On the occasion of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s 90th birthday on September 26, ‘journalist’ Sagarika Ghose took to Twitter to wish him. However, the picture she shared to wish India’s prime minister between 2004 and 2014 during the Congress-led UPA spoke volumes about how Singh was always treated by the grand old party.
The image shared by Sagarika Ghose showed her shaking hands with former American President Barack Obama, while Manmohan Singh stood behind him like a mere non-entity. However, after being criticised for humiliating Singh on his birthday by uploading a picture-like way, Sagarika Ghosh quietly removed her tweet.
Sagarika Ghose, the Nehru fangirl, who masquerades as a journalist, had tweeted: “Happy Birthday to former PM unassuming scholar statesman #Manmohansingh, born in a rural Sikh family, gained an Oxbridge education through sheer talent and was the FM who transformed India’s economy. Whatever his rivals throw at him, Manmohan Singh’s legacy will shine on undimmed.”
While there was nothing unusual in wishing the former prime minister, as many people including PM Narendra Modi did, what attracted the eye of many netizens was the picture of Manmohan Singh, which Ghose tweeted to wish the UPA era’s ‘remote control’ Prime Minister, as he was famously called.
After drawing flak on social media, Ghose deleted the tweet and posted it again, however, this time she did not share the picture she had shared in an earlier tweet.
The picture Sagarika Ghose shared was from the year 2015, when Barack Obama, the then-serving President of the United States was on a visit to India. Ghose has periodically reposted her picture with Obama on Twitter, perhaps to brag about her meeting with the former US President.
As seen in the above photo, Sagarika Ghose is seen shaking hands with former US President Barack Obama, while India’s ex-Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, is seen standing like a non-entity behind Obama. It’s evident from the picture that no one there seemed to even notice Manmohan Singh’s presence. He stood there like a statue, hands folded, watching Obama greet Ghose.
Many Netizens chastised the ‘journalist’ for humiliating the former Prime Minister.
Some thought it was a ruse, and she wanted to make the most of the opportunity to brag about her encounter with Obama.
A few Netizens sympathised with Manmohan Singh, for being always disregarded by the party despite doing some great work.
Others mocked Ghose for continuing with her normal practice of posting ill-thought-out Tweets and then discreetly deleting them when called out.
How Dr Manmohan Singh was mistreated during the UPA rule
Unfortunately, this is exactly how things were when Manmohan Singh was Prime Minister in Sonia Gandhi’s UPA government. Manmohan Singh was always a weak person controlled by the party’s high command. In 2004, the Congress party described Sonia Gandhi as having “sacrificed” the Prime Ministership and offering it to Manmohan Singh.
However, as soon as Singh took office, it became evident that this was one of the Congress party’s most significant political ploys. Sonia Gandhi clearly behaved as the Super Prime Minister even though she was not the Prime Minister of India, making the most essential decisions from 10 Janpath Road in New Delhi via her National Advisory Council. Manmohan Singh was merely a puppet in the hands of the Gandhis. Manmohan Singh was famously characterised as the “remote-controlled Prime Minister” because of this. In other words, Sonia Gandhi was running the government, without being accountable for it.