Time & Perspective Quote by Manmohan Singh

A mild-mannered sentence that carries a hard warning: hands off the machinery of the state. Manmohan Singh’s phrasing borrows moral force from the word “democracy,” but the real target is power-play politics - the kind that rewrites rules, weakens institutions, or treats electoral mandates as a license to refashion the system itself. “Tinker” is doing a lot of work here. It’s deliberately diminutive, suggesting that what rivals call “reform” may actually be casual sabotage, the political equivalent of fiddling with the brakes because you don’t like how the car is being driven.

The second line is the tell. “We will not discontinue the good works of the past government” signals continuity as a governing virtue, not an accident. In a system where new administrations often define themselves by undoing their predecessors, Singh positions restraint as competence: stability over spectacle, incrementalism over purges. It’s also coalition-era code. His tenure was shaped by fragile parliamentary arithmetic, where reassurance to markets, allies, and bureaucracies mattered as much as applause at rallies.

Subtextually, the quote tries to flip a common political instinct. Instead of “change” being the heroic narrative, “don’t break what’s working” becomes the ethical stance. Singh’s technocratic brand is visible: democracy isn’t just voting; it’s the institutional continuity that keeps policy from becoming revenge. The intent isn’t inspirational; it’s preventative - an argument that the real threat to democracy often arrives wearing the clothing of improvement.