Prime minister, great economist, a greater ethicist

Manmohan Singh showed that honesty could be at home in politics, and politics in honesty

- Gopalkrishna Gandhi

An outgoing diplomat is of little or no importance to a Leader of the Opposition (LoP). But when, in the July of 2000, just before moving to Colombo, I sought to call on the then LoP in the Rajya Sabha, Dr Manmohan Singh, I was surprised to get a date at once. As I entered Dr Singh's modest Room 43 in the old Parliament House, I saw there was no one fussing over him, no one hinting to me that I should do this or not do that. The leader rose warmly from his seat and showing me to a chair, congratulated me on my appointment and asked: "So, Gopal, what would you advise the Congress to do or say?" I was aware that I was going as a National Democratic Alliance (NDA) appointee, identified for the post by Prime Minister (PM) Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and here was an Opposition stalwart asking me to advise him on Sri Lanka.

Politics need not always politick, nor diplomacy speak in whispers. I said what I thought was the right course, namely that the rights of the Tamils in Sri Lanka should not be conflated with the demands of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), and that India must press for a political solution that meets the aspirations of the Tamil people with the sovereignty of Sri Lanka staying intact. By the time we finished, I had spent 45 minutes with one who I would never have imagined would be PM of India, four years from that day. He had asked me the most incisive questions, made me think through crucial aspects of India-Sri Lanka ties. I was moved when, as I left, he said, "Gopal, you go with my blessings."