With the Prime Minister's portrait in the background, the title on the cover reads The Underachiever — India needs a reboot.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who has long been lauded for his pivotal role in liberalising the Indian economy, has been termed an “underachiever” by a top U.S. magazine, which says he appears “unwilling to stick his neck out” on reforms that will put the country back on the growth path.
Dr. Singh (79) is featured on the cover of Time magazine’s Asia edition, which will be out next week. With his portrait in the background, the title on the cover reads ‘The Underachiever — India needs a reboot.’
Is Prime Minister Manmohan Singh up to the job, Time’s report titled ‘A Man in Shadow’ asks, adding that apart from facing the challenges of a slowdown in economic growth, huge fiscal deficit and a falling rupee, India’s Congress party-led UPA coalition “has found itself fending off corruption scandals and accused of showing a lack of economic direction.”
“....investors at home and abroad are beginning to get cold feet. Voters too are losing confidence, as rising inflation and a litany of scandals chip away at the government’s credibility,” the magazine says.
Pointing to Dr. Singh’s fall “from grace,” the magazine says, “In the past three years, the calm confidence he [Dr. Singh] once radiated has been absent. He seems unable to control his Ministers and — his new, temporary portfolio at the Finance Ministry notwithstanding — unwilling to stick his neck out on reforms that will continue the process of liberalisation he helped start.”
At a time when India cannot afford a slowdown in economic growth, “laws that could help create growth and jobs are stuck in Parliament, sparking concerns that politicians have lost the plot in their focus on shorter-term, populist measures that will win votes.”
“Now that [Dr.] Singh is interim Finance Minister as well as PM, he has greater scope and a fresh opportunity to turn things around — but it’s by no means certain that he can,” Time says.
Over the past 20 years, Dr. Singh’s “avuncular visage and signature powder blue turban were synonymous with India’s rising star, a fixture on front pages since the early 1990s, when, as Finance Minister, he played a pivotal role in liberalising the economy and setting the nation on the path of fast growth,” says the magazine.
Personal integrity
In a national capital full of bluster and backroom deals, the quiet economist has long been admired for his restraint and personal integrity. The country clocked a 9.6 per cent growth in his first term as Prime Minister.
“For the past two years, the Congress-led coalition has found itself fending off scandals, most notably the corrupt awarding of 2G spectrum at prices below market value,” the magazine says.
It adds that Dr. Singh’s “squeaky clean image” took a hit when anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare levelled charges against him and more than a dozen of his Ministers over the alleged misallocation of coal mining rights.
India’s “battered economy” is another menacing concern for Dr. Singh, Time says.
The magazine says some believe Dr. Singh’s “unofficial power-sharing agreement” with UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi has “tied his hands and that he lacks the clout to go against other party stalwarts.”
Keywords: Manmohan Singh government, UPA-II, Times opinion, Indian economy
Governance require processes for decision making and a deep assessment of reality.
Meaningful Governance not only requires vision for all but also a sense of history.
Economic indicators point to aspirations on what is to be done. Equally important for a
Government is how it ensures that certain things do not happen. The UPA government,
reeling under the charges of corruption, is meeting a slowdown. I would still call its
greatest failure not economic, but human rights. Only a vision of human rights can take
a country of 1 billion plus into the 21c. And India has glossed over this under UPA as
before.
"sparking concerns that politicians have lost the plot in their focus on shorter-term, populist measures that will win votes.”
Actually, they forget that it is counter productive....
The way things going on in india, it really needs an reboot/restart from scratch.
many people of suffer every day for basic needs... everything basic needs for stuck because of our politicians... i don't know how we people are very silent and believing these politicians... as a people we also need to change and also make others change. people and government is not concentrating on many things which is going to lead big things in feature and finally we are not going to get water for drinking.... common guys focus on environment first.
I would not put this man as an "Underachiever". Mr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister Vajpayee, PM Rajiv and everyone were visionaries, who brought our country to where it is today. He has done his part when he was a Finance Minister and I think we should have great respect for the Prime Minister.
The problem with our PM is that he is very naive and he is very lightly spoken person. I have seen how timid he is. Ofcourse some of us Indians are very timid and we are very naive. But, we need someone more energetic and energizing person like Rahul or someone in that line.
I have great respect for these three gentleman and great people who did for our country, I wish all our other political parties and politicians have that same ethics and love for the nation and who will take us to the next 20 years of development and growth and cut the rising inflation, improve poverty line and provide good service to the people including good healthcare provision to all in India.
This is not surprising and rightly so. When, Dr.Manmohan Singh initiated reforms in 1991, it was at the behest of Late Prime Minister P.V.N Rao, who boldly pushed ahead with the reforms recommended by the Finance Minister. But, now,when Dr.Manmohan Singh has been Prime Minister for second term, no noteworthy reform has been initiated, there have been scams after scams tumbling out, and the rupee is sliding like down with no brakes to stop. As a citizen, Dr.Manmohan has been a huge disappointment as a Prime Minister. The only thing he has done well to date is to hold on the position with dignity,grace and personal integrity - perhaps.
He has let down the nation of 1.3 billion expecting the country to move ahead boldly, as it did under Late PM Rao, when things looked really grim with almost empty coffers. But, now with almost 300 billion in reserves, the economy seems in shambles.
Poor MMS, have to take all these names because of incompetent
ministers and their wrong doing, and not to forget his tied hands on
the order of higher command to control them. While other rejoice with
there looted money and getting away, it is MMS who gets all the blame.
Very hard to imagine his position, being mute all the time and have to
see through these wrong doings and not do anything because of his
superior politicians.
One shouldn't forget that he was a great Finance minister, one who liberalized the Indian economy back in 1990's and its because of it,
what Indian economy is now. He is better a FM than PM, which I'm sure
he didn't wanted, but was forced to take it and act as puppet.
Maybe he should break through his puppet image and act on his own
without bothering of the consequences.
Why are Time magazine's views so sacrosanct that its reproduced all
around? Its not even person of the year/decade/millinea story.
Seriously, I don't get it. This is a magazine which doesn't have deep
roots within India and generally a very pro-US magazine. And it hardly
has a circulation base in India - Without these articles, nobody would
have even heard of their views.
One request, if people are so interested in knowing Time magazine's
views - they will buy that. Why is a daily like Hindu reprinting their
views?
It is more accurate to distinguish Manmohan Singh/PM, an acdemic macroeconomist, from a traditional politician.
In 1991, as I was based in Hyderabad, he not only challenged existing policy paradigm of Import Raj; he dismantled it to the chagrin of the establishment including the benefactors of Import Raj....
However, he's not a politician who can manage a federal bureaucracy of the subcontinent. The dynamics of economic liberalization should have made a paradigm shift in policy priorities: namely, structural deficits of massive poverty and (rural) health policy modernization. Either one accepts increasing poverty of millions or a leader stakes out his vision of how to remove it as a blight on Indian national politics.
The real q's is weather BJP and the rest of the opposition have a different policy perspective to remove poverty or not.
As long as Indian rural poverty persists, there is very little chance of changing the dynamics of subcontinents economic policy paradigm
Why are we seeing these sort of articles on a 'Secular' magazine like The Hindu. There are so many burning issues in Gujarat which should be addressed to , please do that.
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