb doll), used once prematurely for Indira Gandhi, never felt as apt as it did for Dr Singh. Many stand up comedians made their career out of jokes on him.

Thankfully, Dr Singh is out of this humiliating situation now. He will hope history will remember him as the man who brought India back from the verge of bankruptcy. And the man, who during his tenure as Prime Minister of India, made India the third largest economy in the world, surpassing that of Japan's and many others.

But there are two kind of histories. One the Cambridge case study types, and the other that the masses write. The second history, sadly, will be rather unkind to the fallen legend and genius economist, Dr Manmohan Singh.

And therein lies a lesson for Mr Modi. The clear mandate given to him is an indication that the majority among the masses is willing to give him a chance to rewrite his history. If he succeeds in taking charge unlike his predecessor and deliver on his promises of development and clean governance, he can secure his history. There, the Photoshop skills of his bhakts, potraying a bus corridor in Bogota as one in Ahmedabad, won't help him. The chapter of 2002 will remain, but it will be then, undeservedly, relegated to the appendix.

Manmohan Singh fell and forgot to get up. Narendra Modi got up and began to fly. It is time for him to sit down.

Mr Modi knows what he will go on to represent, should his face appear someday on T-shirts and coffee mugs, beyond the kinds available in BJP offices. That is why he must wean himself away from such paraphernalia.

The challenge for Dr Singh was to prove that his inner conscience had not slipped into coma. Mr Modi will have to begin by proving that he possesses an inner conscience.