Sunday, February 15, 2015

Why AAP won? The Difference between Arvind Kejriwal and Dr. Manmohan Singh

Last week I had given my views on the difference between Arvind and Modi.
Today I'll give you the difference between Arvind and another Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh.

CV of Dr. Manmohan Singh

EDUCATION /Qualification:
Stood first in BA (Hons), Economics, Punjab University, Chandigarh
1952; Stood first in MA (Economics), Punjab University, Chandigarh
1954; Wright's Prize for distinguished performance at St John's College, Cambridge
1955 and 1957; Wrenbury scholar, University of Cambridge,
1957; DPhil (Oxford), DLitt (Honoris Causa); PhD thesis on India's export competitiveness

OCCUPATION /Teaching Experience:
Professor (Senior lecturer, Economics, 1957-59
Reader, Economics, 1959-63;
Professor, Economics, Panjab University, Chandigarh, 1963-65
Professor,International Trade, Delhi School of Economics,University of Delhi,1969-71
Honorary professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University,New Delhi, 1976
Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi,1996

Working Experience/ POSITIONS:
1971-72: Economic advisor, ministry of foreign trade
1972-76: Chief economic advisor, ministry of finance
1976-80: Director, Reserve Bank of India

Director Industrial Development Bank of India; Alternate governor for India, Board of governors, Asian Development Bank;
Alternate governor for India, Board of governors, IBRD
November 1976 - April 1980: Secretary, ministry of finance (Department of economic affairs)
April 1980 - September 15, 1982: Member-secretary, Planning Commission
September 16, 1982 - January 14, 1985: Governor, Reserve Bank of India
1982-85: Alternate Governor for India, Board of governors,International Monetary Fund
January 15, 1985 - July 31, 1987: Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission
December 10, 1990 - March 14, 1991: Advisor to the Prime Minister on economic affairs
March 15, 1991 - June 20, 1991: Chairman, UGC
June 21, 1991 - May 15, 1996: Union finance minister
October 1991: Elected to Rajya Sabha from Assam on Congress ticket
June 1995: Re-elected to Rajya Sabha
March 21, 1998 onwards: Leader of the Opposition, Rajya Sabha
June 2001: Re-elected to Rajya Sabha
May 2004 to May 2014, Prime Minister of India

CV of Arvind Kejriwal

Passed Mechanmical Engg from IIT Kharagpur in 1987.
Joined TISCO, Jamshedpur in 1989
Resigned from TISCO in 1992 to study for Civil Service Exams.
Spent some time in Social service with Mother Teresa and the Ramkrishna Mission.
Joined IRS in 1995 as Asst. Commissioner of Income Tax.
Took study leave in 2000 and started "Parivartna" a social servive NGO.
in 2005, formed another NGO, "Kabir" to help the people against government apathy and corruption.
Resigned as Joint Commissioner in 2006.
Got into the RTI to expose corruption and then joined Anna Hazare in the "India Against Corruption" movement.

Awards and recognitions
2004: Ashoka Fellow, Civic Engagement
2005: Satyendra K. Dubey Memorial Award, IIT Kanpur for his campaign for bringing transparency in Governance
2006: Ramon Magsaysay Award for Emergent Leadership
2006: CNN-IBN Indian of the Year in Public Service
2009: Distinguished Alumnus Award, IIT Kharagpur for Eminent Leadership
2009: Awarded a grant and fellowship by the Association for India's Development.
2010: Policy Change Agent of the Year, Economic Times Awards along with Aruna Roy
2011: NDTV Indian of the Year along with Anna Hazare
2013: CNN-IBN Indian of the Year 2013-Politics
2013: Foreign Policy magazine top 100 global thinker, November 2013
2014: Kejriwal was featured in Time's 2014 Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world.

Seeing the above, it is obvious that while Arvind was much better qualified that Modi, Dr. Manmohan Singh was much better qualified that Arvind. 
And yet Dr. Manmohan Singh failed. 
Why?
I suppose the Dr. was a completely YES man.
There are two types of men in the world, the extrovert and the introvert.
A leader and the one to be lead.
The places are not interchangeable.
As long a Dr. had people above him he did an excellent job but when he was given the top job in the nation he failed.He failed because the Congress President who could not herself take the top job for technical reasons chose him to be her proxy to do as per her bidding but without any power. 
The limitations of coalition politics did not allow him freedom to do what he wanted. 
At every step he had to compromise between what he thought correct and what the Congress President thought correct. The decisions of the Congress President prevailed. 
However, the Dr. failed because he could not say NO. 
When he was chosen to lead the Congress party and he could not work as per his plans for the pulls from the DMK (Karunanidhi) on one side and TMC (Mamta) on another side and Mulayam Singh on a third side and the NCP (Sharad Pawar) on the 4th side, he should have resigned as Arvind did in 49 days and Atal Behari Vajpayee in just 13 days. 
Unfortunately, he could not say NO and see the mess he has landed the Congress in - completely wiped out.
I sometimes wonder what would have been the reign of Dr. if he had the steam-rolling  majority of Modi has.
On the other hand, compare him to Arvind. 
Arvind could have staggered along with 27 MLAs with the Congress and BJP  pulling his legs throughout his reign. He could have easily cobbled up a majority by causing defections in the Congress for they were more than willing to cross over. 
But that would have been against what Arvind stood for. 
He chose to resign and seek the people's mandate after showing them a trailer of what he could do.
This was the argument I gave to the people whom I called in Delhi during the "Caller Campaign" and who called Arvind a "Bhagora" and they were left speechless.
Although the BJP, the Congress and the Paid Media called him a Bhagora for resigning after 49 days but in their heart of hearts, they were aware that the people loved Arvind's 49 days rule and would wipe them out if elections were held. 
They postponed it as much as it was possible hoping that some of the AAP 
Unfortunately for them, the Supreme Court had other views and advised elections.
In hind sight it is obvious that Pranab Mukherjee would have made a better Prime Minister than Dr. Manmohan Singh and we have seen in the last 10 years it was he who was the fire-fighter who had to solve all the crisis in the Congress Party but then the Congress President could not have got a YES man, a dummy to do as per her bidding.
The rest is history.

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