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The Congressmen who once called Manmohan Singh an ‘overestimated’ economist are falling back on him to lead the charge against PM Modi & his policies.

New Delhi: When Dr Manmohan Singh was Prime Minister between 2004 and 2014, the common refrain in the Congress was: He is underestimated as a politician and overestimated as an economist.

The same Congressmen are now falling back on him to lead the charge against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose public persona and popularity opposition leaders are finding hard to match.

Singh, a self-effacing leader, is emerging as a star campaigner for the party, whose cameo appearances in the form of press conferences and statements in poll-bound states create more buzz than the theatrics of lead actors.

Also read: Manmohan Singh: The patriot Congress undermined but now needs to restore party credibility

Then and now

There was a time when Singh’s party colleagues would make fun of the GDP figures, saying they don’t bring votes. The party made no bones about its reservations against FDI in retail. It only grudgingly supported his push for the Indo-US civil nuclear deal, although that proved to be the election-winning gambit in 2009. The party chose to remain silent as the opposition went ballistic against Singh on the Indo-Pak joint statement at Sharm el-Sheikh, delinking terrorism from the dialogue process.

Things have turned 180 degrees now. The Congress has discovered many virtues in Singh.

“Not for him tall claims. Not for him empty and fanciful boasts. Not for him self-promoting bombast. Not for him falsifications of facts and history. Not for him the language of abuse and vitriol,” Congress matriarch Sonia Gandhi said Monday.

The Congress Wednesday flew Singh to Indore to address a press conference and tear apart the NDA government’s economic policies, such as the ‘flawed’ goods and services tax (GST), demonetisation, farm distress and joblessness.

Asked point-blank if his government had been ‘remote-controlled’, Singh, like a seasoned politician, didn’t bat an eyelid, attributing the success of his government to “no differences of opinion” between the government and the party.

Also read: Full speech: Manmohan Singh epitome of humility, says Sonia Gandhi

A true ‘star’ campaigner

Manmohan Singh is not given to oratory. He had addressed three press conferences in New Delhi during his 10 years as Prime Minister, and held dozens of other mid-air briefings on his way back from foreign trips. He wasn’t a sought-after poll campaigner. Although he invariably figured on the list of the party’s star campaigners, he wasn’t in great demand from candidates, except in Punjab. He would be asked to address election rallies as a courtesy.

Now, though, Singh has truly become a star campaigner, at 86, public rallies are not for him. The Congress has, therefore, started taking him to poll-bound states — like Gujarat and Karnataka earlier — to address press conferences and lend weight to its attack on the Modi government’s economic policies.

Last July, Singh’s remarks at the extended Congress Working Committee meeting — “jumlas” can’t replace policymaking — were lapped up by party leaders, as spokespersons went gaga about his speech.

As one hears Congress leaders spouting the growth figures and other achievements of the Manmohan Singh government, one is reminded of his words at the fag end of his tenure in January 2014: “History will be kinder to me.”

The perfect foil for Modi

Explaining why the party has fallen back on Singh to counter Modi, a senior Congress leader said: “He is the perfect foil for Narendra Modi. One is humble, another is bombastic. When Manmohan Singhji talks about the economy, he carries conviction. But when his successor talks about it, people take it with a pinch of salt. One is all about gravitas, another about flippancy.”

Party leaders say Singh’s involvement in the poll campaign, howsoever limited, also helps to counter the BJP’s projection of the Congress as a party that is led by the ‘non-serious’ and inexperienced Rahul Gandhi. While the Congress president seeks to match Modi hug-to-hug and bluster-to-bluster, Singh comes in to add gravitas to the narrative.

“He (Singh) also brings to mind the image of a victim, of an honest and well-meaning Prime Minister who was discredited and felled by the BJP’s propaganda and falsehood. People certainly judge him kindly now,” said a former minister in the UPA government.

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