Is Brand Manmohan here to stay?

New Delhi: First there was a dig at those who thought he wasn't 'political' enough - "I may not be a politician. I don't have the skills of Jaswant Singhji, of Yashwant Sinha or Arun Shourie."

Then a quick thrust at those who think he is not committed enough to reform. "In 1992, when I rose to present my second Budget, all our positions on the Left and the right rose in saying that I should be impeached."

And a last glancing blow to show that he knows how to be Machiavellian if the need arises. "There is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle than to initiate a new order of things."

This was Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at his best in Parliament. The unassuming technocrat economist Prime Minister, once the academic civil servant, a failure at mass politics, an archetypal middle class idealist of Nehruvian India was on his feet on Thursday.

And he not only managed to convince the Left and a bitter right, he won a few hearts too. At one point, the Prime Minister turned emotional. "I was born in a very poor family in the other side of Punjab. I come from a little village in Gah," he said. "My father dropped out of the eighth standard to become a freedom fighter."

It was brand Manmohan speaking out brave and strong, the economic reformer who toils not for wealth but for the aam aadmi. It was the educated foreign policy strategist who works at deals not for anything but so that his country gets more electrcity. It was the septugenrain risk-taker, the ex-socialist capitalist.

In between, he was also fiercely patriotic. "I would like to state categorically that there have neither been, nor will there be any compromise," he asserted.

While defending the nuclear deal, Dr Singh was at his patriotic best. "I am a reformer because of the poor. We need this nuclear deal because of the poor." And on another occasion, he was a little sarcastic. "Yashwant Sinha handed me a bankrupt economy..."

Sonia Gandhi was conspicuous by her absence. The Prime Minister didn't sit in her shadow and he stood alone and upright. There was respectful, even admiring, applause from the Treasury Benches. And there were charmed detractors, unable to hide their awe.

Perhaps he's a political survivor. Perhaps he says the right things at the right time and is written into greatness by clever speechwriters. But in Parliament on Thursday, the Prime Minister detonated a new nuclear identity.

Testifies CPM leader Sitram Yechury, "The issues of concern that the Left has raised, each one of them has been met."

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