While Manmohan Singh was a Prime Minister with little control over the levers of power, he did command respect for his impeccable intellect.
Being very soft-spoken and docile in nature, Mr. Singh was a very suitable candidate for being puppeted from behind. His weak appearance was indeed a recipe for ridicule and political satire. Further, considering his clear lack of authority, he seldom meet the press. Nonetheless, among the few rare press conferences that he held, his mellow voice never failed to displayed mettle.
On one such rare occasion, a curious journalist asked Prime Minister Singh: "As China is aggressive stocking up U.S. Treasury Bonds, what is the possibility of China dumping them all at once in the international market and triggering the collapse of the U.S. dollar?". Mr. Singh replied with a polite smile, "If China triggers the collapse of the dollar, then the Chinese Yuan will appreciate drastically as a consequence, which will destroy the export oriented Chinese economy. So, as there is a mutually assured destruction, China won't resort to such tactics."
Well, despite his accidental rise to a lame-duck Prime Ministership, Mr. Singh's humility and academic stature earned him a professor like respect.
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