Manmohan Singh (1932 - 2024): The gentleman as PM & reformer

New Delhi: Unconfirmed reports suggested Sonia Gandhi had declined the Prime Minister’s post. The long queue of Congress heavyweights at CPM general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet showed many in the second rung fancied their chances after BJP’s shock defeat in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls.

Who would succeed Vajpayee as the next prime minister of India? The confirmation came on the eve of the Congress parliamentary party. Not from ‘top Congress sources’ but with the sudden deployment of the Special Protection Group at a Teen Murti Road bungalow occupied by Manmohan Singh.

The former prime minister, who remained in office for two consecutive terms between 2004-2014, passed away at the age of 92 at a Delhi hospital on Thursday night after a prolonged illness. 

There are many versions of why Manmohan was chosen to lead the government. Perhaps the rapport and the trust he developed with Sonia Gandhi as leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha between 1998 and 2004; or the experiences of the Narasimha Rao years at the helm. But it was an arrangement that worked well for the Congress to give the party another shot at power for five years in 2009 with an enhanced mandate.

Two years into office, at the party’s Nainital conclave, journalists asked PM Manmohan whether his government would have a deputy PM. Instead, Sonia Gandhi took the mike to answer the question: “There will be no deputy PM. I’m saying it categorically.”

The rest is history as Dr. Singh went on to serve as the fourth longest-serving prime minister of India after Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Narendra Modi. 

Manmohan, a Sikh, was also India’s first PM from the minority community. Participating in a discussion in parliament, he even offered apologies for the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

The Oxford-educated economist’s entry into politics was as sudden as his elevation as the prime minister. 

The Delhi School of Economics professor was first drafted into the government in the early 70s as chief economic adviser in the Ministry of Finance. Over the next two decades, he would serve in the Planning Commission and was appointed RBI governor in 1982.

Chosen by Narasimha Rao to lead the finance ministry in 1991, in the face of burgeoning foreign debt and a balance-of-payment crisis, Manmohan is credited with ushering in the first generation of economic reforms in India.

Eight years later, when he became the prime minister, it was widely expected that the government would be bullish on reforms.

But UPA-I’s policies and programmes carried a distinct tint of the ‘pro-poor’ mandate bestowed upon it. While reforms continued, flagship social sector schemes were also drafted in.

Employment Guarantee Act MNREGA has been criticised for its loopholes but remains the trusted instrument to bring economic succor in the face of calamities. Similarly, the Right to Information Act was the first attempt after Independence to empower people to seek transparency in governance.

Then there were the pulls and pressures of the Left, battle-hardened allies from Bihar like Lalu and Paswan, and of course the political heavyweights within like Pranab Mukherjee and Arjun Singh. 

But Manmohan survived all that. And even a ‘cash for vote’ scandal during the confidence vote on his government after the Left pulled the rug over the nuclear deal.
The afflictions of the first term would, however, return to haunt him in his next five years in office as scams, from 2G to Commonwealth Games, tumbled out of the closet.

But Manmohan, even in extreme adversity, continued to interact, with the Opposition and the media. So much so, that in a meeting with top editors, his media advisor had to step in to suggest the PM was not appearing for “an interrogation.”

As things started falling apart at the end of the second term, he was asked how would history judge him.

“I do not believe that I have been a weak Prime Minister ... I honestly believe that history will be kinder to me than the contemporary media,” Manmohan replied.

State govt declares holiday Karnataka has declared a government holiday on Friday in the wake of former prime minister Manmohan Singh’s death. Also the government will observe a 7-day mourning period the chief minister’s office said.