Once I read Mallika Sengupta ‘s poem, the name I cannot call up right now, where the poetess drew a caricature of the formal relationship between Sonia Gandhi and Dr Manmohan Singh! They were compared with the Lord Ganesha and Kala bou who stands behind the Lord. Naturally everybody could understand that Ganesha was Manmohan Singh and the Kala bou was Sonia Gandhi. The comparison indicated an awful truth that Dr Manmohan Singh was stripped of his power. And whatever he did during his Prime Ministership was highly influenced by Sonia’s monopolic approach. How ridiculous! Infact at this very hour the comparison is remembered and we burst into a peal of laughter!!
Truly Dr Manmohan Singh was the Lord Ganesha. He was gifted with prudence, counsel and policy. A towering figure who not only believed in the necessity of academics but also in intellect, humility and the commitment to national progress. After earning his degrees from Punjab University, Cambridge and Oxford, he moved towards the academics and taught in a few renowned colleges and universities to leave his mark as one of the giants of Economics and its allied affairs! Later he stepped into politics and under his able hegemony the GDP growth rates reached a whopping 9 percent. Moreover , his social welfare initiatives such as Right to information act , Food security bill and MGNREGA deserve a special mention here. His contribution to the Indo – US nuclear deal was a massive achievement , which eventually strengthened India in the International realm. However, criticism didn’t spare him. He always welcomed any form of constructive criticism. Singh had a spiritual bent of mind. A quite person for whom work was the ‘one and only worship’. Thus even after his retirement from the active politics, he was revered by all and sundry.
Owing to his powerful contribution to the society, he was awarded with Padma Vibhushan in 1987. An individual who symbolised honesty, integrity, success, hope and aspirations for all generations!
Today he is no more among us. A huge loss to the kingdom of honest politics. There were so many challenges he confronted. There were severe allegations of corruption and mismanagement. But nothing could deter him from moving towards his goal! His disarming intelligence blended with this sharp silence to install a transformative change in the world of right and wrong!!
– Kunal Roy
( Assistant Professor, Department of English Language and Communication, George Group of Colleges, Kolkata)
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Asish Basak,
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