New Delhi: All good things must come to an end. After 10 long years, the time has come for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (81) to say good-bye to his Cabinet colleagues, the bureaucrats who helped him run the government, and perhaps to the nation at large, as prime minister. Tuesday marks his last day in office, and he would demit office on May 17, a day after the results of the general elections are announced.
Interestingly, his predecessor Atal Behari Vajpayee did not get the time for long farewells as BJP had not expected to lose in 2004. Dr Singh will host a farewell for his officers at 7, Race Course Road, his official residence.
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On Wednesday, Congress President Sonia Gandhi will host a farewell dinner for him, where he will be gifted a memento signed by all members of the Congress Working Committee, the party’s top decision-making body, and Union ministers.
Dr Singh is India’s 13th prime minister and the first technocrat to rule the country. Had he demitted the office after his first term, he would have been remembered as one of India’s best prime ministers. Unfortunately, with the exit of Mamata Banerjee and the Left from the UPA, which in some way represented the voice of the people, the economist Manmohan Singh got a free hand for his trigger-happy economic policies, which included wanton hike in petroleum prices, not once but eight times in two years, with little thought for the plight of the common man who elected UPA to power. His knowledge of economics without an understanding of politics brought his downfall. An academic-turned-bureaucrat-turned politician, Manmohan Singh excelled in the art of closing his eyes on the misdeeds of his colleagues all around. Thus UPA II became a grand opportunity that was missed!Â