Manmohan 'ineffectual bureaucrat', PM gets it from Wash Post

Manmohan 'ineffectual bureaucrat', PM gets it from Wash Post

After the Time magazine dubbed Manmohan Singh an "underachiever", now a Washington Post article has criticised him as a 'silent' Prime Minister who has become 'a tragic figure'.

"... the image of the scrupulously honorable, humble and intellectual technocrat has slowly given way to a completely different one: a dithering, ineffectual bureaucrat presiding over a deeply corrupt government," the article said.

The article said that under Singh, "economic reforms have stalled, growth has slowed sharply and the rupee has collapsed. But just as damaging to his reputation is the accusation that he looked the other way and remained silent as his cabinet colleagues filled their own pockets".

The UPA 2 government has been under tremendous pressure over the controversy surrounding the CAG report over the coal blocks allocation which stated that they caused a loss of Rs. 1.86 lakh crore to the exchequer.

A belligerent Opposition has been demanding the resignation of the Prime Minister over coal row and has disrupted Parliament stalling both Houses.

The monsoon session which ends on Friday is about to be washed out because of Opposition's unrelenting stand.

The Post article talks about how Singh "introduced a series of policies that freed the Indian economy from suffocating state control and unleashed the dynamism of its private sector" and says that he "is in danger of going down in history as a failure".

The Time magazine too had criticised Singh as "unwilling to stick his neck out" on reforms that will put the country back on growth path.

Singh, 79, was featured on the cover of Time magazine's Asia edition, with his portrait in the background, the title on the cover reading 'The Underachiever — India needs a reboot'.

Pointing towards Singh's fall "from grace," the magazine had said, "in the past three years, the calm confidence he (Singh) once radiated has been absent. He seems unable to control his ministers and — his new, temporary portfolio at the finance ministry notwithstanding — unwilling to stick his neck out on reforms..."