Yours, Disappointed
As a human being, Dr Manmohan Singh has many fine qualities. He is soft-spoken, erudite, extremely civil and apparently he has no ego. It is difficult not to like him. My own cursory relationship with him has been both pleasant and rocky. Unfortunately, I discovered that for all his famous humility, he is ultra-sensitive to personal criticism. For a politician, he has a thin skin. I began well with the odd invitation to tea at his office and residence. The trouble started with one piece by Arundhati Roy in Outlook where she went for him in true Arundhati style. Moreover, his courtiers—and there were quite a few—told him that in the Sonia vs PM, or to be more precise, Party vs PM matter, I was firmly on the side of the Party. When rumours started floating that Manmohan may resign if he did not get his way over the 2008 nuclear deal, I wrote an editorial saying the nuclear deal was not worth sacrificing the government for. Incidentally, the magic deal was not even an election issue in 2009. And today lies forgotten.