‘In 2012, Manmohan underwent operations, never quite recovered physically’

PTI, Dec 26, 2024, 10:49 PM IST

New Delhi: In 2012, the then prime minister Manmohan Singh underwent operations for multiple coronary bypasses and never quite recovered physically as it slowed him down and this showed up in governance, veteran Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar says in his latest book.

He says that Pranab Mukherjee should have been given the reins of the UPA-II government and Singh elevated to President when the office of Rashtrapati presented an opening in 2012.

Aiyar’s insight into the period post 2012 comes into spotlight as Singh, who was the country’s prime minister from 2004-14, passed away at AIIMS here.

The 83-year-old Aiyar states in the book that if this step had been taken, the UPA would not have gone into a “paralysis of governance”.

He says the decision to retain Singh as the prime minister and shift Mukherjee to the Rashtrapati Bhawan “doomed” any prospects the Congress might have had to form UPA-III.

Aiyar puts forward these ideas in his forthcoming book “A Maverick in Politics” published by Juggernaut.

In the book, Aiyar talks about his early days in politics, navigating through the Narasimha Rao years, his time as a minister in UPA I, his Rajya Sabha term and then his “decline…fade out…fall”.

“In 2012, the prime minister (Manmohan 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 health when she took ill at about the same time as the PM,” Aiyar says.

It soon became clear that in both the offices –“ the PM’s and the party president’s — there was stasis, a distinct absence of governance, while several crises, particularly Anna Hazare’s ‘India Against Corruption’ movement, were either not handled effectively or not handled at all, says the diplomat-turned-politician.

“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,” he says.

“This was principally because we needed a very active PM in good health and with the energy to lead the government (Pranab Da) and a person of high distinction who had served his country exceptionally well (Dr Singh) to preside over the nation. Pranab’s memoirs indicate that this was in fact contemplated,” Aiyar points out.

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

“This led Pranab to wonder ‘if she selected Singh for the presidential office, she may choose me as the prime minister’. For reasons to which neither I, nor it seems anyone else, was made privy, the decision was taken to retain Dr Manmohan Singh as PM and shift Pranab Mukherjee upstairs as Rashtrapati,” says Aiyar.

That, in my view, doomed any prospects the Congress might have had to form UPA-III, he adds.

While the Indian media slammed the government, Time magazine ran a very damaging cover story that described Singh as a ‘Do Nothing’ Prime Minister, he recalls in the book.

Aiyar argues that Mukherjee’s left-wing reputation would have disturbed the business community and the Americans if he were made PM, but there was no one more experienced than him.

“I hazard the view that if this obvious step had been taken, we would not have gone into a paralysis of governance and thus opened the door to the worst excesses of Hindutva in the general elections of 2014,” he says.

In the book, Aiyar also recounts his own most telling memory of the “meltdown of UPA II” was when he returned home one evening he found his wife, Suneet, sitting before the TV set with a shattered look on her face.

“When I inquired what the matter was, she raised her stricken face and exclaimed, ‘No scams today!’ We, therefore, went into the 2014 general elections very much a runner up. In the event, the election exposed the Indian National Congress as a broken reed that fell from 404 seats in 1984 to 44 seats in 2014,” Aiyar says.