The date July 29, 2026, was an important but unacknowledged day in our recent political history. In a remarkable judgment, the Supreme Court upheld the CBI’s clean chit to Dr Manmohan Singh in the alleged “coal block allocation scam”. More importantly, it pulled up the trial court for rejecting the CBI’s closure reports and making adverse observations against the former prime minister for no “compelling reason”.
The judgment brings to a conclusion one of the most tragic arcs of our public discourse — the witch-hunt against Dr Singh, a man of the most remarkable probity and integrity. The lobby against him was coordinated and well-organised, with actors stretching from the bureaucracy to the media, the judiciary, civil society, and most certainly to the RSS and BJP. Today, their bogus crusade has come to its inevitable conclusion of nothingness. Dr Singh has been vindicated on every count.
Dr Singh’s record of integrity and accountability stands in stark contrast to how the Narendra Modi government has operated, so clearly and grossly misusing agencies designed to investigate crime and corruption like the ED and the CBI. Its purpose has been to exert pressure on politicians. Leaders are either silenced through coercion or cynically folded into the BJP or, in some remarkable instances, rewarded with ministerial positions as well. When credible accusations of corruption emerge, the Modi government simply brushes them aside. Corrupt when you’re in the Opposition, suddenly clean when you jump ship!
It is not a coincidence that the Prime Minister was also among the most vocal proponents of the attack on Dr Singh. His snide and atrocious remarks in the Rajya Sabha on February 8, 2017, that only Dr Singh knew “the art of bathing with a raincoat on”, will go down as the lowest point of our parliamentary history. Since Mr Modi is these days “forgiving” India’s students for attacking him, perhaps he can take this opportunity to forgive himself for his undignified slander against Dr Singh.
Introspection, like charity, must begin from home. Ultimately, the attack on Dr Singh was motivated by a desperate desire to shift the public conversation and narrative away from his outstanding governance record.
Dr Manmohan Singh’s government heralded profound economic change with unprecedented rates of growth and a consumption and private investment boom that propelled us into the ranks of middle-income countries. In 2008, when the global economy faced turbulence and collapse, India demonstrated its resilience. During his tenure, the shift in employment patterns became very discernible with lakhs moving into higher-productivity occupations. Over the last decade, however, this diversification has been reversed. Based significantly on the programmes put in place in the previous government and the acceleration in growth rates, India decisively began winning the battle against poverty and deprivation. Let us not forget that in spite of the reworking of how the growth of India’s GDP is calculated, the 10 years of the UPA government saw higher economic growth than the past 12 years, resulting in millions being pulled out of poverty.
Socially, the Manmohan Singh government enabled a revolution that brought rights to all Indians, especially the most deprived sections of our society. It delivered on the constitutional promise of a Right to Education and expanded social justice through the introduction of OBC reservation in centrally funded higher education institutes like the IITs and IIMs. The Forest Rights Act recognised the ancestral rights of our Adivasi and forest-dwelling communities, after a decades-long struggle. The MGNREGA, recently demolished by the Modi government, was the most powerful social security intervention set up anywhere.
During the Covid pandemic, when the whole economy was severely dislocated, MGNREGA was one of two avenues through which the government was able to reach the poor and most vulnerable sections of society. The other avenue was yet another signature achievement of Dr Singh’s government — the National Food Security Act, 2013, which identified and guaranteed access to basic food rations for crores of families. This is being sought to be amended. Soon after he demitted office, he had warned that the rights-based legislation would come under assault and his fears have, most sadly, come true.
Politically, the Dr Manmohan Singh decade as prime minister was characterised by the growth and strengthening of democratic institutions of the state and civil society. Dr Singh heralded a new era of transparency in government through the landmark Right to Information Act, which enabled citizens to access the government’s inner workings. The RTI now stands totally emasculated. There was an explosion of independent media, which was characterised by a fearlessness that appears more remarkable when juxtaposed with its current enfeeblement. Civil society emerged as a force to be reckoned with, and our students had the freedom to protest against the government and even the prime minister, without being fired upon by metallic pellet guns or AK-47s.
The prime minister regularly made himself accountable to Parliament and to the media through 100-plus unscripted press conferences. And of course, we cannot forget that the landmark and path-breaking Indo-US nuclear deal, which overturned decades of nuclear discrimination against and denial towards India and marked our arrival on the global stage, was possible because of his political courage and sustained initiative. This accord has been paying dividends. Dr Singh was a man respected and applauded in global forums and he never felt the need to parade and proclaim these accomplishments and the honours he received.
His belief in India’s economic potential, his desire to deliver justice to every last citizen, and his conviction in democracy underlined the philosophy of his government. Dr Singh’s statesmanship, erudition, and fundamental decency are sorely missed in today’s conflicted times. The mischievous and indefensible allegations against his integrity have been exposed as hollow, and his record as prime minister is increasingly being recognised for what it was — a period of decisive economic, political, and social advancement in Indian history.
We all certainly regret that he is not here to see this day and to guide the nation with his wisdom. But it is a solace to us all that his prophetic prediction of January 2014 is becoming increasingly self-evident with every passing day. History will indeed remember him kindly as a quiet, gentle but a most consequential prime minister.
The writer is the chairperson of the Congress Parliamentary Party
Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. (File Photo) 
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