Read His Lips

• The days of the faceless, shy and unassuming Manmohan are over. The PM will interact with the media and the public more.
  
  
• Will take a tough stand with the Opposition when it is required.
  
  
• Won’t tolerate ministers getting out of line.
  
  
• Given a free hand by Sonia Gandhi to iron out policy matters with allies and the Left.
  
  
• Will chair coordination committee meetings in Sonia’s absence.
  
  
• Activities will be broadened from governance to include issues like Kashmir.
  
  
• Sonia wants him to be a political PM, not function like a mere administrator.

At 12.45 pm on August 24, the meek and humble economist Dr Manmohan Singh was interred forever. One moment there was the docile doctor standing in his Parliament office, hemmed in as usual by a posse of overbearing political leaders—L.K. Advani, Jaswant Singh, Yashwant Sinha, George Fernandes, M. Venkaiah Naidu, Sushma Swaraj and V.K. Malhotra, not to speak of his own senior ministers, Pranab Mukherjee and Ghulam Nabi Azad. And the next, without a hint of it on his mild face, he did something that changed their—and the nation’s—perception of him forever. Instead of silently accepting the memorandum the Opposition leaders brought to him with a list of their suggestions for the Finance Bill, as they were expecting him to do, he dropped the file with that extra force on his table. His words were even more astounding: "I do not accept it and will not accept it."

What shocked the NDA leaders was that the man they had grown accustomed to patronising as an ineffectual technocrat could show them the door so effectively. Nor was this the only sign of the metamorphosis of a faceless bureaucrat into a tough new prime minister. Just a few days before, he had been equally curt with a delegation of Orissa MPs who called on him to ask for a Bihar-style financial package for their state."Does money grow on trees?" he asked the dismayed delegation. As minister of state in the PMO Prithviraj Chauhan points out, "Manmohan is slowly emerging as a political prime minister. After taking a slew of decisions in governance such as setting up cabinet committees and subcommittees, he is now starting to take tough political actions, especially with the Opposition. He is also gradually bringing the senior ministers into line."

It is this new, very political Manmohan who addressed the Sikh celebrations on Wednesday in Amritsar, skilfully healing the old wounds and confidently offering sops. People may well wonder: Is this the same man who lost a Lok Sabha election from South Delhi?

V.P. Singh: "The CMP is a fine document but Dr Singh would have to work hard on strengthening the delivery systems. Overall, I feel the government has a vision despite the media trying to spread this myth about two powercentres. The division of responsibility is clear. Mrs Sonia Gandhi is the head of the party and Dr Singh is the head of the government."

The change, say insiders, really began with his Independence Day address. He refused to follow the tradition of turning his address to the nation into a list of empty promises. Aware of his oratorical limitations, he put himself through a dress rehearsal, with a DD photographer and his media managers in attendance. The strategy turned out to be a winner. The day after, with both newspapers and his allies declaring his "promises to keep" speech a resounding success, Manmohan’s confidence was soaring. Scores of congratulatory e-mails began pouring into the PMO website from admirers around the world. As CPI’s D. Raja points out: "He emerged as a straightforward and realistic PM, not making tall promises like Vajpayee."

Throwing his old caution to the wind, Manmohan has unabashedly anointed his personally picked deputy chairman of Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, as the new czar of infrastructure. Gone was the old Manmohan, hemmed in by the Left parties and Sonia Gandhi and even his ‘political heavyweight’ ministers. Without the endless rounds of frustrating discussions, he has boldly announced this week that Ahluwalia will be the executive head of a high-powered committee to create world-class infrastructure.Then, as if to prove his critics wrong that he is nothing but an economist, he’s announced his first visit to Jammu and Kashmir next week.

"He seems to have suddenly become aware that he is no longer a mere economist or finance minister but a prime minister," explains a Congress leader. "He may be a reluctant politician but he knows that not just the Opposition but his partymen too are waiting with their knives out. The entire world is watching him now and he needs to change in order to measure up. There are only two options open to him now: to toughen up or quit".

There are some within the party and outside who believe that in his peculiar situation as a prime minister without a political base of his own and completely dependent on Sonia Gandhi for his power both within the party and outside, his best option would be not to pose any challenge to Sonia’s position as supreme leader. But party leaders say that there is no likelihood of Manmohan going the Narasimha Rao way. "Rao was both head of the government as well as the party, which is a totally different situation," points out one partyman. "You now have a situation where he draws his powers entirely from his party president.And there is no chance, judging by the equation between them, that Manmohan could ever pose a threat to her leadership. In fact, Manmohan has it easier than Vajpayee because he has the full support of the party, thanks to Sonia."

There are, of course, many who believe that Manmohan does not need to change. "He has always been firm," points out the CPI(M)’s Sitaram Yechury. Agrees Raja: "In his own meek, humble way, he knows how to hold his own. He believes in himself and that gives him confidence and courage. He has always been a communicator and knows how to listen which is a great quality in a leader." Adds Yechury: "It’s only a media perception that he’s not firm. He is what he is."

But acutely aware that half the battle in toughening up is to be perceived by the world as tough, Manmohan is now willing to put himself in his media managers’ hands for an image makeover. "Earlier we used to try and persuade him to become a more public figure. But it was always work, work, work. We used to try to make him attend things like a musical concert, for instance, because he loves music, but it was no go," says one of his officials. But now suddenly he is willing to play ball. Nor have his media managers been slow to exploit his new mood, arranging photo opportunities meant to keep him firmly in the public eye such as the recent front page picture of children tying rakhis on a gently smiling prime minister. "He has come out of his shell and there is no going back now," asserts one of his visibly pleased aides. It is this new, confident and relaxed prime minister who will address his first press conference on Saturday. "It is the first time in six years that a prime minister is holding a press conference with over 300 journalists," points out the aide.

H.D. Deve Gowda: "As the head of the UPA, Dr Singh seems to be struggling. This is basically because Parliament has not been allowed to function properly. But I am happy Dr Singh did not attribute motives to anybody, even after the Opposition wanted him toapologise. It is admirable that he has tried to understand the problems of the farmers. Nobody can question his integrity. Even though100 days is too small a period, I think Dr Singh has inspired confidence."

Just how quickly Manmohan is growing into his prime ministerial shoes was evident in the aftermath of his "unseemly conduct" on August 24. Instead of being apologetic, he stoutly refused to back down. "Why should I play into their hands," Manmohan told reporters the day after the incident, "and do what they want me to? Their real purpose was to go out and tell their constituency that they had raised these issues." And it’s not only this ability to call a spade squarely a spade that his colleagues are beginning to recognise as the new Manmohan. There is suddenly a new lightness and humour surfacing in the much-harried prime minister. One party colleague was surprised, for instance, that the prime minister was amused by the incident rather than provoked. "It was interesting to watch their expression," he confided to the Congressman, "when I refused to accept their memorandum".

For Manmohan’s media managers, long despairing of changing their shy, workaholic and stiff boss into a more popular prime ministerial mould, this was the one opportunity they had been waiting for over three months. And far from glossing over the incident as his party colleagues were so desperately trying to do, they were convinced that this could be the making of a brand new image: a confident, relaxed, assertive Manmohan—under no one’s shadow but his own man at last. Besides, for Manmohan’s officials, having worked closely with him for the past few frustrating months, the sudden outburst was hardly out of character.Confided one official in the PMO: "He is not a man who loses his temper easily, but I have seen him express his anger by occasionally slamming a file down on his table. The other thing he does when he is irritated is rub his hand over his forehead, as if he is trying to hide his expression." A flash of temper was just what his spin doctors had been waiting for. As one of his aides said: "What’s wrong with what he did? You can’t call it rude if he expresses his anger. He’d been pushed to the limit by the way the Opposition has wasted both his time and Parliament’s."

How right their assessment of the incident as a godsend was became clear in the next few days.Suddenly, the dull and retiring prime minister was the darling of the media. It was the kind of media attention any prime minister would covet. Few blamed him for his outburst, and one editorial went as far as hailing him with a "Bravo Manmohan!" Even the Left parties, still smarting at Manmohan’s fdi proposals and the adroit way in which he has foisted "his man" Montek Singh Ahluwalia as a kind of super minister, were won over. "The prime minister was absolutely correct in what he did with the NDA leaders," says Yechury. "They can’t boycott Parliament and then expect him to accept their suggestions outside the House."

Raja is convinced that Manmohan is gradually emerging as a real prime minister. "History has given him a new role and he is changing to fit into that role," points out Raja. "There is no such thing as a political lightweight or a nominated prime minister. He is the head of the government now and he is behaving like one. He has proved that by the way he has tackled the NDA leaders that he can be firm when he has to be." There is no question, according to Raja, of Manmohan being overshadowed either by Sonia Gandhi or his self-important seniors in the party. "It is Manmohan who is the head of the government and not any of them. He is after all the prime minister of the nation, not of the Congress party, and his word matters. People will have to realise that."

It’s a sentiment that Congress president Sonia Gandhi seems to share. "She wants him to behave as a political prime minister instead of a mere administrator," explains a Congress leader. "He is a thorough gentleman and a reluctant politician but he has no way out now other than to become political." Far from being threatened by a strong PM, it is Sonia who is coercing Manmohan into changing his old image. And nowhere was this message clearer than at the recent AICC session in Delhi’s Talkatora stadium. She not only declared him the undisputed head of the government but insisted that partymen give him his due as one. It was she, according to sources, who moved him from the tenth position as speaker to second, immediately after her. It was Sonia, again, who insisted that partymen sit quietly through his 70-minute speech delivered in his almost whispered voice. The signal was clear. As one of his two serious challengers in the party, human resources development minister Arjun Singh, put it: "Sonia has very clearly and unambiguously told all of us.... I do not think there is any ambiguity about...two power centres." It is thanks to Sonia’s clear message that Arjun Singh finally admitted this week: "He (Manmohan) is well versed in the art of governance. He is the best amongst us."

Nor is it true, says a party source, that Manmohan is just keeping the seat warm for Rahul Gandhi. "Rahul, despite the way partymen pay court to him, is no comparison to Manmohan either in experience or ability. It will take many more years before he is ready to take the top slot." As Congress official Girija Vyas points out, "We are lucky to have a strong party president and a strong PM. This is the Nehruvian model which we intend to follow from now." According to Vyas, "All this talk of two parallel centres of power are rumours being spread by the Opposition.Sonia Gandhi has given him a free hand for governance. He has to be tough with ministers and with the Opposition because his government has to fulfil the party manifesto."

One example of how unambiguously Sonia has listed Manmohan in the party hierarchy was shown earlier this week when she was too ill to chair the coordination committee with the Left parties. It was Manmohan who was asked to chair the meeting in her place, and not his "senior" in the party, Pranab Mukherjee. Nor is it taking too long for partymen to realise that the singularly unpolitician-like Manmohan has been a politician for years. As party spokesman Anand Sharma points out, "He is no political novice.He has been leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha for six years and has been a member of the CWC for the last one and a half decades." One instance of how adroit he is proving at the political game surfaced this week. With rumours of his differences with human resources development minister Arjun Singh at their height, Manmohan silently scotched them with a single move. Down with a viral fever, he deputed Arjun Singh to read out the prime minister’s speech at the Ram Nath Goenka centenary celebrations. The message was not lost either on Arjun Singh or the NDA leaders lined up in the front row: Manmohan was clearly in control.

But the biggest change of all, say his delighted media managers, is that Manmohan is beginning at last to enjoy his prime ministership. Only weeks ago, when a friend asked Manmohan how he liked his new job, his response was a grim: "Chalta hai." His reply, judging by his now-permanent smile, would be different today.