Longevity Is Usually A Reward

In the end, what many tributes to Dr. Manmohan Singh tried to say, shorn of frills, was that the economist survived long in politics because he posed no political threat to his party's true power centre. He was so reassuring; he even lost the only Lok Sabha election he contested.

- MANU JOSEPH

For a man who was said to be incapable of subterfuge or even office politics, a skill in which Indians excel, Dr. Singh thrived in public office. He had been governor of the Reserve Bank of India and our most famous finance minister before he became one of India's longest-serving prime ministers. And he could achieve all this not only because he had an economic vision, but chiefly because he was not politically extraordinary. His source of power was assured that he would always need them and that he would never develop another source.