Politician Singh

Although slightly arbitrary it is still valid to take Manmohan Singh8217;s Independence Day address this year as marking a break in his public life 8212; the doctor has become a politician. This has nothing to do with the speech, which was dull and average. It doesn8217;t have to do much with Sonia Gandhi8217;s apparent, as interpreted by the media, endorsement of Singh as the Congress8217;s prime ministerial candidate. That question surely hasn8217;t been answered as yet, if only because the Congress moves in complex ways when it comes to deciding on non-Nehru-Gandhi party leaders. Singh8217;s transformation as a politician has to do with something obvious 8212; his engagement with politics. He took a political gamble and won the trust vote, he dispatched the Left where he has been wanting to for a long time, he engaged in personal battles with L.K. Advani, he hears out Amar Singh8217;s many ideas about how SP should be engaged 8212; generally he has stopped being the somewhat under-confident good chap and become a hardened player. Even the cash-for-votes controversy, on which the jury is still out, strengthens Singh8217;s identity as a politician 8212; politicians come in mixtures of good and the odd or bad; the better politicians have more of the good. So since the I-Day speech was the first big occasion the country saw Singh speaking after the trust vote, it is a good way to announce his transformation.

What now? Politician Singh of course doesn8217;t and shouldn8217;t stop being Dr Singh. Indeed, Politician Singh should get what Dr Singh wanted but couldn8217;t quite do in economic reforms. There are plenty of things that can be done now, as these columns argued recently, and Singh should use his political weight to push them through. Senior cabinet colleagues who used to carp in private and sometimes in public must be made to feel far more apprehensive now 8212; that8217;s how successful politicians manage governments.

Also, Singh must now enter the political marketplace. It would be absurd, indeed comically so, if he doesn8217;t contest the next Lok Sabha elections. That would destroy much of the political capital he has built now. For people at large to feel that Manmohan Singh is a politician worth taking very seriously, they must be directly able to vote for, or against, him.