'Mrs Gandhi had nothing to do in the day-to-day working of Dr Singh's government.'
'People say Mrs Gandhi's office used to give orders, which is nonsense.'
Prithviraj Chavan, who served as a minister of state in the prime minister's office from May 2004 to November 2010 recalls his association with Dr Manmohan Singh.
I had the opportunity to observe the working of Dr Manmohan Singh from close quarters when I became a Congress member of Parliament for the first time in 1991.
He was then the Union finance minister and he had to take very difficult decisions for the country, as India was facing an economic crisis.
The economic situation of the country was precarious and grave. It was on the verge of default (on loans from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund).
Dr Singh came, saw and conquered the situation.
He changed industrial policy, opened up capital account a bit. Import-export policies and the industrial licensing policy, license permit raj were the other issues that he tackled.
In 2004, when he became prime minister, he inducted me in his office as minister of state (Prime Minister's Office).
I was with him for six-and-a-half years, from May 2004 to November 2010.
I was given charge of the ministries of personnel, parliamentary affairs, space and atomic energy. In the second UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government I was also given charge of the science and technology ministry.
I have very fond memories of working with him closely. I learnt a lot from him. He was a very gentle leader and an academician. Every decision he took was strongly logical and there were no impulsive decisions.
He always surrounded himself with experts, scientists and economists.
It was a fairytale period for me as I learnt lot of economics.
India's golden period was from 2004 to 2014 although towards the end, many imaginary corruption scandals came out against our government. We had to pay the price for that and the government lost power in 2014.
The landmark decision he took as prime minister was the India-US nuclear deal. Equally important was the handling of the global financial crisis of 2008.
I was witness to the decisions that he took then. The collapse of Lehman Brothers was such a huge financial crisis, but we did not even feel the heat of that, all thanks to Dr Manmohan Singh.
Another incident that I recall was when Satyam Computers collapsed.
Dr Singh was very insistent that Satyam's clients must get their dues because India's reputation was at stake.
He said we can punish the wrongdoers, but Satyam must survive and fulfill its obligations to all its international clients.
Dr Singh personally saw to it that the Satyam crisis was solved and India's reputation in the software industry was unscathed.
He felt that if we allowed Satyam to collapse, nobody in the international arena would touch Indian passport holders.
It is very unfortunate that the media portrayed him as a puppet prime minister.
Dr Manmohan Singh was a mild person by nature without a doubt. He never had the airs of being a PM.
He was not a quintessential politician. His mild manner made some people consider him a weak prime minister, which is not true. He was a very strong PM.
An incident that has been cited as a mark of his eroding authority was when Rahul Gandhi tore the ordinance at a press conference. I think there was some logic to why that happened.
Dr Singh and Sonia Gandhi's relations were exemplary.
Mrs Gandhi looked after Congress party affairs and Dr Singh looked after the running of the government without bothering to run the party.
People say Mrs Gandhi's office used to give orders, which is nonsense.
The logic was that Mrs Gandhi had won the 2004 elections on the Congress manifesto. And the people of India had voted for that manifesto, which she had designed as the party president.
So, it was her duty to ensure that whatever promises were made in the manifesto were implemented. Her government had to deliver on those promises to voters.
Mrs Gandhi had nothing to do in the day-to-day working of Dr Singh's government.
There was a mechanism put in place. Every Friday, at 4 pm, Mrs Gandhi used to drive down to Dr Singh's residence along with Ahmed Patel and one or two other people who were required. Dr Singh used to be there with his team of 3, 4 people or some Cabinet ministers.
There used to be a one on one meeting between Dr Singh and Mrs Gandhi after which there used to be a group meeting.
This was called the core group and this meeting took place every week. Whatever the Congress party wanted the government to do was discussed at the core group meeting.
There was no need to carry files back and fro or take orders from anybody. A clear division of work was existed. The party was of Mrs Gandhi and the government was of Dr Manmohan Singh.
Dr Manmohan Singh's government had to ensure that the Congress manifesto was fulfilled and this was checked by Mrs Sonia Gandhi at those meetings from time to time.
Some of the promises which were difficult to implement were given time; then those promises were put forward to the core committee to discuss in detail.
Therefore, to say that Dr Singh took orders from Mrs Gandhi is not true.
Mrs Gandhi never intervened in any administrative matters like postings, promotions or transfers in the government.
Prithviraj Chavan spoke to Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com
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