Not So Accidental!

On 22nd Jan 2019, I had penned a rebuttal “The spirit and timing wasn't accidental at all” surrounding the tellingly timed release of the book, Accidental Prime Minister (just before 2014 General Elections) and the release of a movie based on the same (just before the 2019 General Elections).

A former combatant’s conscience was hurt to see his one-time boss and amongst the most distinguished sons of India, Dr Manmohan Singh, reduced to a dim caricature. That he chose to remain quiet through the hullabaloo out of his inert reserve and sense of morality and dignity, made it even more pressing to stand up for him – clearly, he deserved better.

Dr Manmohan Singh was a stranger to politics, and it is pertinent to note that not only did his political rivals attack him, but many of his own partisan persuasion and staff had left him to fend for himself. While I wrote to him often as I had worked directly under him and shared my own perspective on various issues and concerns, I shared this specific article to let him know that while politicians and some others may have cut-and-run, soldiers never do, for loyalty is everything to them.

Gracious as always with words, he perhaps understood the shared moment of personal hurt and he wrote back amongst other things, “I am also very grateful to you for writing a strong rebuttal to the controversy around the Accidental Prime Minister” – wounded by the sleight, the dignified Khalsa in him, took it on his chest.

As I learnt in my earlier life in the ‘Uniform’, silences can be very deceptive. They are not necessarily born out of fear, but often from an invisible well of basic decency, civilisational wisdom, and sheer professionalism, given to a very few. He was all three, and so much more, but he never had to resort to chest thumping, inflammatory or divisive rhetoric, or stoop to the lowest instincts of personalised insinuations. All this made him a lesser politician (even an Accidental Prime Minister), but a far bigger man.

In my six and a half years as the Civilian Administrator and Lieutenant Governor of two Union Territories, I met him frequently and sent him “Sitreps” (as naturally given to those from the “Uniform”). What is fascinating is that in all those years of frequent engagement, there wasn’t even one suggestion of anything even remotely partisan from either side – he was after all the Prime Minister and leader of India, and not just of a political party.

Once complaining to him directly on some unsavory requests by supposedly powerful politicians, he deflected the topic and said straightforwardly, “Just focus on relief and rehabilitation and don’t worry about what they say or imply”. I didn’t understand the minefield of Indian politics or intrigues within, but working under the giant, came to understand the priceless value of staying focused and apolitical. My hunch is that counterintuitively, the fact that I often reminded him that I had never subscribed to any party membership or ever would, ironically made him trust me more.

He reflected a political sensibility that transcended the partisan divide for the likes of him and the earlier Prime Ministers like Atal Bihari Vajpayee, IK Gujral, or Narasimha Rao, were all well-read, restrained in conduct, and exemplified the majesty of the “Idea of India” as a noble, aspirational, and inclusive character.

In some ways, all of them were decidedly more accomplished individuals, rather than politicians. Each one of them could be credibly and rightfully questioned (as they all must be) of various missteps or indecisiveness, as neither were they perfect and nor did they pretend to be one.

Dr Manmohan Singh was acutely aware of his constraints (both political and personal) and worked within the same, navigating the proverbial minefield, sometimes well and at other times, not so. But he was a first-rate patriot, professional, and committed to constitutional values (without any if’s or buts) – it is that combination of human commitment, purpose, and even vulnerability, that will be missed. Indian society was a far more inclusive, kinder and liberal realm, under him and others before him, and in that sense, he was the last of the knights of the “Idea of India”.

Now, meaningless politics of memorials, meetings, and cherry picked words from the past will ensue in the name of a man who shunned all such “manufactured-emotions” in favour of more substantive and transformational action.

All this political drama and even remembrance too will have partisan agendas, when the fact is that the frail man of unfailing courtesies and unflinching loyalty was largely forgotten, trophied, or caricaturized, in his last days, even by his ostensible own. This is why the essentially reluctant politician who was obviously hurt and had added tongue-in-cheek that not only was he an Accidental Prime Minister but also an Accidental Finance Minister!

Thankfully for India, these “accidents” occurred. Perhaps the greatest tribute to pay the man is not in words or politics, but by upholding values of progressive thoughts, simple kindness to all without discrimination or “divide”, and to talk less and do more. In life and in death he has given an ideal worth striving for.

Lt General Bhopinder Singh (Retd) is former Lt Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands & Puducherry. The views expressed here are the writer’s own.