This is why I believe, despite a stunning record on the economy with its 9 per cent growth rate for three years, success in Kashmir till the recent sabotage over Amarnath, and now finally the spectacular success with the Indo-US deal, Singh does not get what he deserves. It is sheer snobbery. So Advani used non-Parliamentary and indeed impolite language when he called Dr Singh napunsak. It is the sort of abuse you hurl at your cleaner, not at your Prime Minister. Within the Congress, they are muttering about Rahul Gandhi as a possible PM. We know that is inevitable but why bring it up now if not for drawing Singh down a peg or two in his moment of triumph?

I fear it may not help Dr Manmohan Singh if I assert that he may yet prove to be one of India’s best Prime Ministers. Given the odds against his ever being a PM, he has performed miracles. Of course Sonia Gandhi has helped by managing the tricky waters of coalition politics. I often think of Harry Truman who succeeded Roosevelt one year after being chosen as his Vice-President and whom no one paid any attention to. He was a mid-western haberdasher unlike the East Coast grandees. They laughed at him and he proved to be an exceptional President.

When history is written, no one would remember the endless wailing about 123 or the small print of the Hyde Act. It will be India’s emergence on the global scene as a power legitimately in the G8/G10 club, which will be the lasting result of what Manmohan Singh, along with India’s team of diplomats and nuclear experts has achieved. The snobs may cavil but Manmohan Singh has the last laugh.