Skeleton Singh - The Closet Prime Minister

Sometime in June 2011 following frequent demands that the “PM break his silence” and speak up on various scams and issues confronting the nation Manmohan Singh held a press meet with five carefully handpicked print media editors. This was supported by the announcement that he would hold such a press meet every week. That done, there were no subsequent press meets. The weekly Malamal lottery of handpicking editors to meet ended with the first and only one. Our “friendly-fire” media is happy too, since the noise had died down on this promise of ‘weekly press-meets’ and the PM could go back to his closet.

Come the monsoon session of the parliament and suddenly MMS comes out all-guns blazing like Rambo (or should I lately say Singham?) and breaks his silence again by delivering one stupid sound bite. “There are skeletons in the Opposition’s cupboard too” he effectively said. Silence is not too great for a Prime Minister, but surely stupidity has to be even worse. I find it hard to believe MMS can come up with that line on his own so I wonder who tutored him. Perhaps Harish Khare or the ministers who manage the media keep feeding him these lines. I guess MMS finally got tired of being Caesar’s wife and now sees skeletons.

Ironically, the first new skeleton to tumble out as the parliament commenced a new session was directly from his own closet. A CAG report is cited as stating that the PMO overlooked a GOM decision to appoint Suresh Kalamadi as CWG-OC Chairman. That Singham video has since has been taken off following threats by Congress goons. But it’s unlikely the CWG and other scams are going to be shut down in a hurry. In an article, FirstPost, even questions the alteration of the minutes of meeting of the GOM that led to the appointment of Kalmadi.

While Ajay Maken, the current Sports Minister, is desperately trying to pin the blame for Kalmadi’s appointment to the previous NDA government there cannot be any doubt now that the PMO has been involved in not only this but was in full knowledge of many other scams too. A. Raja’s statements in court have clearly established the PM was in the know and had even approved the spectrum transactions.

People are now sick and tired of the media’s and the Congress’ attempt to continue to stick the “honesty and integrity” tag to this PM. It now appears that far from the imaginary honesty and integrity, he has wilfully allowed the scams to flourish. He has allowed and overseen the greatest loot of this nation ever in its history. For an economist he has also overseen the economic slide of India, the growth story is grounded and India’s international standing has corroded. The terrible lack of political leadership is starting to affect every sphere of endeavour in this nation.

None of the above is new. MMS has a history to it. Here are excerpts (in blue) from an article from April 2009 by Surajit Dasgupta titled ‘The Manmohan Singh Chronology’. I repeat, these are random excerpts from a very long article and I would strongly recommend that the full article be read:

There is a paradox in the thought process of onlookers. On the one hand, ask a loser why he couldn't make it big in life. Chances are high, he has an alibi of honesty. On the other, point out to him the illustrious growth of a known personality in society and he exclaims, "Wow!"

That the Indian Prime Minister is the epitome of honesty and integrity is a notion not even his biggest detractor in politics dares to challenge. ……. Also, if beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder, it must be noted that most journalists in the country are either Bachelors of Arts (pass course) or hold MA in history, not embellished further by an MPhil, let alone a PhD. As for business scribes, a sizeable number of whom are postgraduates in economics and commerce, we know how they conduct their routine business. They pick up information from corporate communication heads of companies, published brochures, leaflets, pamphlets and uploaded website content of those firms, besides sound-bytes of the CEOs…… without ever trying to explore the darker alleys of the business houses by befriending executives from the purchase, sales, accounts and human resource departments.

In the evening of 5 February 2006, I edited an article by Ajoy Bose for The Pioneer, "Manmohan, doctor of politics"….. Bose wondered how Singh "managed to flourish so well under different political masters through the turbulent 1970s and '80s". Then, the silence of the Congress turned deafening when on 21 May 2006, The Statesmanpublished an article by Subroto Roy with several facts that cast aspersions on the character of Manmohan Singh, the economist and bureaucrat. Titled "The politics of Dr Singh", the article presented a chronology of events in Singh's career since his days as a student in University of Cambridge. For systematic reading, let us look at the contents of Roy's article in a bulletised format:

As a student -
(England onwards)
Greatest influences among teachers: Joan Robinson & Nicholas Kaldor (both communists)
Mao Zedong's "Little Leap Forward" followed by "Great Leap Forward".
Curiously, Mao himself apologised to the Chinese people subsequently for both.

As a bureaucrat -
March 1971: Seeks 'blessings' of PN Haksar, who had followed his model of protectionism to help Indira Gandhi's regime nationalise banks, to join bureaucracy
Haksar's background:
• In London, protégé of R Palme Dutt and Krishna Menon
• IFS under Jawaharlal Nehru's regime
• May 1967 onwards, Indira Gandhi’s adviser

Haksar's feats:
• Nationalisation of India’s banks
• The Congress split and creation of the Congress(I)
• Politicisation of the bureaucracy including the intelligence services
• Highly placed civil servants became politically committed pro-USSR bureaucrats
• Beginning of courtier culture and durbar politics

As a politician (almost) -
22 March 1991: Rajiv Gandhi prepares documents for liberalisation. Singh had nothing to do with the origins of the 1991 reform and never interacted with Rajiv Gandhi in the last months of the latter's life…. It was Subroto Roy's encounter with Rajiv Gandhi that led to the Congress's change of economic thinking in 1990-1991.

Mission unaccomplished:
• Continuing deficit finance
• No measure to check corruption
• No enforcement of clean accounting
• No strict audits

Skipping 11 years…
May 2002: Congress passes a resolution saying the ideas of India’s liberalisation had originated with neither Manmohan Singh nor Narasimha Rao! The account was too damning and the newspaper that carried it too credible to be ignored. But ignore Singh's party did. Why? Was it out of the fear that any action, legal or otherwise, would turn the article or its writer more popular and more people might revisit and perhaps revise their opinion about the current prime minister?

As the "honesty" and "integrity" of our prime minister has turned almost into an electioneering slogan of the Congress, it's time to dig deeper….

After the Narasimha Rao era began, in August 1991, the rate of inflation rose to more than 17 %; the BoP crisis had already turned critical with India left with forex reserves just about enough to pay for three weeks’ imports. Under these circumstances, why did Rao summon Singh’s predecessor at RBI, IG Patel, and request him to accept the post of finance minister in his cabinet? Why was Singh the second preference?

Certain notions are so deeply set in the public psyche, even hindsight many years later cannot rectify the myths. That India embarked upon a path to a free market regime in the period 1991-96 is one such notion. Reforms should mean competitive prices for the consumer, but almost all infrastructure projects at that time were pursued without competition, Enron and Cogentrix being two prime examples. …..While to its credit, the Rao-Singh regime could boast of successively increasing growth rates – Corruption in all public-private partnership deals became the order of the day. And the Great Indian Securities Scam unfolded.

……When advised by admirers to leave the Congress in 1996 and concentrate again on propounding economic philosophies, he had dismissed the plea with his signature feeble voice, thus, "But I am in politics!" It seems somewhere in his subconscious he fancied his chances in a possible second innings in the future. Soon after the 1996 elections at a meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Party, he quoted the "Caesar's wife" proverb. the insinuation was clear; he was distancing himself from Narasimha Rao. But he knew his future would be in the Congress.

If it was not a bureaucrat being dictated by his political master(s) (1971-91), or a minister being given ideas by a prime minister (1991-96), or a prime minister being told what to do by his party's head, it is an ally telling him what to do, more importantly, what not to do (2004-2009). If nationalisation of wholesale trade in foodgrains was Indira Gandhi's idea, if increasing corporate taxes in 1979 was Charan Singh's or HM Patel's idea, if mortgaging the country's gold was Chandrashekhar's idea, if liberalisation and globalisation were ideas of the IMF-Narasimha Rao combine and, finally, reforms with a human face was Sonia Gandhi's idea with too much of facial massage (read NREGA) added by the left, what, for heaven's sake, is Manmohan Singh's idea?

To conclude, Manmohan Singh has but two words that sum up all his ideas: "Yes, boss!".

The Real CABINET Meeting

The mainstream media for a long time has been hounding lesser ministers and crooks. The root of the entire disaster that confronts India lies at the top of the pyramid and not at the bottom. It is the honourable Prime Minister with a great deal of skeletons to protect who must be held responsible. Not far behind is the UPA chairperson. If a Chief Minister can be forced to resign by leaked reports and an activist Lokayukta then the closet PM is guilty of far larger crimes. The honesty and integrity crap doesn’t wash anymore. It is time for a real leader to step in.  Skeleton Singh, the closet PM, must go.

Also Read:  "Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi Should Be Held Criminally Liable..."

Why Is Indian Media Scared Of Sonia Gandhi?

On June 15 Rahul Kanwal of Headlines Today conducted a public debate on the Lokpal bill. It was titled ‘Team Anna Vs Govt’. Not very appropriate since the supposed Govt. side had journalists Tavleen Singh and a noisy Shoma Chaudhary from Tehelka, and they surely don’t represent the government. It was the usual slugfest with the audience also involved in asking questions. Nothing about the program struck me as being new or specific except when a man wearing a green T-shirt, who introduced himself as ‘IIT Kharagpur and MBA’, started shooting questions. It was all fine until he started raising some questions about Swiss banks or KGB money apparently in relation to Sonia Gandhi. Hmmmm! That’s where Kanwal abruptly cut him off. This got me wondering all over again.

It seems that there are two topics that are taboo for our mainstream media – Islamic Terror and Sonia Gandhi. Behind all their claims of being free, fearless, impartial and unbiased our MSM really doesn’t want to talk about these two topics. In a previous post I have attempted to understand why the media is scared of the Religion of Peace. (Why ‘Liberal’ Media Is Scared of TheReligion Of Peace!) But surely, the MSMs complete silence on various issues and allegations concerning Sonia Gandhi is even more intriguing. NDTV, CNN-IBN, TimesNow, Headlines Today and their Hindi versions seem reluctant to even report items appearing in various other news sources. Amazing! Sonia Gandhi seems untouchable!

On June 13 when Baba Ramdev broke his fast Subramanian Swamy stated Sonia Gandhi was in Switzerland. Yet, on June 12 when she condemned the murder of journalist J.Dey the media made it appear she was making the statement as usual from Delhi. There wasn’t one mention of where she was making that statement from. That’s not all. Our all-knowing media reported that Jayalalithaa, who was in Delhi on June 14, would not be meeting Sonia Gandhi. Surprising! Given that Sonia Gandhi wasn’t even in Delhi at that time the media reports actually seem to be intended to cover up the fact that Sonia wasn’t even in India.

Journalist Rajinder Puri writes in the The Statesman:

“On Monday, Tamil Nadu chief minister Miss Jayalalithaa visited Delhi. She met her Delhi counterpart Mrs Sheila Dikshit. India’s biggest TV channel blared: “Will Jaya also meet Sonia?” Was the channel unprofessionally ignorant or was it colluding with the exercise to hide the furtive movements of Mrs Sonia Gandhi? Earlier on the same day, there was a statement issued by Mrs Gandhi deploring the murder of a prominent journalist in Mumbai. Was all this being done to create the illusion in the public mind that Mrs Gandhi was in India while she was not? This is not the first time that Mrs Gandhi has silently gone abroad in a manner best described as being furtive. Why the secrecy? What is the purpose of Mrs Gandhi’s undisclosed visits abroad?........ Congress leaders are frothing at the mouth demanding total transparency from members of civil society. Probes have been launched against some of them. Should not the government display equal transparency pertaining to India’s most powerful politician who is the chairperson of the ruling UPA coalition as well as the chairperson of the government’s NAC? They need to answer the following questions:

Did Mrs Gandhi travel abroad on an airline or by a private jet? If the latter, whose jet was it? What was the purpose of the foreign visit made by the Chairperson of the NAC and the UPA? What is the itinerary of the NAC Chairperson? Which countries and cities did she, or will she, visit?....” Puri goes on to also raise the issues of allegations by former KGB members having contributed funds to Sonia and family. These are not new allegations.

The allegations of corruptions and black money against Sonia Gandhi are far more serious than the ones being frequently discussed in the media. Subramanian Swamy has made allegations about her name, her birthplace, her educational qualifications, incorrect affidavit filed before the Election Commission, payments to her family by KGB and also about Rahul Gandhi. All this not only makes sorry reading but would make any politician or even an ordinary person jump. The mass media would jump at such stories. Yet our MSM has consistently maintained an eerie silence. Sonia Gandhi, of course, doesn’t talk to the nation or the media about these allegations or any other issue. S.Gurumurthy has written a detailed article in the Indian Express about Sonia Gandhi titled ‘Zero Tolerance, Secret Billions’.

Subramanian Swamy’s extensive speech on the allegations against Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi is also available on Youtube. (Just Google it) Are the Barkha Dutts, the Rajdeeps, the Sagarikas, the Rahul Kanwals, the Pankaj Pachauris and many more simply unaware about all these allegations? Is there something more sinister than appears to the whole story?

During October 2007 when Sonia Gandhi visited the UN an organisation released an ad against her listing all the allegations in a newspaper. A defamation case was filed by some supporters of the Congress. The case was dismissed. It is surprising that third parties file cases for defamation of Sonia Gandhi while she herself is unwilling to defend herself or comment on any of these allegations. (Read Congress Sues Subramanian Swamy For Defamation)

In just my previous post (Living next door to Alice) this is what I wrote in response to a flowery article by Barkha Dutt (and I consider it worth repeating):

“In management there is a principle that is often accepted as a starting point to analyse failure: “The bottleneck is always at the top”. Yes indeed, figuratively and literally. Extraordinary levels of corruption do not come to pass without the participation of top management. Remember Satyam? Remember Enron? Remember Bear Stearns? Remember AIG? Well, it is no different in the government too. That is where the media has been an absolute failure. Failure apart, their silence has been very much like that of a co-conspirator.…….The top management in the UPA has to be undoubtedly Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh. There are many allegations against her of having stashed away black money in Switzerland. There are allegations of Quattrochi (of Bofors) being let off. Subramanian Swamy has sought sanction to prosecute Sonia Gandhi. Do you find any of this in our mass media?”

In 1973 under pressure in the Watergate scandal, Richard Nixon famously told Editors ‘I am not a crook”! That’s top management for you! Nixon is the only President in US history to have resigned from office. Since then we have also had famous cases like Ferdinand & Imelda Marcos who fled to the US and Alberto Fujimori of Peru who fled to Japan. Seriously, by today’s standards Nixon’s crimes would seem far less significant. Politicians have surpassed him many times over.

There are those in the Congress, the UPA, the media and prominent celebrities in public often put forward the argument that if politicians are corrupt the people get to boot them out every five years. That ‘civil society’ movements of the recent kind destroy democracy. They now cite the DMK party being booted out of power in Tamil Nadu as example. This is the most disgusting and spurious argument one can ever hear on corruption. Being booted out of office is not punishment. Putting them in jails would be the right punishment.

There is no doubt there is a lot of pressure mounting on Sonia Gandhi. Swamy has even sought sanction to prosecute her. The MSM may fail it its job but the people won’t. The tag line to this blog still remains ‘Crooks and liars in the Indian media are the greatest danger to our democracy’!