Manmohan Singh's biggest failure was the "inability" to say no to Sonia, he tolerated the public insult hurled by Rahul Gandhi and he did not know 'when to retire' !!

No analyses of Dr Manmohan Singh would be complete without talking about 2013-14 and the Indian politics then.

“The negative reasons why the middle class “votes for Modi” (2014) are most obvious. There is a total rejection of the UPA regime, because of corruption and dynastic politics. There is also a fatigue with the government’s style of leadership (points fingers at Dr Manmohan Singh) and distrust vis-à-vis its policies,” wrote French writer Christophe Jaffrelot, 

-- senior research fellow at CERI-Sciences, Paris and professor of Indian Politics and Sociology at King’s India Institute, London.

In 2014, my general observation was that while Dr Singh remained indecisive and often not talking even in cabinet meetings, Narendra Modi “functions like a modern day CEO laying emphasis on the outcome and often allegedly putting the rules and normal norms in the backburner”.

Christophe Jaffrelot analysed these well and says Modi’s ‘super CEO’ image actually relies on a whole set of beliefs: he is considered less a politician than a manager  and he is for the liberalisation of the economy. See the paradox all these were happening in favour of the BJP and Narendra Modi when the Congress PM was the real 'architect' of economic liberalisation of 1991. 

Came in 2004, in him Sonia Gandhi  saw not only the perfect figurehead for her government, but also a man of unquestioning loyalty, party insiders say, someone she could both trust and control. 

It became so obvious that Sonia Gandhi held the real reins of power. 

In 2014 just a few months before his ouster, Dr Singh insisted he had done the best he could.

“I honestly believe that history will be kinder to me than the contemporary media or, for that matter, the opposition parties in parliament,” he said.

Manmohan Singh was a true gentleman -- the soft-spoken Oxford-educated economist whose financial reforms helped transform India in1991 from a struggling, poverty-stricken nation into an emerging power but whose second term was tainted by allegations of rampant corruption within his government.

Dr Singh's first Prime Minister was P V Narasimha Rao and yet he did nothing when Sonia Gandhi and the Congress party hurled insults on a dead leader and did not allow his body to be brought to the AICC headquarters.  

The Congress-led coalition went on to win a second term in 2009, in what many people saw as a mandate for Dr Singh himself. 

But he could not assert himself. He had even did not contest the Lok Sabha poll in 2009.

Congress, insiders say, never accepted that the 2009 election was a mandate for Dr Singh.

The AICC backroom boys were at work and it became clear that Rahul Gandhi, Sonia's son, was being groomed to take over from him. 

Dr Singh  was openly criticised by his own party (and the BJP) over attempts to continue a peace process with Pakistan despite the 2008 attack on Mumbai by Pakistani militants.

During UPA-1, Dr Singh became even more quiet at his own cabinet meetings, to the point of not speaking up for the sort of economic reforms many thought he ought to be championing.

Singh will go down in history as India's first Sikh prime minister, but also as someone who did not know when to retire. He looked tired and exhausted. But he was still keen to continue in office.