April 13: No rousing speech, no rip-roaring slogan.
But 759 words packed in five pages, telling the tale of the “Iron Man” who melted when faced with a hijack crisis, wept in a corner when a shrine was demolished, wrung his hands in frustration when a pogrom was being carried out and abandoned his stand on Mohammad Ali Jinnah at the hint of brewing trouble back home.
Manmohan Singh, the “weakest Prime Minister” with little mastery over the art of speech-making, today responded to his principal tormentor L.K. Advani in a way few politicians have in the middle of the heat and dust of a general election: he wrote down his thoughts and read them out.
The most dramatic day yet in Campaign 2009 unfolded in the least excitable fashion in Mumbai when Manmohan picked up a sheaf of papers and deadpanned through the contents as if dealing with dry data from the Planning Commission.
The style was placid but not the substance. Homily after homily flew at “Mr Advani” — each rapier thrust slicing open an unhealed wound of the recent past. From the Kandahar hijack to the Gujarat riots to the Jinnah controversy, Manmohan tore into the record of his rival .
Just in case the soft-spoken Manmohan could not be heard beyond Mumbai, where he was addressing the media, Rahul Gandhi picked up the microphone in Kochi, four hours away from Thiruvananthapuram where Advani was campaigning.
“If Advani is a strong leader, how would he have been the home minister and not know something fundamental like this?” Rahul asked, referring to a statement attributed to the BJP leader that he was in the dark about the release of terrorists in exchange for hijack hostages.
The western and southern flanks taken care of, Sonia Gandhi struck from the east, targeting Advani on the same subject and asking a campaign audience in Shillong: “How can you trust such a person?”
The Prime Minister had replied to Advani twice earlier in the past few weeks but today’s written statement was the most scathing yet.
But Manmohan did lay stress on the face the country is more familiar with. “Throughout my life, I have believed that substance triumphs over style, performance over public relations and hard work over short-cuts. I am not a sloganeer. I will readily concede that most of my opponents make more rousing speeches.”
Advani did not respond today. BJP leaders in Delhi said they were happy that the focus was shifting towards the party’s slogan: “Strong leader, decisive government”.
But Congress leaders reacted with glee. The party’s spin doctors said unleashing Manmohan and supplementing that with pincer attacks by Sonia and Rahul were part of a deliberate approach. “Almost all leaders have been exposed too much on television or at campaign meetings but not Manmohan Singh. His statements have a novelty factor,” a Congress leader said.
Besides, the party feels that Manmohan’s clean reputation in governance and “quiet efficiency” have earned him the spurs to take Advani head-on. “We never did this when Vajpayee was Prime Minister. But now we have a Prime Minister who has proved his mettle,” the Congress leader said.
However, the Congress is still not too keen on a US-style “presidential contest” between two personalities – the reason Rahul and Sonia also fired away from the other flanks, party sources saidhttp://www.telegraphindia.com/1090414/jsp/frontpage/story_10819855.jsp
the kandhar episode was a single instance in the entire NDA rule. What of the incessant blasts that took place during 5 years of UPA rule? Our prime minister could not make a speech without referring to a piece of paper when Mumbai was so brutally attacked. What gives him the right to criticize someone else? What diplomatic triumphs is the PM referring to? We have not progressed an inch since the talks began.
ReplyDeleteI am not endorsing Advani, but the UPA has more national security blunders to its credit at the end of its rule than the NDA did.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/179877
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