Dear Manmohan

Dear Manmohan,

9 years is a long time to hang on to the dirty seat of Prime Minister. It gets even more difficult for a person like you who doesn’t hail from a political family and has worked his ass up the ladder. I understand that these are tough times, but as said every dark cloud comes along with a silver lining. The silver lining for you is that you will soon be relieved from the post of prime minister. A repeated effort made by you through your wish of making way for Rahul Baba. Soon you will be out of the hassles of ballyhoos against you from the power hungry opposition and the TRP hungry media. Life will soon be normal and you will back to your golden faculty days.

This isn’t the place for you professor. And this is why. This country has always been a preferred choice for under qualified and under educated chiefs. Which is why, a ward boy is seen as a preferred candidate for Home minister, a peon stands a chance of being a chief minister and a chaiwala can see himself as a future prime minister of India. You on the other hand, hold a degree from Oxford, took up a job at UN, headed the planning commission and took up the financial ministry. Despite these accolades, you don’t stand a chance. You are similar to a havaldar candidate who has passed out with merit in police academy. But the sad part is that the merit is lost when he joins the police force.

You are often criticized for being weak. But rarely do we realize that you are symbolic of the helpless employee in the corporate world who is strangled and intertwined in the jumbled up hierarchy of a political organization. Someone who has tons of potential and an opportunity to prove. But is sidelined and sacrificed for the need of selfish team members and greedy bosses. The only difference is the working class can call it a quit any day. The PM can't. You were turned down by the coalition parties, bogged down by the media, knocked down by the opposition parties and nailed down by the common man.  Yet you have held on the seat for past 9 years. Kudos to you.

Your predecessors too went down the same fate. Vajpayee was criticized for Tehelka scams and Gujarat riots. Rajiv was criticized for Bofors scam and IPKF adventure. Indira was criticized for emergency and operation blue star. Jawaharlal was back stabbed by the Chinese. It's tough being a PM of a country where everyone thinks he is fit for the top job. You are also criticized for the economic policies made by your government during these volatile global economic times. The fact is your opponents have turned a blind eye on the good that you have done to this country. You saved the country's economy from crashing like a card castle in 1992. Your policies made way for Mc Veggie burger, large Coke and Mc donalds. The same place where young Indians have a bite and crack jokes on you. You opened the gates for foreign multi-nationals and made us young Indians start our careers with a five figured salary. Something that was considered as a retirement take-home salary by our elders. Not just these, today we stand as a successful case study of a country brimmed with young entrepreneurs. Needless to say, you are the VVS Laxman of Indian economy who laid the platform for us to believe that we can come back from down under and win matches against a formidable opposition.

Weak and spineless are the terms associated with you permanently. Before you could understand what was happening to you, a lot of damage has been done to your image in the last 9 years. The tainted ministers of your coalition are known for their notorious scams. Starting with the fodder scam minister, then comes the 2G scam ministers, then the coalgate ministers and then the railgate minister. You have been a mere spectator to the corruption bizarre in this country. As said you are similar to a helpless employee of political organization where the rogue team members make money through holding key positions and bosses earn goodwill by putting you in forefront. The lower house isn’t a good place to be in. Isn't it?

On the international front too, you have been criticized for being spineless. If only they could understand what we have achieved. This nation often chants peace mantras. But when it comes to ground realities, we take a dig at the man who is steadily marching towards peaceful dialogues. In your term as PM, we have opened the eyes of west in context of Pakistan backed terror. We have smartly converted the terror attacks and the bomb blasts into a power point presentation and presented it to the west against our neighboring rogue. And that too we are successful. Something that has been alien to your predecessors. Adding a feather to your cap is signing the civil nuclear agreement with the US. An advantage that your successors will use for their benefit in erasing the title of a power starved nation. You also tried to sign peace accords with the worst of your enemies. Which also backfired against you from the opposition. Believe me giving peace a chance requires guts. And in a fragile security scenario, it requires more guts than ever before. Your predecessors failed in the past to get back to peace. Nehru never returned to peace after being backstabbed by the Chinese. So did Mrs. Gandhi after the 1971 war. So did Rajiv fail after the Jaffna embarrassment. So did Vajpayee after Kargil. You don't seem to give up on the hope of a peaceful region.  Be it bomb blasts, terror attacks, or the Chinese incursions.  You have been backstabbed again and again by your rivals outside the country, yet you didn’t give up on peace. May be the people of this country don't understand that for a growing economy like India, war is too costly an option to afford. Keep aside those annoying 'BEING SOFT' comments. You did a fairly good job.

As your term nears an end, you will go down as a silent hero of 1992 who laid down the platform for us to dream a better future. So what if you kept silent for so long. So what if you couldn’t scream in parliament by banging your chest. So what if you don’t hurl jokes at your opposition. So what if you don’t have a handsome face and a public appeal. So what if you don’t sound like a chaiwala, a wardboy or a peon. You at least fulfilled the hope of being honest candidate for the top job. You will always be remembered as a professor who went on to become the prime minister of India. May be we the people need to understand the magical figure 273 in lok sabha which is more important than the 1.2 billion people of the country. We don't understand the sacrifices made by you or the qualifications earned by you. But we do understand the mike throwing tamashas, blame games, media campaigns and social media jokes. If only we could understand your despair and stand by you in these tough times, we could have proved that 1.2 billion is more than 273 rogues in parliament. May be it requires a bit of wisdom on the part of we Indians. Difficult but we are trying. 

Yours Helplessly,

Indian Citizen.