Long, long ago, there was a country called India and for some time it was fortunate to have a wise ruler named Dr Manmohan Singh.

For 10 years he ran the affairs of the country with prudence, humility and grace. And, the world marvelled how could a country of one billion people be governed by such a soft-spoken man, a Prime Minister who defied all the traits associated with a strong leadership model. How could an educated, learned and erudite man like him cope with the demands of a cantankerous democracy, yet would not allow his soul to be darkened by the dark players all around him?

When he became Prime Minister a second time in 2009, the western world saw his elevation as the triumph of meritocracy. Very true. Yet very few knew that as a boy he literally studied under the street lamp, and then went on to be admitted to the exclusive Oxbridge fraternity. A quintessential self-made man, the very embodiment of social mobility, promised in the Constitution of India. He was not a caste leader, nor a religious guru, nor a military general, nor a crooked billionaire. His only asset for a political role was his academic learning, honed in various bureaucratic roles.

And, it was for this learning that Dr Manmohan Singh was summoned to serve as the finance minister at a time when the Indian economy was on the verge of collapse and was the object of global jeers. He gently steered the Indian economy towards a radical departure from the policies and dogmas of the past. It required a steadfast and stern leadership, shepherding a reluctant polity to realign itself with the changed realities.

Dr Manmohan Singh never wavered in his 1991 prescriptions and set the country on its present path of growth and stability.

It is fashionable for historians to judge a ruler by his “triumphs” over men and adversaries; and history tends to be unkind to those leaders who unflamboyantly attend to the most fundamental need of a social order: political stability and fair governance. If the UPA coalition arrangement could survive for 10 years, it was entirely due to the unassertive yet firm hand of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Paperback pundits are fond of making flashy judgements about Sonia Gandhi being the puppeteer behind the Manmohan Singh puppet.

History will show that during the 10 years he was Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh was firmly in charge of the government policy. He was a supreme nationalist who would not be a party to any policy suggestion or political move that he thought was not in our national interest. When in 2004 he was tapped to be the Prime Minister, Sonia had remarked: “The country will be safe in his hands.” And safe it was.

Not only safe, the country was a decent place, a tolerant polity and an egalitarian society.

Perhaps it was so because Dr Manmohan Singh was a deeply religious man; he prayed every day and sought the divine guidance to be an ethical ruler. An incongruity in this cynical age.

It needs to be noted that Dr Manmohan Singh was a democratic man, respectful of the architecture of the constraints and restrains embodied in our constitutional scheme of things. He believed that much could be accomplished within the constitutional arrangements; was never tempted to short-cuts.

Political opponents need not be demonised. He passionately believed that he could explain and convince others of his policy prescriptions, and there was no need to shove it down the country’s throat.

During his 10 years as Prime Minister he was subjected to intense, sometimes even unfair, scrutiny from the media. Yet he never disparaged the institution of free media and was convinced that a free and fair media was essential to governing in a democratic idiom. He simply could not and would not countenance any kind of coercive action against a hostile publication. He believed in the power of dialogue and conversation and tolerance.

Above all, Dr Manmohan Singh was a decent man. That was his greatest quality, though many pamphleteers characterised this decency as a weakness and a failing. He had the strength to be polite and courteous. And, thank God for that — because for 10 years under his watch as Prime Minister, India was a better place.

One of India’s top columnist-commentators, Harish Khare was media adviser to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh