Rahul Gandhi’s vituperation against the Ordinance to save convicted members of parliament and helping them hang on to their seats is the equivalent of Prime Minister Manmohan, as the captain of the sinking ship of the Congress Party government, being prodded on to the plank. The question is will a man, who has shown a special facility for following orders, serving the Gandhi Family while maintaining a sphinx-like countenance, muster the necessary self-respect to jump off the plank. This analyst has found it hard to see any intrinsic merit in this man, and yet seeing him treated with so much brusqueness and contempt by the Congress Party’s budding political master, at once elicits scorn for the weak-minded and muddled person that Manmohan is, and pity for him. He knows he has long outlived his political utility, but being rudely shoved on to the sidelines must be something new for a man who has a great capacity for absorbing insults. I really believe that, despite everything, Dr Singh will carry on in his position — his basic babu/bureaucrat-instincts kicking in, to continue in 7, Race Course Road for another few months, rather than bring matters to a head. He will be prevailed upon by Sonia Gandhi to stay on — better to have a proven political cipher reduced to nothing as PM (who is adept at swallowing dishonour), than risk general elections alongside the state elections, because that would be to court a double blow.