Manmohan Singh — former Prime Minister of India, renowned economist, technocrat and the architect of India’s liberalisation, which pulled the country out of economic atrophy – has died at 92. Dr Singh, who had been ailing for a while, died at Delhi’s AIIMS hospital this evening.
Seen as a reluctant politician, Manmohan Singh was the automatic choice for Sonia Gandhi when, after an unexpected victory of the Congress-led UPA, she stepped away from the post of Prime Minister.
Dr Singh’s background as Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor and former finance minister, and his unimpeachable reputation made it an obvious decision.
While the economy has never looked back after the liberalisation of 1991 that pulled it out of a phenomenal low of the balance of payments crisis, delivering an average growth rate of around 8.5 per cent, Manmohan Singh took the other huge step, in foreign policy, in 2008.
The India-US nuclear deal was forged in the fire of a huge political row in the country, the withdrawal of support by the left Front, which left Dr Singh’s government confronting a test of strength.
The deal he stood by ended the era of sanctions placed on India after the Pokhran 2 nuclear tests of 1998, with partial sanctions by IAEA that covered only the civil nuclear facilities. It also steered the country away from the Nehruvian policy of non-alignment, placed it front and centre of the international community and secured it a place at the nuclear club high table.
Dr Singh’s political journey of over three decades saw his meteoric rise from a post-partition humble background to the country’s highest office.
Born in Gah in undivided Punjab (now in Pakistan) on September 26, 1932, Dr Singh was a brilliant student who got a first class degree in Economics from Cambridge University and a DPhil from Oxford in the early 1960s.
He was handpicked as finance minister by former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao after having held almost every top job in the government: Chief Economic Advisor, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Reserve Bank of India Governor and Union Finance Secretary.
While Dr Singh’s personal honesty was never questioned, his government faced allegations of corruption and policy paralysis in its final years. Allegations linked to the 2G, CWG and Coal block allocations were seized by the Opposition BJP.
The other huge criticism against his government was sparked by the perception of then party chief Sonia Gandhi as a parallel power centre.
His critics even disparagingly dubbed him as the “Accidental Prime Minister”.
Dr Singh, however, maintained that history would be kinder to him.
In January 2014, addressing his last press conference as Prime Minister, he said, “I honestly believe that history will be kinder to me than the contemporary media, or for that matter, the Opposition parties in Parliament”.
Even his fiercest rivals, however, respected and admired him – which is rare in today’s politics.