Baru compares him to Bhishma of the Mahabharata. Bhishma was the principled person fighting for the wrong side. He remained a silent spectator to Draupadi’s humiliation, as did Dr Singh to his country’s loot and plunder.
Ministers and party men treated Dr. Manmohan Singh with disdain and sidestepped him whenever possible. They met and reported directly to Sonia Gandhi instead of the Prime Minister. For example, Pranab Mukherjee, a cabinet minister of that era, came back from a foreign trip and did not bother to update Dr Singh about his trip. Dr Singh apparently felt humiliated but could do nothing about it.
In political circles, it was clearly known that Sonia Gandhi wanted to become the PM or at least to give the post to a family member, but historical circumstances did not allow her to do so at the time. Therefore she picked out Dr. Manmohan Singh, a receptive, compliant personality. Baru realized quite early on that all successes were to be attributed to the Gandhi family and all…show more content… It was his policies, profound economic insight and deft handling of external affairs that won the coalition another term, and a fresh lease of life.
“The Accidental Prime Minister” by Baru reveals that the Gandhi family stood in the way of Dr Manmohan Singh achieving any kind of political prominence or excellence. Singh’s devotion in ensuring Rahul’s succession was grossly apparent and misplaced. Sonia Gandhi stood for total power without any responsibility; Dr Singh stood for total responsibility without any power. They were two faces of the same tragic coin.
Baru admits that there are gaps in his narrative because of lack of some confidential and crucial inputs. Therefore, this account of the dynamics between Sonia Gandhi and Dr Manmohan Singh is slightly sketchy. Baru was Dr. Manmohan Singh’s media adviser from 2004 till 2008. He has mainly touched upon this time period in his