New Delhi: Would Manmohan Singh have scripted a different history if he had contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections? Could he have debunked the myth of being a weak Prime Minister?
Sanjaya Baru, author, columnist and Singh’s former media advisor, had suggested the latter should either contest the polls or not continue for a second term due to health reasons. “He expressed reluctance because of his health since he had then undergone a surgery. I told him that he needs to go electioneering. His reputation was at a high in the country after the nuclear deal and he would have swept the polls. I also suggested that he files nomination from Amritsar and Mrs (Gursharan) Kaur could have campaigned for him. She was also ready to do so,” Baru said in an interview with journalist Barkha Dutt.
Baru further said that making a comeback as an elected member of Parliament would have been the turning point in his political carrier. “The history would have been different then. But the party decided to continue with him (as PM) for a second term as an MP from Rajya Sabha,” he said.
For Baru, it was Manmohan’s victory when the Congress-led UPA coalition returned to power for a second consecutive term in 2009. However, everyone else took it as the victory of Congress party under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi, and credited her and her son Rahul for the success.
Baru has mentioned this in his book ‘The Accidental Prime Minister: The Making and Unmaking of Manmohan Singh’, in which he also suggested that his boss messed up an unprecedented second term in office by acquiescing to his party’s dictates.
