Dr Manmohan Singh was in many ways the easiest boss that I worked for in 42 years with government. He was gentle, kind, considerate, and welcomed other opinions and reasoned debate. But this assumed that you had done your homework and knew what you were talking about. His sharp mind saw through waffling or ignorance. And he could be scathing in his opinion of those who tried to pull the wool over his eyes.
My dealings with him were mostly on foreign and security policy. He had few illusions about how the world worked, and saw things clearly. His long experience of dealing with the world had left him clear eyed. But that did not necessarily make him cynical. He understood that in diplomacy, credibility is all. Honesty really is the best policy. Not full disclosure but honesty. For you are dealing with outside actors who are outside your control with independent sources of information. Unlike within the country, you cannot rely on laws or their enforcement internationally. And credibility was what Dr Manmohan Singh had in spades. The world had a healthy respect for his intellect and his integrity, and he used it in India’s cause. I have seen the respect with which world leaders sought and heeded his advice, and the influence that he exercised in gatherings like the G-20, East Asia Summit and elsewhere. It was not for nothing that former US president Barack Obama called him his guru.
The teacher in him was always present. You always left a meeting with Dr Manmohan Singh knowing more and seeing things better. You invariably learnt something. Those who have worked in government will know how rare this is.
Photo: X/@RahulGandhi
Most of all, one was conscious of working with a most uncommon leader: a politician who was not at all a short term maximiser; a man of integrity among the unscrupulous; and a person of vision whose own life showed what was possible with skill, knowledge and effort. This was a leader who did not have to rely on propaganda, rhetoric or coercion.
What struck me again and again was his lucidity even on issues which must have been new to him. I later came to see that this sprang from his clarity of purpose. He had a broader political economy view of foreign policy, stressing its utility to the transformation of India into a modern, prosperous and secure country for all its citizens. This criterion gave him a way to judge the significance of both threats and opportunities, and to see one in the other. When the Colombo government was eliminating the LTTE as an effective military force in 2009, with all the political complications that it brought us in India, he saw the chance to bind the Sri Lankans to respect our security red lines, such as no foreign submarine port calls. We were successful in getting them respected until 2014.
It was also his clarity of purpose that gave him the strength to press forward on issues where he was convinced of the national interest. On the civil nuclear agreement with the USA and the NSG waiver, for instance, it was his determination that kept us going when the prospects for it in the Indian political process were not bright. His willingness to stake the future of his government on the issue showed a sign of him that his gentle manner concealed.
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He was also an example of professionalism, of an ability to be objective and to keep emotion out of official work. I once told him that the Pakistanis in Gah, his original home before Partition, were very emotional in their pleas for a visit by him. What he then told me about what his family had undergone during Partition, the family members they had lost, and the wounds, horrified me. When I asked him how he could still seek peace with Pakistan, his answer was simple, that it was in India’s interest, no matter what emotion might suggest. He then gave me a reasoned and logical set of arguments for what he attempted with Pakistan, which I believe, offers a way that future governments will turn to when the time is ripe. I am still amazed that he was able to follow the demands of logic and reason in his Pakistan policy.
Dr Manmohan Singh was not a demonstrative person. And yet he got along with leaders like George Bush and Wen Jiabao who came from very different backgrounds, educations and experiences. It was the life of the mind and ideas that excited him. He worked on his important speeches himself, and his farewell address to the nation laying down the office of prime minister on May 17, 2014 is a masterpiece of brevity while expressing his deeply held beliefs.
That did not mean that he did not have a sense of fun and of the ridiculous. In private, he could laugh with the best of them. This was a side that I wish the rest of the world could have seen, but he was at heart a private person.
What I will most remember about him is his capacity to inspire affection and loyalty in a truly human way. Working with him restored one’s faith that decency and morals could have a place and might succeed in politics. He was right when he said that history would judge him better than the contemporary media and opposition parties.
Shivshankar Menon was Manmohan Singh’s National Security Adviser from January 2010 to May 2014. He was earlier India’s foreign secretary from 2006 to 2009.
This piece was first published on The India Cable – a premium newsletter from The Wire & Galileo Ideas – and has been updated and republished here. To subscribe to The India Cable, click here.