“The Manmohan Singh Government will go down in history as the most corrupt period faced by the nation. When members of the ruling party and their allies are caught siphoning off money, no rules are sacrosanct and no values sacred. His helplessness in face of the forces against which he has to contend is pathetic. He could have resigned from the Prime Ministership as in that way, at least in part, redeemed his reputation.
 
What disillusioned Manmohan Singh a few years later was that all roads led to 10 Janpath. He was distressed but comprised with or overlooked such instances because this was the price he had to pay to remain Prime Minister. Very few sacrifice their position when forced to choose between office and wilderness. Had he resigned when his reputation was lessening because of his concurrence with the decisions Sonia Gandhi took, he would have saved his reputation which continued to plummet.” 

- Veteran Journalist, diplomat and former Rajya Sabha Member, Kuldeep Nayyar in his book “Beyond The Lines, An Autobiography” released this week.

Such reflections as now emerging on the Indian Prime Minister’s image stood articulated painfully by this Columnist as far back as 2006. In my Column of 22nd January 2006 entitled “Indian Prime Minister’s Image Takes a Beating”, this Columnist made the following observations:

• “It is unfortunate that Dr. Manmohan Singh’s image as India’s Prime Minister is taking a beating as a result of a long line of cumulative lapses heaped on his shoulders as a result of Congress Party’s compulsions to stay in power and its protective compulsions to insulate the Gandhi family from the controversies of the past”
   
• “The Indian media’s oft-repeated refrain today is that while Dr. Manmohan Singh adorns the office of the Prime Minister he has no powers of the Prime Minister as all important domestic political decisions of consequence are cleared by the Chairperson of UPA Mrs Sonia Gandhi”
   
• “Dr. Manmohan Singh himself, and only himself can arrest the beating that his image is taking by default. He can stand up politically to be counted and assert himself or forsake the political company that he has adopted or that has adopted him. In both cases he would do himself and India proud” 

Six years down the line since I made the above observations on the beating that Dr. Manmohan Singh’s image was taking, the international media too has joined the chorus as was evident from the recent TIME Magazine Cover Story entitled the “Underachiever”.
 
India’s domestic media has also adopted this refrain ever since the tsunami of massive corruption scams broke out beginning with the 2G scams and the CWG scams and now extending across the board and touching the doorsteps of the Prime Minister’s Office.
 
There was sympathy then for Dr. Manmohan Singh as a captive of circumstances and that is why in my Column observations in 2006 I stated that his image was taking a beating by default. But in 2012 there seems to be no sympathy for Dr. Manmohan Singh or anyone conceding the benefit of doubt to him because in public perceptions he has singularly failed to stand up tall politically by forsaking as I stated in my observations of 2006 the political company that he has adopted or that adopted him.
 
Along with Dr. Manmohan Singh the image of the Congress Party and the Congress President too is taking a beating in public perception due to the massive failures of the Congress Government in governance, ensuring India’s national security and letting the vibrancy of the Indian economy cumulatively accumulated since the 1990s, to downslide.