Sanjay Baru who served the then Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh as his media advisor from the year 2004 to 2008 wrote a book on Dr Singh, titled “The Accidental Prime Minister: The Making and Unmaking of Manmohan Singh”
Bhopal: “Don’t ever forget nor forgive Sanjay Baru and Vinod Rai, who put up fictitious claims of corruption against MMSji, and Anna-Kejri gang hyped it and tried to spoil a great man’s image. Aaj thooka hua, khud ke munh pe gir raha hai.” The great man in reference is former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh.
This post on X (formerly Twitter) is one among many such posts which have been posted by X users after the demise of former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh who breathed his last at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi on Thursday night.
Sanjay Baru who served the then Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh as his media advisor from the year 2004 to 2008 wrote a book on Dr Singh, titled “The Accidental Prime Minister: The Making and Unmaking of Manmohan Singh” after the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) lost power at the Centre in 2014.
This book led to the tag of ‘Accidental Prime Minister’ attached to the former PM and doing immense damage his reputation despite the fact Dr Manmohan Singh was the chief architect of economic liberalisation in 1991 in the capacity of the country’s finance minister that set the tone of massive and unprecedented changes in the country in the field of trade, economy and industry and brought about a significant change in the lifestyle of people across the country.
Renowned actor Anupam Kher portrayed Manmohan Singh in a movie “Accidental Prime Minister” based on Sanjay Baru’s book, released in 2019.
As per Bollywood Hungama performance of the film was nothing but “flop”. Some other experts too gave verdict that the film tanked on the box office.
The then Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) had claimed that 2G spectrum allocation during Manmohan Singh government caused a loss of over Rs 1 lakh crore to the government. Similarly, in another draft report he accused the Manmohan Singh government of allocating coal blocks in an inefficient manner, thus causing huge loss to the government.
Both the charges against Manmohan Singh government couldn’t be proved later but due to these charges Singh became a villain in public’s eyes for allegedly not taking tough action against the “corrupt”, being a weak Prime Minister and remote controlled by Gandhi family. This led to the fall of the UPA-2 government headed by him in 2014.
A journalist Rohini Singh with X handle @rohini_sgh says, “Noida channel anchors and their owners and most of Delhi media led by Sanjay Baru owe a grovelling apology to Manmohan Singh’s family for the slander they ran against him 24/7. Delhi media crossed the line between legitimate criticism of an incumbent Prime Minister and abuse.”
The Red Mike spoke to another media advisor of Dr Singh, Pankaj Pachauri who reportedly said, “Accidental PM: Sanjay Baru’s book was akin to backstabbing Manmohan Singh.”
In his post Pachauri says, “When I see the TV screens tonight, where people are heaping praise on him from across the political divide, I feel a bit angry and in pain. He needed more love and respect while he was alive. And his words ring louder tonight: “History will be kinder to me.” – Goodbye doctor saab, Prime Minister, teacher and friend.”
An X user Renjith Thomas (@TowardsLiberti) says, “When Sanjay Baru, media advisor of Dr. MMS wrote a book with wild allegations media celebrated it. He eyed a job. Didn’t get it. Took revenge.”
On his part, Anupam Kher showered praise on Dr Manmohan Singh after the latter’s demise saying, “Deeply saddened to know about the demise of former #PrimeMinister of India #DrManmohanSingh! Having studied him for more than a year for the movie #TheAccidentalPrimeMinister, it felt that I actually spent that much time with him. He was inherently a good man. Personally, completely honest, great economist and a very humble person. Some can say may be not an astute politician! My heartfelt condolences to his family.”
Lambasting the movie “The Accidental Prime Minister” after Dr Singh’s demise, renowned journalist Vir Sanghvi said in his post, “If you want to remember the lies that were told about Manmohan Singh you should rewatch The Accidental Prime Minister. It is not only one of the worst Hindi movies ever made but is an example of how media was used to tarnish the name of a good man.”
There are X users who have supported Sanjay Baru, Anupam Kher and Vinod Rai too and criticised former PM Dr Manmohan Singh for his alleged weak stand on various issues.
