"Quiet, Gentle But A Most Consequential Prime Minister," Sonia Gandhi Hails Manmohan Singh's Leadership

On July 29, 2026, the apex court set aside a summoning order and accepted the CBI's closure report in the coal block allocation case, clearing Manmohan Singh’s name from the case.

The top court criticized the trial court for rejecting the investigative agency's findings. The bench stated that the lower court made negative remarks against the former prime minister for "no compelling reason".

The coal dispute ranked among multiple corruption scandals dogging the Congress-led UPA government prior to the 2014 election victory of Narendra Modi and the BJP.

Following the verdict, Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi published an article in The Indian Express remembering Singh as a quiet but "most consequential" prime minister.

"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 wrote.

She said the judgment ended "the witch-hunt against Dr Singh, a man of the most remarkable probity and integrity". "The lobby against [Manmohan Singh] 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.”

Targeting Modi's Slander

Gandhi used the occasion to contrast Singh's legacy with the current administration. She referenced Singh's January 2014 assertion that placing Narendra Modi in the prime minister's office would be "disastrous for the country".

She targeted a recent video from Modi. In the footage, Modi said he was "forgiving" students who insulted him during Cockroach Janta Party protests that forced out the education minister. Since Modi was pardoning students, he should instead forgive himself for slandering Singh, she said.

The former Congress president pointed to his February 8, 2017 address in the upper house as a prime example of this hostility.

“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.

Gandhi also accused the Modi government of misusing agencies like the ED and the CBI.

“Leaders are either silenced through coercion or cynically folded into the BJP or, in some remarkable instances, rewarded with ministerial positions as well...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!” 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 added.

UPA's Governance Record

Gandhi praised the UPA's economic achievements pointing out that Singh's policies triggered rapid growth, sparked a massive rise in private investment, and pushed India into the middle-income bracket. The domestic economy also withstood the 2008 global financial crisis, she added.

“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.

Key policy milestones achieved during Singh's tenure included the Right to Education and the introduction of OBC reservations in central institutes like IITs and IIMs.

“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 elaborated.

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.

“This is being sought to be amended. Soon after he demitted office, he had warned that the rights-based legislation would come under assault and his fears have, most sadly, come true,” she said.

"The RTI now stands totally emasculated. There was an explosion of independent media, which was characterised by a fearlessness that appears more remarkable when juxtaposed with its current enfeeblement," she said.

Civil society flourished under Singh, students challenged the administration and the prime minister without facing metallic pellet guns or AK-47 fire, Gandhi said. She added that the former prime minister maintained accountability by addressing Parliament and hosting over 100 unscripted press conferences.

Gandhi also pointed out what many consider Singh’s greatest achievement in office, the Indo-US civil nuclear deal.

"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.

The verdict exposed the “mischievous and indefensible” claims against his character, Gandhi said. She added that history now views his leadership as a time of clear economic, political and social growth.

"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...History will indeed remember him kindly as a quiet, gentle but a most consequential prime minister," Gandhi said.