Dr. Manmohan Singh was sworn-in yesterday for a second successive term as Prime Minister of India.
I was surprised that the ruling Congress party won again, as it bucks recent trends. This will be the first time since 1971 that a sitting Prime Minister has been re-elected. Usually Indians like to kick out the incumbents for a term and let the other guys loot and pillage for a while. We try to spread the wealth around amongst the crooks who are our politicians. (I thoroughly recommend this strategy to all other countries, too.)
Still, Dr. Manmohan Singh is a thoroughly decent man and not a career politician. He used to be chairman of the Reserve Bank of India, which meant he was highly influential in economic circles. Then he was appointed Finance Minister in 1991 and made a member of the Upper House. That term ended in 1996. Then the Congress Party spent a long time on the sidelines until winning quite unexpectedly in 2004 as part of a coalition. Dr. Singh was a very surprising compromise candidate to be Prime Minister, and now he's won a second term. By the time he's done, he'll be India's third-longest serving Prime Minister, which is remarkable for someone of his background.
He is immensely qualified to tackle the Indian economy, holding degrees in economics from both Cambridge and Oxford. Perhaps he cannot take all the credit, but it is immensely satisfying to note that during the mayhem in banking circles in many parts of the world, Indian banks did not experience the catastrophic failures that has plagued more celebrated names.
Five more years of this guy? Yes, I can deal with that.
1 Comment:
Sounds like a good guy. You know, when I was little and they asked us what we wanted to be when we grew up, a few people said they wanted to be the President. Really?!? I'd never want that job. When good people, in this case, Singh, aspire to be leaders, I step aside and let them. The world needs good leaders.
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