New Delhi: In the wake of the Supreme Court’s posthumous exoneration of former prime minister Manmohan Singh in the coal block allocation case, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday said history would “indeed remember him kindly as a quiet, gentle but a most consequential prime minister”.
Writing in The Indian Express, Gandhi framed the July 29 apex court order — which upheld the CBI’s closure report and set aside a 2015 trial court summons against Singh — as the final chapter in what she called a prolonged “witch-hunt” against a leader of “remarkable probity and integrity”.
She said the campaign against Singh was systematic and multi-layered.
“The lobby against him was coordinated and well-organised, with actors stretching from the bureaucracy to the media, the judiciary, civil society, and most certainly to the RSS and BJP. Today, their bogus crusade has come to its inevitable conclusion of nothingness. Dr Singh has been vindicated on every count,” Gandhi said in her article published in The Indian Express.
Calling July 29, 2026 a landmark but under-acknowledged moment, she noted: “The date July 29, 2026, was an important but unacknowledged day in our recent political history as in a remarkable judgment, the Supreme Court upheld the CBI’s clean chit to Dr Manmohan Singh in the alleged coal block allocation scam, Gandhi said.
“More importantly, it pulled up the trial court for rejecting the CBI’s closure reports and making adverse observations against the former prime minister for no ‘compelling reason’, she pointed out.”
Contrast With Modi Govt Functioning
Gandhi argued that Singh’s ethical record sharply highlighted what she described as the misuse of investigative agencies under the current dispensation.
“Singh’s record of integrity and accountability stands in stark contrast to how the Narendra Modi government has operated, so clearly and grossly misusing agencies designed to investigate crime and corruption like the ED and the CBI,” she said.
“Its purpose has been to exert pressure on politicians. Leaders are either silenced through coercion or cynically folded into the BJP or, in some remarkable instances, rewarded with ministerial positions as well,” she said.
“When credible accusations of corruption emerge, the Modi government simply brushes them aside. Corrupt when you’re in the Opposition, suddenly clean when you jump ship!” Gandhi said.
She said it was no accident that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was among the strongest voices in the campaign against Singh.
“It is not a coincidence that Modi was also among the most vocal proponents of the attack on Singh,” she said.
Recalling a specific parliamentary attack, she wrote: “His snide and atrocious remarks in the Rajya Sabha on February 8, 2017, that only Dr Singh knew ‘the art of bathing with a raincoat on’, will go down as the lowest point of our parliamentary history,” she said.
“Introspection, like charity, must begin from home. Ultimately, the attack on Dr Singh was motivated by a desperate desire to shift the public conversation and narrative away from his outstanding governance record,” she said.
In a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Gandhi said since he is these days ‘forgiving’ India’s students for attacking him, perhaps he can take this opportunity to forgive himself for his undignified slander against Singh.
Economic Management & Social Justice
Gandhi stressed that Singh’s tenure was defined by deep structural reforms and high growth.
“Manmohan Singh’s government heralded profound economic change with unprecedented rates of growth and a consumption and private investment boom that propelled India into the ranks of middle-income countries,” Gandhi stressed.
“In 2008, when the global economy faced turbulence and collapse, India demonstrated its resilience,” she said.
“Let us not forget that in spite of the reworking of how the growth of India’s GDP is calculated, the 10 years of the UPA government saw higher economic growth than the past 12 years, resulting in millions being pulled out of poverty,” Gandhi said.
she also listed key initiatives on social justice and welfare.
“The Manmohan Singh government delivered on the constitutional promise of a Right to Education and expanded social justice through the introduction of OBC reservation in centrally-funded higher education institutes like the IITs and IIMs,” she said.
“The Forest Rights Act recognised the ancestral rights of our Adivasi and forest-dwelling communities, after a decades-long struggle. The MGNREGA, recently demolished by the Modi government, was the most powerful social security intervention set up anywhere,” she said.
“Another signature achievement of Singh’s government was the National Food Security Act, 2013, which identified and guaranteed access to basic food rations for crores of families, she said.”
Open Democratic Space
Gandhi contrasted the political climate under Singh with the present, especially on protests and dissent.
“Civil society emerged as a force to be reckoned with, and our students had the freedom to protest against the government and even the prime minister, without being fired upon by metallic pellet guns or AK-47s,” Gandhi said.
She highlighted Singh’s engagement with Parliament and the media.
The prime minister regularly made himself accountable to Parliament and to the media through 100-plus unscripted press conferences, she said.
On foreign policy, she credited Singh with a historic shift.
“And of course, we cannot forget that the landmark and path-breaking Indo-US nuclear deal, which overturned decades of nuclear discrimination against and denial towards India and marked our arrival on the global stage, was possible because of his political courage and sustained initiative,” she said.
‘Prophetic Prediction’ & Final Tribute
Gandhi said the allegations against Singh’s character had now been fully discredited.
“The ‘mischievous and indefensible’ allegations against his integrity have been exposed as hollow, and his record as prime minister is increasingly being recognised for what it was — a period of decisive economic, political, and social advancement in Indian history,” she said.
She expressed regret that Singh was not alive to witness this vindication.
“We all certainly regret that he is not here to see this day and to guide the nation with his wisdom. But it is a solace to us all that his prophetic prediction of January 2014 is becoming increasingly self-evident with every passing day,” she said.
“History will indeed remember him kindly as a quiet, gentle but a most consequential prime minister,” Gandhi said.
Gandhi’s remarks came after the Supreme Court, on July 29, 2026, brought the criminal case against Singh in the Talabira-II coal block allocation matter to a close. The veteran Congress leader, who passed away on December 27, 2024, now stands formally acquitted in the high-profile criminal case.
