Manmohan Singh believed India would never have a Sikh PM, Mani Shankar Aiyar says in his memoir

The former Union Minister and Congress veteran holds the view that the late President Pranab Mukherjee should have been PM, and Dr. Manmohan Singh should have been elevated as President

Six years before taking oath of office, Manmohan Singh believed that the country would never accept a Sikh as Prime Minister, Congress veteran Mani Shankar Aiyar has revealed in his memoir.

In the second volume of his memoir, A Maverick in Politics, published by Juggernaut Books, Mr. Aiyar recalled the time when he tried to persuade Dr. Singh join the Trinamool Congress (TMC).

In January 1998, during Mr. Aiyar’s brief stint with the TMC, he had suggested to Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee that she induct Dr. Singh, who had earlier expressed his “huge dissatisfaction” with the Congress under the late parliamentarian Sitaram Kesri.

“Mamata enthusiastically endorsed my proposal that I meet Doctor (Manmohan Singh) Sahib in Delhi to make to him the offer of the seat (Calcutta Northwest) on behalf of the Trinamool Congress,” he writes, adding, he had Ms. Banerjee’s authority to offer Dr. Singh the prime ministership, “if confusion prevailed in the country again”.

“My expectation was that he would probably say ‘no’, but there was an off chance that he might say ‘yes’. But nothing prepared me for the answer I actually received. After listening to me patiently, he shook his head and almost mournfully replied, ‘This country will never accept a Sikh as prime minister.’ It was a reflection of the long-lasting trauma inflicted on the Sikh community by the country’s armed action in the sacred premises of the Golden Temple and the Sikh pogrom in Delhi and elsewhere during the first few days of Rajiv’s (Gandhi) premiership,” Mr. Aiyer notes.

Written in an engaging and pacy style, the Congress veteran recounts his early years in politics; negotiating through the tenure of the late Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao; his changing equations with the Gandhis, especially Rahul Gandhi, and eventually fading out from the party (the phase from 2016-2024).

Talking about the “stasis in governance” during the United Progressive Alliance (UPA)-II government, the 83-year-old says he believes Dr. Singh should have been elevated to the role of President of India in 2012, when Pranab Mukherjee should have been made the Prime Minister.

In pictures: Pranab Mukherjee (1935-2020)

“In 2012, the Prime Minister (Dr. Singh) underwent operations for multiple coronary bypasses. He never quite recovered physically. It slowed him down and this showed up in governance. As for the party, there was no official announcement about the Congress president’s (Sonia Gandhi) health when she took ill at about the same time as the Prime Minister,” Mr. Aiyar notes.

He quotes Mr. Mukherjee as saying in his memoir that while Ms. Gandhi was “on holiday in the Kausambi hills”, she had given the “vague impression” that she was considering making Dr. Singh the “presidential nominee”’.

“The choice of Rashtrapati: Manmohan Singh or Pranab Mukherjee. Personally, I was of the view that Pranab Mukherjee should have been given the reins of the government and Dr Manmohan Singh elevated to President of India when the office of Rashtrapati presented an opening in 2012,” Mr. Aiyer writes.

From talking about his wife Suneet’s meltdown in the wake of a series of alleged scams during UPA-II to his own assessment of the Dr. Singh government’s mishandling of the challenges, particularly the Anna Hazare-led agitation under the banner of ‘India Against Corruption’, Mr. Aiyar’s book is an insider’s account of the political turbulence the Congress encountered between 2009 and 2014.

“The Minister of Home Affairs, PC (P. Chidambaram) who initially refused Anna Hazare permission to conduct his fast in the Ram Lila grounds, eventually caved in and the Ram Lila grounds became ‘ground zero’ for a much-publicized agitation. I think the lowest point in UPA-II’s reign was when three Union Ministers went to Delhi airport to receive the private aircraft of Baba Ramdev, the highly controversial ‘godman’ who was supporting Anna Hazare,” Mr. Aiyer writes.

Published - December 15, 2024 05:48 pm IST