December 2024 will be remembered as a month of sorrows. On December 25, Osama Suzuki who played a pivotal role in the rise of Suzuki motors – a company that gave India its small car segment – the Maruti 800 passed away at the age of 94. Suzuki led the company for four decades. This was followed by the death of Dr Manmohan Singh, India’s former Prime Minister, on December 26. Dr Singh has his list of contributions towards empowering Indian citizens with legislations such as the Right to Information, Right to Education, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme but above all the economic liberalisation of India which freed it from the stifling license-permit raj. On December 29 the world learnt of the death of Jimmy Carter the 39th President of the United States of America at the ripe old age of a century. As politicians Dr Manmohan Singh and Jimmy Carter were gentlemen par excellence who measured their words and took no credit for what they did and least of all never used the media to promote themselves and their achievements. These men lived at an age that believed in purposeful living and high thinking, quite the antithesis of those who followed after them.
In September 2019, Jimmy Carter warned Americans against re-electing Trump saying quite bluntly that he thought it would be a disaster to have four more years of Trump. Subsequently when Trump contested the 2024 elections, Carter’s grandson, Jason Carter told a section of the media that the former president wanted to live long enough to cast his vote for the Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and he did exactly that by voting via mail for Harris who lost to Trump. Carter was a humanitarian worker who believed in peace building efforts during his Presidentship when he brokered peace between Israel and Egypt which has sustained to this day. He set up the Carter Centre to wage peace, fight disease and build hope. This yielded a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.
If Jimmy Carter was the unlikely President, Dr Manmohan Singh was the unlikely Prime Minister as this responsibility was literally thrust upon him. But Dr Singh had proved his mettle as the Finance Minister of the country who pushed through the much needed economic reforms that has placed India firmly and decisively amongst the comity of nations after pulling her out of an economic crisis that required a brave Prime Minister who took up cudgels on behalf of his Finance Minister and was unwavering in his faith on Dr Singh. While Dr Singh lived a quiet life after he lost his Prime Ministership in 2014 and only spoke when he was prodded by the media he also hardly made any comments on behalf of the Congress Party or on his own behalf, believing in the adage – actions speak louder than words. Both Jimmy Carter and Dr Manmohan Singh are exemplars of decency and dignity in politics with never a snide remark escaping their lips. That era has now ended. Today’s political leaders are brash egotists and devoid of grace.
