But tales of Singh’s personal honesty and integrity were always in the domain of the Congress party and the mainstream media which never tired of talking about it. The common man always knew that Manmohan Singh was the mask. The mask behind which hid the ugly face of the Congress party and its leader Sonia Gandhi.
“It is natural. It is normal. Just leave it at that.”
That’s what the Congress party-led UPA government had to say over the fresh controversy arising out of the CBI director’s affidavit to the Supreme Court and Additional Solicitor General Harin Raval’s subsequent letter accusing Attorney General G E Vahanvati of trying to interfere in CBI’s probe report on coal scam.
The words used in para one has been the government’s stock reply in questions over various scams, or at least some variations of it.
Haughty, arrogant ministers have even tried to convince the people that there was no scam at all. Remember Kapil Sibal’s “zero loss” Theory.
With the developments of the past week, every single act of this government led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over the past few years over gargantuan scams that erupted one after the other has reiterated the serious doubts over his integrity.
So far the only left with the government and the Congress party was Manmohan Singh’s “personal honesty and integrity”.
But now this mask has fallen, as R Jagannathan puts it succintly in Firstpost. (Read here)
Write Jagannathan, the question to ask is why did so many government officials have to lie: to save the reputation of the government and its “honest” Prime Minister?”
“The tragedy is that so many people are being forced to utter falsehoods in this quest to protect the reputation of the government (already in tatters) and its head.
“Sorry, Dr Singh, this time it is different. We can’t give you the benefit of doubt, adds Jagannathan.
But tales of Singh’s personal honesty and integrity were always in the domain of the Congress party and the mainstream media which never tired of talking about it.
The common man always knew that Manmohan Singh was the mask. The mask behind which hid the ugly face of the Congress party and its leader Sonia Gandhi.
As far as this author is concerned, I have always held the belief that Manmohan Singh was a dishonest man. If he was held to that high pedestal of honesty, would he have in the first place file a false affidavit about Assam being his natural residence?
Once you have lied on oath, that veener of integrity has gone. I never understood why the media always thought that Singh was, as some still describe, “personally honest”.
A man who is not honest to his conscience, can never be truthful to anyone, forget even his maker.
And this “personally honest” man has presided over some of India’s worst scams since independence involving mind-boggling figures.
When he comes asking for votes in Karnataka — or even in other fora — his honesty is never reflected in his delivery. For one, a honest man would not read out speeches written by someone else.
He could have spoken from his heart, if he was indded talking the truth.
In all the scams, they have always tried to find scapegoats. Suresh Kalmadi was easily sacrificed because he was not a vote-getter. Sheila Dikshit was also named in the CWG scam, but nothing happened to her.
After J Jayalalithaa swept to power in Tamil Nadu, the DMK became expendable. So A Raja, Kanimozhi had to spend time behind bars.
At every stage in the 2G scam, every effort was made to shield the prime minister and his finance minister, though they were as deeply involved as Raja.
The Congress party and its legion of admirers and supporters in the media made sure that no Congress minister or any of his relative were even mentioned in any way. Take the Saradha chit fund scam. The media claim to have got the Saradha chief’s confessional letter in which even the wife of P Chidambaram was mentioned, but they did not utter her name and went hammer and tongs after the Trinamool Congress and its leader Mamata Banerjee.
Because Mamata Banerjee had dared to leave the Congress party-led UPA government. She went so far as to heap humiliation on Congress party supremo Sonia Gandhi.
For everything, Mamata had been the proverbial punching bag for the media for her unpardonable, nay, criminal act of deserting the UPA and shaking it to its very foundations.
But Nalini Chidambaram was not mentioned at all — at least on the English channels that I surf.
If it was BJP’s Meenakshi Lekhi instead of Nalini, would the media have engaged in a conspiracy of silence?
But coming back to Manmohan Singh, he is the biggest deception played on an unsuspecting nation by the Congress party.
That he knowingly and willingly allowed himself to be used, assuming this is correct, tells you volumes about this man and his “personal honesty and integrity”.
Manmohan Singh has been described by critics as spineless and shameless.
So it is no use demanding his resignation. It is quite obvious, he is answerable and grateful only to Madam Sonia Gandhi and the Congress party for giving him the most important chair in India.
It is we who are shameless for having the misfortune of not being able to convey to the people of India that Manmohan Singh is the “choron ka Sardar” (the boss of crooks). “Theek Hai?”