Few leaders are more respected globally than Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. US President Barack Obama has described him as an historic figure, close friend and valued adviser. (So, for that matter, did former US president George W. Bush.) When Newsweek ranked world leaders, Singh ranked first, winning praise for his modesty and incorruptibility. He was described as the “leader that other leaders love.”
However, if he is lauded overseas, Singh is now under attack at home, as critics blame his administration for indecision and inaction. His government is besieged by corruption scandals, runaway inflation and bickering among senior ministers. Amid the clamor, Singh has often seemed silent or aloof, even as his political enemies have portrayed him as the weak captain of a rudderless administration.
The loud criticism of Singh, who sits atop the coalition government led by the Indian National Congress Party, is partly the white noise of India’s raucous democracy and partly a reprise of old complaints. However, the public perception of disarray is one reason the prime minister is expected to reshuffle his Cabinet as early as this week.
Many analysts say Singh must recharge his administration to tackle major issues like food security, power supply and infrastructure, as well as to push through reforms on land and governance. More than that, they say, he must seize the moment to address larger, systemic failures in governing that could eventually undermine India’s aspirations to become a global power.
For now, India’s economy is sizzling, growing at roughly 9 percent a year. Many economists are forecasting a long boom that, if handled properly, could transform the nation. However, to a large degree, Indian entrepreneurs have learned to thrive despite governmental dysfunction.
“There are so many uncertainties over the next four or five years that if you don’t fix things while the going is good, it is going to be that much harder later,” said Pratap Bhanu Mehta, president of the Center for Policy Research, a leading independent research institute in New Delhi. “Given the historic opportunity that India has, they are frittering away precious time.”
Singh, now 78, usually floats above the rancor of India’s daily politics. Trained as an economist, he is considered a father of the economic reforms credited for setting off India’s current boom. As finance minister, beginning in 1991, he dismantled -socialist-era restraints and oversaw India’s transition to a more open, market-based economy. By 2004, after Sonia Gandhi had guided the Congress Party back to power, she made Singh her surprise choice for prime minister.
Indeed, Singh’s critics have long disparaged him as a caretaker prime minister beholden to Sonia Gandhi, the Congress Party president, and to her son, Rahul Gandhi, the party’s heir apparent as prime minister. Yet Singh proved otherwise, especially when Congress Party leaders and coalition allies wavered on a landmark civilian nuclear agreement with the US. Singh threatened to resign if the Congress Party did not back him on the deal, which it promptly did.
In the 2009 elections, opposition leaders in the Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, depicted Singh as India’s weakest prime minister, but voters re-elected his Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government. Some analysts interpreted the results as his mandate. When the new government took office, public expectations were high.
Now, 20 months later, the Congress Party has experienced setbacks in key elections in the state of Bihar and is wounded by corruption scandals linked to the Commonwealth Games, the government’s allotment of the 2G telecommunications spectrum and other cases of official malfeasance.
Singh must no doubt operate at the mercy of the imperfections of India’s coalition politics. However, his Cabinet has witnessed periodic infighting, while the prime minister himself has seemed slow to respond to certain crises, his critics say.
When Kashmir erupted in riots last summer, Singh waited for months before strongly intervening. And though he has not been personally linked to any scandals, he has been criticized for his inability, or unwillingness, to crack the whip on corruption and push through reforms.
“In spite of a clean personal image, he is heading a government that is responsible for unbelievable amounts of treasury loss,” said Nirmala Sitharaman, a BJP spokeswoman.
Sanjaya Baru, a former spokesman for the prime minister, said the scandals had come as Singh’s political influence already seemed diminished. He was forced to make a public reversal after making an overture to Pakistan that apparently exceeded the dictates of other Congress Party leaders. His signature achievement — the civilian nuclear deal — was passed with a liability clause that may prevent many foreign nuclear suppliers from building power plants in India.
“He is damaged, he is quite damaged,” said Baru, who is now editor of Business Standard, a financial newspaper. “In the last year, the feeling is that he has not been able to do what he would like to do. That he is not his own man. And he has to overcome that for his own legacy.”
For weeks, the political gossip mill in New Delhi was filled with speculation that Singh might be pushed out, though most analysts say such a situation was never likely, given Singh’s global stature and his standing in the country.
Sonia Gandhi is widely perceived to be positioning her son as the party’s prime ministerial candidate in 2014, but her commitment to Singh seems unshaken for the current term. Moreover, the prime minister’s allies dispute any suggestion that he is a diminished figure.
“Externally, he may appear to be weak,” said Jairam Ramesh, the country’s environment minister. “But internally, I can tell you, he is very clear in what he is doing.”
Harish Khare, the prime minister’s spokesman, dismissed the criticism as “democratic noise” and said that India’s parliamentary system, as well as the traditions of the Congress Party, preclude any prime minister from acting with sole authority.
“The decision making is a collective process,” he said. “People expect the prime minister to be a president, of the United States presidential model. That’s not Singh’s style. His style is quiet leadership and delivering.”
Still, most analysts say Singh’s government must restore its credibility with the public. On Monday, a group of corporate leaders and prominent citizens published an open letter calling on “our leaders” to confront corruption and institute reforms and accountability. Baru, the former spokesman, said reshuffling the Cabinet could be a first step.
“Right now, everybody is saying he is doing nothing,” Baru said. “That is the real crisis. He needs a new team and a new agenda to establish that he is back in control.”
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