UPDATED: January 25, 2021 10:09 IST Gandhi in the middle: Priyanka Gandhi and other Congress leaders on the party's 136th foundation day, Dec. 28, 2020 (Photo: ANI) On January 3, 2014, facing flak from the media and the Opposition on many issues, including corruption, then prime minister Manmohan Singh said: "I honestly believe that history will be kinder to me...given the political compulsions, I have done the best I could do." In May that year, he was ousted from power, and his party, the Congress, sank to a humiliating low, winning just 44 seats in a Lok Sabha which has 543 members. Almost a decade later, the general public, at least, seem to have a kinder view of the former prime minister. In the latest edition of the India Today Mood of the Nation survey, 16 per cent respondents see him as the "best suited" leader to revive the Congress, a party which currently accounts for 54 members in the lower house and is in power in just five states-three on its own and two in a coalition. It's ironical that the octogenarian leader has emerged as the biggest hope to instil life in the grand old party, now seemingly on its deathbed.