The Underachiever

A Puppet Called Manmohan Singh

TIME, a top US magazine refers him as “The Underachiever”, the people of his own country call him with different names like “Loser”, “Silent man”, “Puppet”, “unborn child”, and many more. You might have understood whom I am referring to, of course India’s most respected PM, Mr. Manmohan Singh. In Reality of India, today we talk about the first Sikh PM of India.


The Underachiever by TIME

A Brief Introduction:

Manmohan Singh, born on 26 September 1932 at Gah (now in Punjab, Pakistan) is the 13th and current PM of India. After Jawaharlal Nehru, he is the only PM to return to power after completing a full five year term. He obtained his doctorate degree from Oxford and has also worked for United Nations in 1966-69. He began his political carrier in 70s. In 2004, when the Congress-led UPA came to power, party president Sonia Gandhi surprisingly offered the Prime Minister-ship to Manmohan Singh. In 2009 elections too, the UPA held on to its position and Manmohan Singh retained the office of the PM.

Public Image:

Manmohan Singh has never been public’s favorite. No matter what steps he took (which were really few), laws he passed or anything he did, he was never appreciated. The main reason behind his criticism has been his lack of interaction with the people, the way all his actions are controlled by Sonia Gandhi, his muteness in interviews, and his weak leadership.

A Mute Figure:

It seems as if this Manmohan Singh has lost his self respect and leadership. Or maybe he really has got a lot of patience and we all must take classes from him. Whatever be the reason, but his silence has always been a topic of debate.




No matter what the people said, what his critics claimed, or whatever the famous magazines wrote, he has never ever replied to the controversies. It seems that he enjoys being in the backstage.

A Puppet of Sonia Gandhi

It seems that even his thoughts are governed by Sonia Gandhi. He is just a mass of muscles and bones who has already surrendered his brain to the party president. He would not even make a press conference or sign a paper without her permission.


Sonia's Puppet

A Weak Leader:

He still hasn’t proved his leadership quality to the public. The public keeps waiting for his strong comments over opposition but he never does. He has never been seen leading his party, but rather has always been a part of pets guided by Sonia Gandhi.

The Coal Scam:

Coal Scam, also referred to as Coalgate, is a political scandal of allocation of India’s coal deposits to public sectors and private companies. In March 2012, the CAG office accused the Government of India of allocating coal blocks in an inefficient manner during 2004-09. The government had the authority to allocate coal blocks by a process of competitive bidding, but it chose the method of bribery. In a draft report in March, the CAG estimated that the “windfall gain” to the allocatees was Rs.1, 067,303 Crores (US $ 193.18 billion). The CAG final report put down the figure of Rs.185, 591 Crores(US $ 33.59 billion). This issue has received massive media reaction and public outrage.

My own experience 

When typing this article in Microsoft Office Word 2007, the spell check gave a red line below Manmohan Singh’s name, but Sonia Gandhi was correct with no errors.
Now you can very well imagine that if this is the condition of Indian PM, what would be the condition of India.