If PV was the king maker by making MMS the Finance Minister to begin with, the latter was indeed instrumental to ensure the success of not only PV as Prime Minister but changing the deadly course that India was taking when he took over to manage our rupees and paise, not to speak of that great valuable gold. With a derailed economy and with uncertainty looming large, two soft spoken persons took over running India in early 1990s and reminding us every day even today that, given the circumstances, what they did proved to be a game changer for India.
It was a masterstroke that MMS became Finance Minister under PV and a Prime Minister after him. His humility was confused with subservience when it is not necessarily so. He spoke few words which carried greater weight than than thousands of them spoken by other politicians. He was not made of political clay to influence others to be moulded the way the politicians are used to with changing times.
He never changed nor compromised on his principles. He just performed the duties of a responsible Prime Minister leaving behind all the politics – dirty or clean – to be dealt by Sonia and team. His entry to Parliament through Rajya Sabha is itself the proof that he is not made out to be in political spectrum but he was intelligent and shrewd enough to understand the ever changing colours of politicians of the entire cross section.
Though dubbed as accidental Prime Minister by Sanjay Baru, the accident appeared essential at that crucial moment when India’s economy was on crutches and collapsing under the unbearable weight of bureaucracy and red tapism. If LPG was famous for the liquefied gas in every household in India, he made people to forget the old acronym and remember it henceforth as Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation. It is these three words which made the subsequent Prime Minister Narendra Modi to carry forward for three successful terms without looking back. Politically any thing can be denied or eulogised but reality, truth and facts prove that indeed the path laid by MMS proved worth it to traverse for the future rulers of this country. He was the only Prime Minister whose bio data could not be matched by any other Prime Minister in India’s history.
If Nehru, Shastri, Gujral, Indira, Chandra Sekhar, Deve Gowda, Rajiv Gandhi, VP Singh, PVNR, and now Narendra Modi could be credited for their respective qualities and achievements, MMS stands out as an exclusive bureaucrat turned Prime Minister with no one surpassing his merit, qualifications and levels of integrity. Gujral, also a bureaucrat had a very short stint as PM more as a stop gap arrangement. Incidentally all Prime Ministers are honest or supposedly honest but when they close their eyes with no action being taken by the corrupt people working right under their nose, they are shown as more corrupt for entertaining or giving clean chit to the known and proven corrupt people right under them. MMS was no exception in this.
His silence often sent wrong signals and was viewed as ineffective governance notwithstanding the fact that there was dynamism in some of his actions as Pime Minister. His tough stance with US in nuclear plant in Kudankulam in Tirunelveli District ultimately resulted in its operation instead of being shut down under their pressure. He adopted an approach in convincing rather than confrontation. His replies in Parliament are the testimony to this approach.
He definitely leaves behind a leader who should be emulated and may his legacy continue and guide this country to reach what we are aiming at – to be in the top three in the world. When he came in a wheel chair to Rajya Sabha to cast his vote it proves his unflinching faith in democracy, notwithstanding the encomiums showered on him by Narendra Modi. The sun has set but he leaves behind a legacy that sons of India should carry forward the ideals he left behind.
He is liberated and yes history will be kinder to him doubtlessly.