Manmohan Singh: A good man let down by the party

If Manmohan Singh were better advised, especially in his second term (Baru quit just before the 2009 election), Manmohan may still have been the star brand on whose work the Congress rode to victory in 2009.

The failure of the government, party and the prime minister himself to communicate its achievements and explain properly the perceived failures was its single-biggest undoing.

By that time the economic stagflation and the financial scandals (whose dimensions and impacts were highly exaggerated) had tarred the government's image irretrievably and allowed opponents and baiters to label Brand Manmohan as a "God that failed".

This was in spite of the fact, as many pundits have testified, that "without Dr. Singh's reforms, India would not have emerged as a confident global power".

But, it is very clear that Manmohan Singh in UPA-II was not allowed to function and be his own man. He was merely a puppet on a string in the hands of Sonia Gandhi and he allowed her to influence, manipulate and use him at will through her party instruments.