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Opinion
Manmohan Singh:
Short-term Politician with a Long-term Vision
by Mayank Chhaya
Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh has emerged triumphant from the firestorm of
nuclear politics and in the process discovered a true politician in
himself. Let no one any longer dismiss Singh as a brilliant but staid
policy wonk/ bureaucrat who was pushed into India's highest and most
politicized office by a quirk of fate.
He is now perhaps India's most battle-tested politician, having first
unleashed defining economic reform in the early 1990s amid a climate of
intense political acrimony, and now firmly planting India into the
nuclear club in the face a potentially terminal challenge to not just
his government but his own political future. The common underlying theme
in both his adventures has been his unshakable conviction about the
righteousness of his cause and a rarely recognized ability to turn that
into a valuable political asset.
It would be naïve to believe that the July 22 parliamentary vote of
confidence motion could have been won without employing a particularly
sordid brand of political deal making. However, that is precisely the
point behind the rise of Singh the politician. Tacitly or otherwise he
suppressed his natural apolitical instincts and chose to go along with
whatever his party had to do enlist enough support. It is nearly
impossible to ascertain the veracity of the allegations of bribery made
by some opposition lawmakers in the run-up to the vote. What is possible
to say with a fair degree of certainty that Singh was bound to have
known that a vote of this consequence and value would have required some
pretty questionable machinations by the politically seasoned figures in
his Congress Party.
Unlike in the early 1990s, when Singh was cushioned against any direct
hit while pushing his economic reform agenda, this time around he was
directly exposed personally. In many ways, quite like the economic
reform, the India-US civilian nuclear deal was his personal passion.
From all available accounts he saw it as a defining legacy of his
leadership. That he was willing to go to the extent of staking his own
future on the deal and willingly trample upon the egos of his crucial
Marxist allies is indicative of how strongly Singh believes in the deal.
While no one can discount the unwavering and decisive support he
received from Congress president Sonia Gandhi, in the final analysis the
nuclear deal would go down as Singh's signature political
accomplishment. Of course, there is still a very real possibility of all
of this falling apart if the United States Congress does not to vote in
favor of the deal. However, the Indian side of the bargain has been
delivered with forcefulness that few in the Bush administration might
have suspected Singh capable of doing.
The 76-year-old Singh ought to know that given the long cycle of nuclear
energy production he may not be around to witness all its benefits. That
is what makes his commitment to the deal even more authentic. With the
economic reform he would have rationally argued in his own mind that he
would experience the results of his transformative agenda in his
lifetime. That did indeed turn out to be the case. One can never presume
that he will not be around 20 years hence as a 96-year-old to see if his
second transformative agenda would indeed come to be realized.
It is not even certain whether nuclear power is really the answer to
India's or the world's ever growing energy needs. Within the United
States, the record of nuclear power generation has not been that
impressive. According to the US Department of Energy's latest nuclear
energy overview, the total number of operable nuclear power units has
remained unchanged at 104 since 1998. As of March, 2008, these 104 units
combined produced 64,330 million kilowatthours of net nuclear
electricity generation, which represents a share of 19.6 percent of the
net electricity generation.
Singh has to be conscious of the inherently long-term nature of his
decision. It is against this backdrop that his rise as a short-term
politician to put in place a long-term vision must be seen.
(Mayank Chhaya is a Chicago-based journalist and writer. He can be
contacted at contct@mayankchhaya.com)
July 24, 2008
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