Motion Point: ‘PM & Sonia trusted each other’

Sanjaya Baru's book, The Accidental Prime Minister, The Making and Unmaking of Manmohan Singh, has kicked up a political storm. The former press adviser to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, however, insists that he has not betrayed the trust placed in him by his political master. Baru talks to Deccan Chronicle about the book, the equation between Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh and what went wrong in UPA 2.

Daily intelligence briefings
Denying that Manmohan Singh was the first PM to stop the practice of receiving daily briefings from the intelligence chiefs (IB and RAW), Baru says, “The practise of intelligence agencies not directly briefing the PM began in the later stage of the Vajpayee government. Till then, the RAW and IB chiefs would brief the PM on a daily basis.

“Vajpayee not being in good health, had asked Brajesh Mishra, the National Security Adviser, to directly deal with the intelligence agencies. I used to tell Manmohan Singh that he should be briefed directly by the chiefs in order to be aware of what was happening around him. But he did not want the intelligence agencies to be used as political instruments.”

Baru adds that the lack of daily briefings did not impact governance. “The government was not unaware of what was happening. Even when the practice of daily briefings stopped, intelligence briefs would come on a daily basis and these would be read through. But this is one line in the book. It should not be made into a big issue. The PM did not want to politicise the intelligence agencies.”
 
Power sharing and the trust factor
His book implies that two power centres cannot work. Elaborating on it, Baru says, “In 2004, such an argument was inevitable. In 2004, the mandate was for Sonia Gandhi and such an arrangement was inevitable. But in 2009, the mandate was for Dr Singh. And this (two centres of power) need not have been inevitable; Dr Singh tried to assert himself but he was defanged. The Congress responded in a manner, which made it very clear that the arrangement would remain the same.”

Internal power struggles aside, the book suggest that both Sonia and Manmohan Singh trusted each other. Baru says, “She (Sonia) trusted him. I don’t think I ever suggested she did not trust him. There was always trust. Since she was heading the party, there was restraint on the PM. He could have done things differently if he had been on his own.”

In his book, Baru has mentioned how Sonia sometimes discussed problems relating to Rahul with Dr Singh who would then proceed to call him over for lunch. The author, however, says that the PM never discussed these problems with him.
 
Defending the PM and himself
Baru, who has known the PM for over two decades, adds, “My first meeting with him took place in 1990. I have known him for 20 years. My book is one of the strongest defences of Manmohan Singh as PM. His contribution to the Indian economy and foreign policy will be remembered for years to come. He altered India’s status as a nuclear power. The Manmohan Singh-Musharraf formula, border negotiations with China, and Indian entry as an ASEAN nation are all his contributions. I have concluded my book by saying that history will be kind to him.”

While that might be the author’s stance, Dr Singh’s daughter has accused him of betrayal of trust. Baru says, “I will not react to that. I can’t understand why she said that. These are my memoirs. Last year, Robert Gates, US Defence Secretary under President Obama, released a book (Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War) that talked at length about the war in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“Those who question my decision to write a book based on what I saw in government should remember that this is a government that takes great pride in introducing the RTI Act. People in India have a right to know how the government functions and how decisions are taken. I will concede that it is rare in India for people who have worked in government to write a book like this. But in the West, this is a very old genre.”

The all important nuke deal
Talking about why the nuclear deal was so important for Dr Singh, Baru says, “It was important for India; it was important for Manmohan Singh. It altered India’s status as a nuclear power. The world recognised us as a legitimate nuclear power. It was important for Singh because of the political struggle he had to go through — practically fighting the Left — boosted his own image and also the image of the Congress which helped them get re-elected.”

Despite the deal, Singh did not get the due recognition from his own party and Baru says, “As I have said, if the same nuclear deal had been done by Nehru, Indira, Rajiv or Sonia Gandhi, the Congress would have lined the streets of Delhi and welcomed them with garlands when they returned from Washington. Instead, the PM had to defend himself in Parliament.” He adds, “Part of the problem was that once the deal was done, the global economic crisis took over and both US President Obama and the Indian PM had to give their attention to domestic economic issues.”

Singh’s problems
“One key problem was Dr Singh’s decision not to fight elections from the Lok Sabha in 2009 and remain in the Rajya Sabha,” says Baru, adding, “If he had returned to power from the Lok Sabha, these problems would not have arisen.”

It seems surprising that in this age of media dominance, the three top Congress leaders — Sonia, Manmohan and Rahul — are reticent about interacting with the media. “In UPA 1, whenever the PM visited a state capital, we organised a press conference. Manmohan Singh presided over press conferences in every state including Port Blair in Andaman and Nicobar.

“The Congress has created the space for Modi to rise. Modi is simply following the same practices. He does not give interviews to Delhi-based journalists, but is talking to both regional media and regional channels. In the four years I was there, the PM addressed two national press conferences and 25 regional press conferences. That gave a boost to his image because the regional press has become very important,” says Baru.

Asked why things changed, Baru says, “I don’t know. Ask those in charge of the UPA 2 why they failed. Manmohan Singh saw himself as a worker, as a doer. He left the political image building to Sonia. I once teased Dr Singh that Brajesh Mishra, political secretary to Vajpayee, behaved like the PM and the PM like his principal secretary.” On Sonia Gandhi’s style of working, he says, “I have no idea of her style. I never interacted with her.”
 
UPA 1 vs. UPA 2
Singh was given to fiscal prudence but this was not visible during UPA 2. Baru says, “This was the difference between UPA 1 and UPA 2. The economy grew between 8 and 9 per cent during UPA 1. When the economy showed down, there was less money but the fiscal deficit had gone up. If government had been more efficient in controlling spending, the fiscal situation would have been more stable and this would have reduced rates of inflation. The PM is criticised for inflation but spending by the government was done under pressure from the party.”

With the general elections going on, Baru has been criticised for the timing of the book release. “My publishers wanted the book to come at this juncture. I disagreed and said that the book should come out after the elections. But when on January 3, Dr Singh declared that he had decided to retire from active politics, I went along with what they said.

“If the book had been published after his retirement, I would still have been accused of not having the courage of saying what I have said when Congress was in power. My critics would have said, ‘he is saying all this because the Congress is out of power’.”