Manmohan Singh’s conspicuous absence from this year’s Republic Day celebrations only helped underscore his centrality in the current Congress scheme of things and, by extension, in the United Progressive Alliance arrangement. Even before he was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences for bypass surgery, a debate was raging within the Congress on whether or not the Prime Minister should contest the Lok Sabha elections due in April-May. Although it was acknowledged that it would be decidedly odd and even distract from the UPA’s electoral sales-pitch if the incumbent Prime Minister was to be seen as unwilling to submit himself to the democratic test of going to the electorate to renew his governing license, Dr. Singh himself was reluctance personified. Those who interacted with him in recent weeks heard him say it was time for young people to take over the responsibility. The euphemism was not lost on any of his visitors: "I am ready to make way for Rahul Gandhi." Music to Congress ears.

The outpouring of concern and sympathy for the Prime Minister over these last few days has unconsciously reaffirmed that he has come to symbolise decency in public life. In particular, the middle classes have come to appreciate the importance of having an honest and decent man at the helm of the government. Admittedly, there have been times when he was not able to prevent Cabinet colleagues from departing from the norms. But there was always this comforting feeling that the country had a Prime Minister who himself would not bat for this or that unscrupulous voice or give in to unbecoming pettiness.

More particularly, the people at large have noticed that after a long time the country has a Prime Minister who has not allowed his family to suddenly acquire traits of dubious entrepreneurship. No big deal, one can say, but at a time when much of the political class at the Centre and in the States has obliterated all distinctions between public and family, Dr. Singh has remained uncontaminated by this debilitating filial devotion.

It will be no overstatement to suggest that he has managed to re-define the office of Prime Minister in terms of personal integrity, professional competence, and intellectual calibre. Those who wish to succeed him will certainly find it difficult to emulate him in this respect.

Yet curiously enough Dr. Singh’s relationship with the Congress party remains far from joyful. First of all, there are those Congressmen who remain unreconciled to the May 2004 division of power and authority. They genuinely believe that they ought to owe their primary allegiance to the person who matters most, Sonia Gandhi. With these Congressmen, all the sentiments and calculations associated with the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty kick in effortlessly. Perhaps they entertain no malice towards the Prime Minister but neither do they feel any warmth towards him. It is simply that they believe that their, and the party’s, political fortunes are tied up with the family.

These Congressmen, then, believe that Manmohan Singh is at best a passing phenomenon. They have calculated there are no brownie points to be won in being seen as loyal to, or enthusiastic about, him. Silently, they wait for the rising son to shine. Then there are those Congress leaders who honestly believe that unschooled as he is in the hurly-burly of grassroots politics, Manmohan Singh is not entitled to their respect. Some of them even believe that they will make a better Prime Minister.

There are colleagues who did not defer to him, smarting under the impression that they owe their place in the Cabinet to Sonia Gandhi. They extend minimum institutional deference and respect to the Prime Minister in public. But in private they behave as if they have been exempted from the protocol and etiquette of the parliamentary system of government.

The combination of these two impulses produces a third calculation: pre-empt the ‘PV’ (P.V. Narasimha Rao) precedent, when an incumbent Congress Prime Minister was seen to have used the enormous prestige and power of the office to try to sideline the family from centre-stage of the national political theatre.

Dr. Singh has seen this phenomenon himself from close quarters. As PV’s Finance Minister he must have observed how senior Congress leaders came to believe – rightly or wrongly – that the Prime Minister was not being the perfect custodian of Congress values and history. These intriguing leaders assumed that they had the ‘family’ behind them in their insurgency. Finance Minister Singh must have seen how these unhelpful internal battles within the Congress parivar distracted the government from the larger responsibility of safeguarding the best interests of the Indian state. Nor has Prime Minister Singh allowed himself to forget how fellow Congressmen engineered his defeat in the South Delhi Lok Sabha constituency in 1999.

Admittedly, from the standpoint of these Congressmen, circumstances are propitiously different. A representative of the Nehru-Gandhi family is now firmly in control of the party. No one has ever suspected Dr. Singh of forgetting that he was a nominated Prime Minister. Nor has he done anything that even remotely suggests that he has not been sufficiently respectful towards the Congress president. On its part, the Congress high command is much better versed in the Congressmen’s penchant for carrying tales, causing suspicion, and a weakness for conspiracy theories.

The aura of stability and sobriety that Prime Minister Singh has managed to impart continues to make him central to the Congress as it struggles to recapture its image as the party of responsible, reasonable governance. Petty ambitions, pettier intrigues, and a nasty itch for power combined to make Congressmen bring about the downfall of two Prime Ministers — H.D. Deve Gowda and I.K. Gujral — in 1997 and 1998. This manoeuvring and politicking seriously damaged the Congress’s century old reputation, allowing the BJP to inch its way into national acceptability as the alternative party of governance.

That process of recovering the Congress party’s reputation is far from over. As India changes and faces a fast changing world currently in deep economic distress, the country’s need for a stabilising anchor becomes even more pronounced. Prime Minister Singh’s middle path and mild manners have engendered a confidence that the governing process will never be allowed to go berserk, that the Congress will countenance neither a Narendra Modi nor another Sanjay Gandhi.

Another factor works in Dr. Singh’s favour. Rahul Gandhi is not ready. Assuming he has overcome his earlier reluctance to inherit his father’s job one day, he is not ready, mentally, politically, and organisationally. Age is on his side and he seems to be more level-headed and unhurried than those who want to see the Manmohan Singh innings come to an end sooner than later. No one in the Congress party is going to acknowledge this but the fact remains that non-Congress UPA constituents are far from excited about Rahul Gandhi in a prime ministerial role. If for some reason Congress party managers insist on pitchforking the young man into the race, they may end up reviving the many dormant prime ministerial ambitions.

As the country moves towards its 15th general election, Prime Minister Singh has managed to introduce the idea of competence and calibre at the highest level. For too long has it been assumed that all that one needs to be Prime Minister of India is to be the right man in the right place, without any kind of executive experience in governing this vast country. That assumption is no longer acceptable. The Prime Minister of India is central to the complex web of institutional relationships. The incumbent should be able to command the respect of judiciary, the armed forces, the bureaucracy, the intelligentsia, corporate India. Equally, the Prime Minister should be able to deter all those who seek to harm India.

Leadership cannot be reduced to the simple art of winning elections and votes, though that remains a primary legitimising process in a democracy. In a vastly plural society like India, all segments need to feel comfortable with and have confidence in a leader. The relationship between leader and citizens has, of necessity, to be based on the perceptions of the ruler’s inclination and ability to provide conditions for fair play for all groups and individuals across the land.