A meta joke that has been making rounds recently is in the form of a picture with the caption "The most politically correct cartoon" or something to that effect. The picture is actually non-existent, clean white space gleams from within the borders where it should have been.

The Prime Minister's speech at the 66th UN General Assembly evoked that joke vividly. The contrast with the Israeli PM Netanyahu's rousing, passionate speech could not have been starker.

No one can claim that the ability to make excellent speeches is a necessary condition for being a successful leader. It is also most definitely not a sufficient condition, we have seen a supposedly grand speaker fall from grace within a couple of years and what a great fall it was. The fact that Manmohan Singh is rather deficient in the speech department is well known. As a matter of fact, it has been noticed and written about by the international commentariat rather widely, for instance:

When India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh appeared on Indian national television a full 18 hours after terror attacks started ripping apart Mumbai, he achieved quite an amazing feat. He turned a national emergency, crisis and tragedy into a Grade A snooze fest.

The speech - which can be viewed here for anyone suffering from chronic insomnia - had all the urgency of a road safety public service announcement. Even the static graphic headlines "40 Held Hostage at Trident!" and "101 Killed in Attack!" plastered across his face on the TV screens had more life than Dr Singh, who read the autocue as if he was struggling through an on the spot translation of Pig Latin. [India's Prime Minister Hosts Pajama Party, Virginia M. Moncrieff / HuffingtonPost]

What is lacking in delivery, can be made up in content. But PM Manmohan Singh certainly wasn't trying, neither were his speech writers. Deeply scared of offending sensibilities, the speech was dumbed down until it resembled an incoherent rambling of platitudinous BS taken out of boilerplate speeches of various socialist leaders - with some bits from occasional psychotic rants of various middle-eastern despots. Add deep layers of masking tape to take out anything too edgy.

Dr. Singh the economist put the blame for economic and political crisis squarely on the "traditional growth engines" of US, Europe and Japan. India is willing to contribute, only if UN shows the way. The root of all problems is inflation. This is caused by bad effects of globalization. But please let's not erect barriers to trade. Terrorism is a problem. But the villains shall not be named. We support Palestine. By the way, with East Jerusalem as capital and hope Palestine and Israel become friends. Hail Rajiv Gandhi! All this is his vision. Ok, I am done. [Hey, where's all the people gone?]

At a time of deep political and economic crisis, Dr. Singh and a large part of his cabinet (up to 9 key ministers) are currently in New York. That is to say, like Bollywood movie song and dance numbers that suddenly teletransport protagonists to Switzerland, Singh and his men have taken the palace intrigue to the New York city. Perhaps this is just as well, since the true ruler is back in India.


One presumes that various foreign policy experts will be able to pick out nuggets of deep strategic thinking from this gibberish. But they are the experts, the kind that has been calling the shots for over six decades.