Its a vote for the Economist, ManmohanSingh!

The Congress has clearly swept across the nation.

Various reasons for this are being analyzed.

Amidst the various talks to rationalise the Congress victory,

what catches my attention is the response from the corporates and the working class.

They have hailed the emergence of the UPA with less strings of alliance pulls attached.

The way the urbanites have solidly voted for the Congress and the near all India support for the Congress in the elections,

make me think that

it is Mr Manmohan Singh

who won the elections without even contesting it!

Think of the pre poll options put before the voters.

The choice was to be made from

Manmohan Singh,

Advani and

some x,y or z from the Third Front.

The voters have clearly looked at the possible outcome with each of them.

The entire working class accounting for nearly 2/3 s of the electorate faced this election

at a time of uncertainty about whether their job at hand is safe!

Surprisingly no great promises were made by any of these contenders promising this working class a safe passage through the global economic crisis.

With this background, the voter is left to assess for himself who can do something to reduce if not remove completely the uncertainty which is very real in his life.

Can Manmohan do something about it?

Yes, he can, provided his hands are not tied.

His hands were tied in his last tenure-

one side by Sonia Gandhi who was thought to be calling the shots in governance

and the other by the alliance partners.

But will she tie his hands when it comes to pushing the economy forward at the present critical juncture, is the question.

No, she will not.

If Manmohan is left free from the troubles of the alliance partners, he will certainly see his way through his economic wisdom.

His remark during the course of election that regional parties are obstacle to development had not missed the attention of this middle class.

This remark showed his exasperation.

Another pointer to his genuine efforts in taking the country forward in development is his firm stance on the nuclear deal.

The nuclear deal is not a poll- issue.

But the way Manmohan handled it was a feather in his cap!!

He didn’t mind losing the government in the process of sticking to his stance on nucler deal.

To recall his words in his speech in Parliament on August 13, 2007, he made posterity to judge his wisdom is getting the nuclear deal.

"I will let history judge. I will let posterity judge the value of what we have done through this agreement. It is another step in our journey to regain our due place in global councils."

His firmness in spite of the big hue and cry that saw the Left moving away from his party, is something that can be seen only in a professional.

This deal and the way he dealt with his detractors made the public - the working class in particular,

get a feel of his professionalism and commitment in his area of specialty.

The country has witnessed the Inner stuff that Manmohan is endowed with.

This Inner stuff is what is needed in the man who is to control the country’s financial health at this critical juncture of global crisis.

Here is the man who will stick to his stance in spite of the pulls and pushes, if it is about an agenda on development where deft thinking and execution are needed.

Added to this sole performance of his commitment to his ideals,

is the way he handled the Satyam crisis!

In my opinion, the way the satyam crisis has been handled with professionalism, had been taken well note of by everyone of the working class who formed the majority of the voters that had voted in this elections.

Even what an Obama could not do in the US,

Manmohan, the economist had done in India.

The Satyam crisis was deftly handled by the government, by chipping in,

in time with a board of directors who saw to it that the company was not allowed to fall.

Many jobs were lost during this time.

But the confidence of the public and the working class was not allowed to fall,

in managing the Satyam crisis.

This is really demonstrative of what it means to have a person like Manmohan singh at the helm.

He is perceived as ‘weak’ in politicking and other issues.

But when it comes to his area of specialization, he can swing into action,

that too in a very professional way.

Manmohan had a chance to demonstrate his ‘presence’ in the Satyam crisis

at a time the nation was preparing to go to the polls.

The writing on the wall is that if only Manmohan is given a free hand in running the economy and the development oriented issues of the nation,

it will be better for all these working populace.

Compare him with Advani.

Advani may be good and genuine.

But whom will he have with him to do the job that Manmohan is clearly slated to do?

Who is there in the Third Front to match the professionalism and economic acumen of Manmohan Singh?

None.

One may say that it is Sonia who is calling the shots and not Manmohan Singh.

She may be calling the shots in other areas of governance, but not in pushing the economy forward.

His hands are not tied by Sonia Gandhi when it comes to economic agenda..

This was demonstrated in going ahead with the nuclear deal.

Manmohan was ready to sacrifice his government for the deal.

And Sonia backed him!!!

She too didn’t mind losing the government on an issue that called for resoluteness for the sake of nation’s development.

Manmohana Singh will have full liberty to go by his judgment in economics based development model.

The Congress did the right thing by projecting Manmohan singh as its Prime ministerial candidate.

Instead if Rahul had been projected, he would have grabbed the votes of the youth,

but not excited the working class.

In that scenario, the Indian working class would have sided with Advani.

It is economics and the demands of time that had determined the voter behavior.

The working class had done their part to make him free from the alliance pulls.

The ‘weak’ Prime Minister had scored victory on his ‘strength’ of economics and professionalism.

He has to understand this message and people his ministry with professionals.

This is a vote for the professional in Manmohan Singh.

Hope he does not belie the expectations of this nation known for its intellectual capital!

Tamil nadu scenario.

As an aside,

I have to talk about the Tamil votes in this election.

I continue to believe that the majority in Tamilnadu wanted to vote for Ms Jayalalithaa.

Such a vote is not for the Third Front.

We all know that she will side with Congress first, and if Congress does badly, then only with BJP after the elections.

Whichever way it goes, there will be advantage to the masses here in Tamilnadu.

The non performing state government will be challenged in such a vote.

Till the day before the elections that was the situation.

But what happened on the polling day?

The entire Tamilnadu has not yet come out of the shock of the verdict reported.

What happened?

What happened?

Is it the ‘Thirumangalam Effect’ ?

In yesterday’s question time to Yogendra Yadav and Rajdeep in CNN-IBN,

a querist from Tamilnadu explained the rates given for the votes.

Yadav agreed that he was indeed getting thousands of calls on this Thirumangalam Effect enacted in all constituencies where the DMK candidates contested.

But Rajdeep chose to play this down.

It is for everyone to see and know how this Thirumangalam Effect was enacted.

But why no media is talking about it?

The DMK supremo is certainly incapable of retorting if cornered by the English TV media.

(We saw his awkward performance on his talks on LTTE Prabhakaran.)

It is doubtful if any from Tamil media can take up this issue.

But why not the English channels?

Why don’t they take these allegations seriously, do the ground survey and bring out the truth?

தமிழகத்தில் நடந்தது என்ன?
ஜனநாயகமா?
அல்லது
பணநாயகமா?


ஓட்டே உன் விலை என்ன?
என்ற கேள்வியில் ஆரம்பித்து,
என்னதான் நடந்தது என்று,
எல்லாருக்கும் விடை தெரிந்த,
ஆனால்
சொல்ல முடியாத,
சொல்ல பயப்படும்
செய்தி,
ஜனநாயகத்தின் ஆதாரத்தையே அசைத்து விடும் போல இருக்கிறதே!

The mail published in Dinamalar dated 17-05-2009 is given here.

It tells what everyone in Tamilnadu knows.

The writer belongs to Madurai.

Another food for thought from the same issue…