Where's The Man?

But is that enough? The electorate has high expectations from the new government—and not just regarding detoxification. Happily, for Dr Singh, the expectations are not unreasonable. The Indian people understand his compulsions. A government which is sensitive to the needs of the poor and a government which is sensitive to the needs of big business is not necessarily an impossible contradiction. These twin balls can be juggled simultaneously if both sides are made to understand what can be done and, more crucially, what can’t be done.

There is one danger though. Manmohan Singh can get so bogged down in detail, so bogged down in micro-management that he becomes invisible to 1.2 billion people. A self-effacing PM is a welcome change, an absentee prime minister will sap public confidence in the new government. Dr Singh must govern but also be seen to govern. Burning the midnight oil at South Block is not the best way to achieve that objective. The PM’s handlers and media managers, through smart time management, must ensure he is regularly but selectively exposed.

Dr Singh forgets at his own peril that his enemies are just waiting to exploit underexposure as another Sonia Gandhi stratagem to deny him centrestage. Fortunately, in these philistine times of sound-bites and organised photo-ops, keeping Manmohan in the public eye should not be too difficult a task.