History will remember Manmohan Singh as a consequential PM: Sonia Gandhi

Congress leader Sonia Gandhi praised former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as a consequential leader whose integrity was vindicated by the Supreme Court's coal case ruling. She criticised the Modi government, contrasting its governance with Singh's economic, social welfare and transparency record

New Delhi: History will remember Manmohan Singh as a “quiet but a most consequential prime minister”, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi said in a signed article on Tuesday, adding that his record of integrity stands in stark contrast with the Modi government’s.

She also said that Singh’s prophetic prediction of January 2014 is becoming increasingly self-evident with every passing day, in an apparent reference to his then statement that it would be “disastrous for the country” to have Narendra Modi as the prime minister.

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The Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson’s remarks in the article published in The Indian Express come days after the Supreme Court gave former prime minister Singh a clean chit in the coal block allocation case.

“History will indeed remember him kindly as a quiet, gentle but a most consequential prime minister,” she said. In a swipe at Modi, Gandhi said since he is these days “forgiving” India’s students for attacking him, perhaps he can take this opportunity to forgive himself for his undignified slander against Singh.

She said the judgement brings to a conclusion one of the most tragic arcs of our public discourse — “the witch-hunt against Dr Singh, a man of the most remarkable probity and integrity”.

“The lobby against him was coordinated and well-organised, with actors stretching from the bureaucracy to the media, the judiciary, civil society, and most certainly to the RSS and BJP. “Today, their bogus crusade has come to its inevitable conclusion of nothingness. Dr Singh has been vindicated on every count,” Gandhi wrote.

“The date July 29, 2026, was an important but unacknowledged day in our recent political history as in a remarkable judgment, the Supreme Court upheld the CBI’s clean chit to Dr Manmohan Singh in the alleged coal block allocation scam,” Gandhi said.

More importantly, it pulled up the trial court for rejecting the CBI’s closure reports and making adverse observations against the former prime minister for no “compelling reason”, she pointed out. Singh’s record of integrity and accountability stands in stark contrast to how the Modi government has operated, so clearly and grossly misusing agencies designed to investigate crime and corruption like the ED and the CBI, she said.

“Its purpose has been to exert pressure on politicians. Leaders are either silenced through coercion or cynically folded into the BJP or, in some remarkable instances, rewarded with ministerial positions as well.

“When credible accusations of corruption emerge, the Modi government simply brushes them aside. Corrupt when you’re in the Opposition, suddenly clean when you jump ship!” Gandhi said. It is not a coincidence that Modi was also among the most vocal proponents of the attack on Singh, she said.

“His snide and atrocious remarks in the Rajya Sabha on February 8, 2017, that only Dr Singh knew ‘the art of bathing with a raincoat on’, will go down as the lowest point of our parliamentary history,” she said.

Gandhi said since Modi is these days “forgiving” India’s students for attacking him, he should introspect and forgive himself for his “undignified slander” against Singh. “Introspection, like charity, must begin from home. Ultimately, the attack on Dr Singh was motivated by a desperate desire to shift the public conversation and narrative away from his outstanding governance record,” she said.

Manmohan Singh’s government heralded profound economic change with unprecedented rates of growth and a consumption and private investment boom that propelled India into the ranks of middle-income countries, Gandhi stressed.

In 2008, when the global economy faced turbulence and collapse, India demonstrated its resilience, she said. During his tenure, the shift in employment patterns became very discernible with lakhs moving into higher-productivity occupations, she said.

Over the last decade, however, this diversification has been reversed, Gandhi said. “Let us not forget that in spite of the reworking of how the growth of India’s GDP is calculated, the 10 years of the UPA government saw higher economic growth than the past 12 years, resulting in millions being pulled out of poverty,” Gandhi said.

The Manmohan Singh government delivered on the constitutional promise of a Right to Education and expanded social justice through the introduction of OBC reservation in centrally-funded higher education institutes like the IITs and IIMs, she said.

“The Forest Rights Act recognised the ancestral rights of our Adivasi and forest-dwelling communities, after a decades-long struggle. The MGNREGA, recently demolished by the Modi government, was the most powerful social security intervention set up anywhere,” she said. Another signature achievement of Singh’s government was the National Food Security Act, 2013, which identified and guaranteed access to basic food rations for crores of families, she said.

“This is being sought to be amended. Soon after he demitted office, he had warned that the rights-based legislation would come under assault and his fears have, most sadly, come true,” she said. Singh heralded a new era of transparency in government through the landmark Right to Information Act, which enabled citizens to access the government’s inner workings, she said.

“The RTI now stands totally emasculated. There was an explosion of independent media, which was characterised by a fearlessness that appears more remarkable when juxtaposed with its current enfeeblement,” she said.

Civil society emerged as a force to be reckoned with, and our students had the freedom to protest against the government and even the prime minister, without being fired upon by metallic pellet guns or AK-47s, Gandhi said, taking a swipe at the Modi government. The prime minister regularly made himself accountable to Parliament and to the media through 100-plus unscripted press conferences, she said.

“And of course, we cannot forget that the landmark and path-breaking Indo-US nuclear deal, which overturned decades of nuclear discrimination against and denial towards India and marked our arrival on the global stage, was possible because of his political courage and sustained initiative,” she said.

The “mischievous and indefensible” allegations against his integrity have been exposed as hollow, and his record as prime minister is increasingly being recognised for what it was — a period of decisive economic, political, and social advancement in Indian history, she said.

“We all certainly regret that he is not here to see this day and to guide the nation with his wisdom. But it is a solace to us all that his prophetic prediction of January 2014 is becoming increasingly self-evident with every passing day.

Her remarks come after the apex court closed the criminal case against Singh by setting aside a summoning order passed against him. The veteran Congress leader, who passed away on December 27, 2024, now stands formally acquitted in the high-profile criminal case.