<div>He has all the right genes. The second son of former Punjab-based Congress Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha), Sat Paul Mittal, has been witness to political activity at home right from his school days. Yet, neither Sunil Mittal nor his brothers Rakesh and Rajan have entered politics, yet. Sunil got into business and built India’s largest telecom services company virtually from scratch. Both Rakesh and Rajan have been part of the Bharti Airtel growth story.</div><div> </div><div>As polling ended for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the charismatic Sunil Mittal has gone out on a limb and stated that under the circumstances, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh did a fine job. He says: “As a member of the Prime Minister's Council on Trade and Industry, I have seen him dealing with critical national issues and ensuring that conflicting positions were resolved expeditiously.” This is not the first time that Mittal has endorsed leaders.</div><div> </div><div>In January 2009, Sunil Mittal, Mukesh Ambani and Ratan Tata went all out to endorse Narendra Modi during the Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors Summit. Mittal had then stated to thunderous applause: "Chief Minister Narendra Modi is known as a CEO, but he is actually not a CEO because he is not running a company or a sector. He is running a state and can also run the nation."</div><div> </div><div>With Singh no longer in the political race, there will be many who will analyse his tenure threadbare. So was he an ineffective PM? Mittal does not believe so. He states: “History, I have no doubt, will judge him better than some of the present day commentators, who chose to overlook both the goodness of the man and his extraordinary work.” That remains to be seen.</div><div> </div><div>But, the irony is that Singh despite being feted globally as an economist failed to lead the government in his second tenure as Prime Minister starting 2009. Agreed the business environment globally has been tough ever since Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008. And Singh with a coalition cabinet could not push policy measures while the government faced a series of scams including telecom, coal and the Commonwealth Games. </div><div> </div><div>It remains to be seen whether and how quickly the new government can help push up growth rates. But as Mittal sums up, it can be very lonely at the top especially when confronted with politically explosive situations. Singh could now emerge as a great speaker on the global lecture circuit quite like Bill Clinton. And he will no longer need to worry about what others say about him.</div><div> </div><div>anup.jayaram@gmail.com</div><div>anup@businessworld.in</div><div> </div>
