Washington, July 13 (IANS) One does not need charisma to make a leader, says Time magazine, citing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s example who has made India one of world’s fastest-growing economies and changed tens of millions of lives for the better.
A speech by “Manmohan Singh, it has been said, is a natural remedy for sleep disorders,” suggested author Michael Elliott in an article titled “No Charisma? Don’t Worry, You Can Still Be a Leader” in the influential US news magazine

“During a raucous debate on a vote of confidence in the Indian parliament last year, Singh’s closing speech was so subdued that it was drowned out by the opposition. Singh folded up his notes and just submitted the rest of his remarks for the record,” he recalled.

“Still, he won the vote and then a sweeping victory in India’s general elections this year,” Elliott noted. “It isn’t Singh’s speeches that win him followers; it’s the fact that first as Finance Minister and since 2004 as Prime Minister, he has led India through a series of radical economic reforms that have made the world’s largest democracy also one of its fastest-growing economies-and protected the poor too.”

“It’s Singh’s actions that have changed tens of millions of lives for the better, not his words.”

• Manmohan Singh