How are you feeling, Dr?

Those close to him say this philosophy is a fairly accurate reflection of how Dr Singh8217;s mind and instincts work. Whether or not that8217;s the case, this exhortation to do the job regardless is something he needs desperately as he hears chuckles. Chuckles from within his party, from UPA allies and from the Left. The joke, they say, is on Dr Singh, conceding ground on the issue he had hoped would be his big triumph as PM.

How has Dr Singh looked and come across recently? He was stiff, disappointed, almost anguished as he put on a brave face at the HT Leadership Summit last Friday. For the four days of his trip to Africa, he did not meet the media, not even informally.

Inevitably, there was speculation. Was he too angry? Or was he just bracing to resign as he disembarked at Delhi airport after the trip? But the long hours of the transcontinental flight he spent alone, when he must have reflected on whether the job was worth it, seemed to have produced a decision. The PM seems willing to try and salvage not just his premiership, but his pride, and make the most of the time left.

He has his job cut out. He has been criticised by his some in the party as the only Congress PM to be without a Lok Sabha constituency, without an 8216;understanding of Indian politics8217; or a 8216;pragmatic8217; view of the 8216;real8217; world. Now, nuclear deal enthusiasts see him as someone without even the guts to resign and go down with 8216;pride8217; intact.

Then there are also those coalitions within the coalition. Within the Congress, the PM has to take along the Congress president and her team. He has to be take along party veterans unhappy at his 8216;good luck8217; to have got the top job. Dr Singh has to be mindful of satraps like Lalu Prasad and Sharad Pawar in his cabinet. Of course, then there8217;s the Left, with a raft of peeves, issues, and views, almost all of them at wide variance with the Doctor8217;s beliefs.

Dr Singh is acutely aware that he is no Rajiv Gandhi or Indira Gandhi with a mighty mandate, backed by single party rule and buttressed by a magic surname. He knows he8217;s not even a P.V. Narasimha Rao or an Atal Bihari Vajpayee 8212; respected for their political wile. Manmohan Singh was on a tightrope from the time he took the oath. Now, there8217;s high wind as he walks the tightrope.

In times like these, does his early life and career provide a clue on how he might react? He spent his first 12 years in a village, Gah, in undivided Punjab the village is now in Pakistan. Yes, he studied under dim streetlights and, yes, he went on to do very well, winning the Adam Smith Prize in Cambridge in 1956. That shows some resilience and tenacity.

Pressure of a high profile job? There8217;s nothing quite like being prime minister of India. But Dr Singh8217;s CV fairly bristles with important postings in high profile international organisations and in the Indian government. The most high pressure job before this one was of course being finance minister under Narasimha Rao. Called in to handle a crisis, Singh turned it into an opportunity and India changed. He was severely criticised in the party and even blamed partly for the Congress losing the general elections.

But when political wisdom had it that 8216;India Shining8217; was a vote loser, Dr Singh adroitly shifted gears and emphasised aam aadmi rhetoric, although the economist in him was always struggling to come out.

Is this necessary and admirable flexibility or, as his critics suggest, a typical bureaucrat8217;s ability to switch hats, with no conviction under the hat? Is Dr Singh an economist when he is with bureaucrats, a politician when with economists and a bureaucrat when with politicians? Then what is he as PM, especially now?

But no one who is fair could have missed catching, at least occasionally, a glimpse of what the PM believes in: simply put, Dr Singh believes in a resurgent India that should take its chances. Many in politics, both in and outside the Congress, on the right and and on the left, snigger at this, terming it flamboyance; as rhetoric aimed at pleasing Americans; at political naivete or worse. Manmohan Singh, however, thinks the timidity of that worldview is flawed. A good quote to sum this aspect of him can be found in one of his own speeches. He told the Rajya Sabha last year, while speaking on the nuclear issue, 8220;I am aware of the risks in what I am doing, but these are risks worth taking.8221;

Are those risks still worth taking? It appears the PM has made up his mind that they are. He is, for example, already busy negotiating on how not to project his government as a 8220;one-issue8221; regime.

Manmohan Singh is fond of narrating to close associates how, when in the mid-sixties he was chief economist at UNCTAD in Geneva, K.N. Raj rang him from the Delhi School of Economics and offered him a professorship. Dr Singh agreed immediately. He resigned from the UN, but when he took the letter to the renowned economist and founding secretary-general of UNCTAD, Raul Prebisch, the latter bluntly told Dr Singh that he was being 8220;foolish8221;. Manmohan Singh is said to have smiled and said it may be 8220;foolish8221; but he was going back because he 8220;felt like it8221;. Prebisch apparently said; 8220;Manmohan, sometimes it is wise to be foolish.8221;

Postscript: Shortly afterwards, in 1969, Presbisch himself abruptly resigned from UNCTAD. He said the job was fruitless and frustrating.