Outgoing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who effectively bowed out of office on January 3 when he announced, at his last press conference, that he would not be seeking a third term in office, officially submitted his resignation to President Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday afternoon, after the verdict in the 2014 general election decisively trounced the Congress-led UPA coalition.
Thereafter, for the Congress, the writing on the wall was clear from January 25 itself, when the AICC session at Delhi’s Talkatora Stadium failed to name vice president Rahul Gandhi as the official Prime Ministerial nominee. This was despite Manmohan Singh’s batting robustly for Rahul Gandhi at his press conference, even making uncharacteristically harsh comments against the BJP Prime Ministerial candidate, who is now the Prime Minister-designate.
Previously, on Friday afternoon, when election trends became clear, Manmohan Singh was among the early birds to call and congratulate Narendra Modi on the BJP’s victory in the Lok Sabha elections.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi accepted responsibility for the party’s worst-ever defeat in the Lok Sabha elections in a brief appearance before the media on Friday. Both congratulated the new Government without naming either the BJP or Narendra Modi who single-handedly crafted the victory and made the BJP the majority party in Parliament for the first time since 1984. This glaring omission was noted by citizens across the nation who felt that the Congress president’s speech was awkward and stilted.
A smiling Rahul Gandhi, who spoke a few lines, admitted that the party had fared poorly and had expected to do better, “The Congress has done pretty badly, a lot for us to think about”. Thus spreading the burden of introspection evenly over the whole party, he said, “As Congress vice president, with all humility I take responsibility for this”. Rahul Gandhi, who was anointed campaign chief of the party in January, added, “I would like to congratulate the new government. They have clearly been given a mandate and I wish them all the best”.
Immediately thereafter, Sonia Gandhi read out a prepared statement saying, “the people’s mandate is against us and I humbly accept the verdict… As Congress President, I take responsibility for it.” Then, extending formal greetings to the incoming regime, she inelegantly warned, “We hope that it will not compromise with the social unity and national interests. Congress will continue to fight for its principles and will not make any compromise.” She asserted that the party will continue to fight for social harmony and issues of national interest.
After reading her statement at the AICC headquarters on Akbar Road, Sonia Gandhi refused to take questions from the media and saying “come” to vice president Rahul Gandhi, quickly moved away. There was no indication of constructive opposition or engagement with the new regime. The tone and tenor of her speech in fact indicate hostility to the new regime and adherence to the Left-liberal shibboleths that have been roundly rejected by the people.
Prior to meeting the President, in a brief farewell address to the nation, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said he had always done his best to serve the nation and that the India he was leaving (in the hands of the next regime) was a “far stronger country” than it was a decade ago. Indirectly empathising with his successor whose tea-boy background is now part of national folklore, the outgoing Prime Minister said, “I owe everything to this country, this great land of ours where I, an underprivileged child of Partition, was empowered enough to rise and occupy high office. It is both a debt that I will never be able to repay and a decoration that I will always wear with pride”.
Singh said he entered office ten years ago on being entrusted with the responsibility to lead the nation, and worked with “diligence as my tool, truth as my beacon and a prayer that I might always do the right thing”. Accepting that his tenure is subject to scrutiny and judgment by “the court of public opinion that all elected officials and governments are required to submit themselves to”, he said the just concluded elections have deepened the foundations of India’s democratic polity.
Claiming that his life and tenure in public office are an open book, Manmohan Singh said that the nation has had many successes and achievements in the past ten years, the credit for which lay with the people, and that “there is still vast latent development potential in our country and we must collectively work hard to realize it”. Expressing confidence in India’s future as a major powerhouse of the evolving global economy, blending tradition with modernity and unity with diversity, to show the way to the world, Manmohan Singh said he was privileged to serve the nation and wished the incoming government “every success as it embarks on its task and pray for even greater successes for our nation”.
There was no gratuitous advice on how the Narendra Modi Government should conduct itself and no latent warning to the people that they had made a mistake to vote the Congress out of office.
At its last meeting, the Union Cabinet recommended the dissolution of the 15th Lok Sabha, which was conveyed to the President by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath, one of the two Congress survivors in Madhya Pradesh. The Prime Minister hosted tea for the members of his Council of Ministers; President Mukherjee is hosting a dinner for the outgoing Cabinet on Saturday evening.
Niticentral.com, 17 May 2014
http://www.niticentral.com/2014/05/17/pm-bows-out-graciously-sonia-inelegantly-224434.html