“Give a man a reputation as an early riser, and he can sleep until noon.” Mark Twain’s pithy remark is illustrated most forcefully in the case of Mr Manmohan Singh and his integrity. In his case, give the man a reputation as an honest person, and he can rob the country blind with impunity.

Chandan Mitra writes in today’s The Pioneer, “All the Lines on this Route are Blocked” —

Given Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s unimpeachable record of probity even his own party leaders are dumbfounded by his palpable helplessness in acting against a Minister who is lampooned day in and day out by the Opposition and media with hard evidence of brazen corruption. It is widely known that Mr Manmohan Singh made an attempt to rid himself of this man when constituting the UPA 2 Cabinet around this time one year ago. Mr A Raja’s shenanigans had been exposed much earlier and it seemed the Prime Minister had decided to use the opportunity of restructuring his team in the wake of the Congress’s enhanced strength after the 2009 poll. Cabinet formation was delayed by at least three days apparently because Mr Singh insisted on giving the telecom portfolio back to Mr Dayanidhi Maran who held it till he fell from Mr M Karunanidhi’s grace mid-way through UPA 1, although he made a comeback after the pre-election patch-up in the Kalaingar’s family. [emphasis added]

“Singh’s unimpeachable record of probity”? Where the hell does that come from? Like the emperors new clothes?

I think that Manmohan Singh is dishonest. Last year in May I wrote:

PM Manmohan Singh is a dishonest man and is a disgrace to the proud and noble Sikhs, a disgrace to India, a disgrace to the worthy economics profession. He lacks pride in his own self. He’s a toady — one who flatters in the hope of gaining favors. A sycophant. He is what we call in Hindi भाड़े का टट्टू, a horse for hire. Granted that he is basically a civil servant and is trained to follow orders. But surely, he could have been his own man after being appointed the prime minister. Or perhaps he was appointed precisely because of his flexible morality and his ability to follow orders.

I wonder how long it will take before the average Indian voter understands this critically important fact that Mr Singh is as thoroughly corrupt as it is humanly possible to be? Would a person with even the least bit of honesty continue to hang on to his position — where he was placed by his masters — despite repeatedly being called out by the media month after month, year after year?

This May we have reports of the telecom scam. Rewind one year and here’s last May’s story (May 6th in ExpressBuzz titled “It’s the Bofor’s ghost again.”):

. . . on the eve of the elections the CBI, under instructions, has withdrawn the Interpol notice against him and the Italian friend of Sonia Gandhi is a free man. This has been done during the elections, after it has become increasingly clear that the Congress might not be able to form the government.

And everyone knows that in case a government here is able to get Mr Q to justice he will squeal. And that could be worrisome for some.

. . . The Congress has been defending the decision on the record, but privately Congressmen tell critical reporters, “what do you expect us to do, we have to defend this or we will lose our job”. Of course Priyanka Vadra and Rahul Gandhi do not see what the fuss is about, but obviously they know the answer for if there is no need to fuss, there was no need to prime the CBI to save the Italian businessman. It has been a shameful deed, a gross violation of the law, and while there is sufficient information to damn the CBI, the fingers are now pointing very directly at those who are in power and in control. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is amongst those responsible. He makes a penchant of honesty; this is the time for him to explain these murky developments.

The Indian leaders are not known for their vision, intelligence, humanity, or wisdom. What they are known for is their infinite venality and abysmal corruption. That some Indians persist in their insistence that Manmohan Singh is not corrupt in the face of mountains of evidence to the contrary reveals one of two things: they are morally blind and they are remarkably stupid.

It is time to own up to one undeniable fact: Indians are so morally bankrupt that they are absolutely comfortable with corrupt leaders. If it were otherwise, they would not only not vote for them, they would actually lynch them for destroying the country. Or perhaps they are not morally bankrupt but only spineless cretins afraid that they will “lose their jobs” if they stand up and tell Manmohan Singh that he is a despicably dishonest man.

Now if you will excuse me, I have to go throw up — I do every time I read that Blue Turban is an honest man.

[The little picture of the little man was lifted from here.]