As legacy beckons, India PM eyes final reforms nudge

By Krittivas Mukherjee - Analysis

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Until a year ago, he was seen as a weak leader betrayed by his allies and manipulated by enemies, in what many Indians saw as the decline and steady fall of an erudite, honest prime minister.

Yet, when it came to the controversial nuclear deal with the United States, Manmohan Singh, 75, put his foot down to support a pact that may be one of his few lasting legacies.

That meant replacing the government's communist allies who opposed the deal with crucial parliamentary support from the regional Samajwadi Party.

Emboldened at the departure of his uneasy partners, who for the better part of his four-year tenure opposed his free market reforms, Singh now has an opportunity to get on with his economic agenda and seal his legacy.

But with national elections only months away, time is running out on him.

"The prime minister took a firm stand on the nuclear deal, but whether he can show the same resolve in economic policies we have to see," said political analyst Mahesh Rangarajan.

D.H. Pai Panandikar, the head of a private economic think-tank and Singh's classmate from Cambridge, says while major reforms were unlikely, some steps for privatization in state-run firms could be initiated.

"The last six months is not the time for major economic steps. But knowing how committed the prime minister is, we can expect something," Panandikar said.

Besides privatization, there could be some easing of foreign direct investment rules

"With the government finally out of the left bear hug, there is a window of opportunity for it to kickstart its stalled reforms agenda," the Hindustan Times said in an editorial on Thursday. "Tigerish trajectories of 8.6 per cent (growth) cannot be sustained without them."

'A SOFT BOSS'

Not a career politician, Singh was catapulted to the post of prime minister after party boss Sonia Gandhi turned it down, leaving him vulnerable to charges that he had undermined his office to a complex leadership structure with Sonia at the top.

Critics say his career, including as U.N. civil servant and government bureaucrat, underline a life where career jobs have carried more weight than pursuing strong political ideals.

People who have known and worked with Singh for more than a decade describe him as an anti-politician, a quiet, hardworking man and a deep thinker who shuns the perks and corruption that many Indian politicians thrive on.

He spurned a Mercedes ordered for his predecessor, Atal Behari Vajpayee, preferring to fold his thin frame into an Indian-made Ambassador, the workhorse based on the 1950s Morris Oxford.