India’s ‘silent’ prime minister becomes a tragic figure - The Washington Post

India’s ‘silent’ prime minister becomes a tragic figure - The Washington Post:

Although the general thrust of the article cannot be faulted, the writer has erred on many points. It was not Man Mohan Singh, but P V Narsimha Rao, who should be credited with opening the economy; similarly it was not Man Mohan Singh, but Atal Behari Vajpayee, who should be considered as the architect of the policy of India's close relations with the US. So far as modernization is considered Nehru was a modernizer and so was his grandson Rajiv Gandhi. In fact, MMS is an overrated economist and underrated politician. The remark that " minorities have the first right on India's resources" can't be made by a reluctant politician. How could he make such a stupid, but vote-bank enhancer, remark is still a mystery.
As an economist he should have known that without production there can't be any distribution, but in order to keep Sonia Gandhi in good humour he forgot his basic lesson and embarked on populist programmes which have jeopardized India's growth story.
Man Mohan Singh is a weak man and a weak man cannot be honest.
Tailpiece: Ramchandra Guha, the Sarkari Historian, has been quoted in this article as saying that MMS is "intellectually dishonest."