Former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, often known soft-spoken was one of India’s most successful leaders. Singh, the first Sikh to lead his nation, was prime minister from 2004 to 2014, serving a rare two terms. He had been undergoing care for age-related medical conditions.
Singh is credited with steering India to unprecedented economic growth and lifting hundreds of millions out of dire poverty.
Singh, breathed his last at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi, where he was admitted on December 26 in a critical condition. Doctors were unable to resuscitate him.
Born on September 26, 1932, in Gah village in the Punjab province of undivided India, Singh did his matric from Panjab University in 1948 and had an illustrious academic career before he became India’s prime minister in May of 2004.
Singh went to the University of Cambridge, UK, to secure a First Class Honours degree in Economics in 1957. He got a D.Phil in Economics from Nuffield College at Oxford University in 1962. His book “India’s Export Trends and Prospects for Self-Sustained Growth” was an early critique of India’s inward-oriented trade policy—something he would go on to challenge himself in the 1990s as the union finance minister.
He became a respected economist, then India’s Central Bank governor and a government adviser but had no apparent plans for a political career when he was suddenly tapped to become finance minister in 1991. During that tenure to 1996, Singh was the architect of reforms that saved India’s economy from a severe balance of payments crisis and promoted deregulation and other measures that opened an insular country to the world.
A mild-mannered technocrat, Singh became one of India’s longest serving prime ministers, holding the office from 2004 to 2014. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who succeeded Singh in 2014, called him one of India’s “most distinguished leaders” who rose from humble origins and left “a strong imprint on our economic policy over the years”.
“As our Prime Minister, he made extensive efforts to improve people’s lives,” Modi said in a post on X. “India mourns the loss of one of its most distinguished leaders, Dr. Manmohan Singh Ji. Rising from humble origins, he rose to become a respected economist. He served in various government positions as well, including as Finance Minister, leaving a strong imprint on our economic policy over the years. His interventions in Parliament were also insightful. As our Prime Minister, he made extensive efforts to improve people’s lives.”
Singh’s ascension to prime minister in 2004 was even more unexpected. He was asked to take on the job by Sonia Gandhi after she led the centre-left Indian National Congress party to a surprise victory.
As reported by Al Jazeera, “Riding an unprecedented period of economic growth, Singh’s government shared the spoils of the country’s new-found wealth, introducing welfare schemes such as a jobs programme for the rural poor. In 2008, his government also clinched a landmark deal that permitted peaceful trade in nuclear energy with the United States for the first time in three decades, paving the way for strong relations between New Delhi and Washington.”
Rahul Gandhi, leader of the opposition, said, “Manmohan Singh Ji led India with immense wisdom and integrity. His humility and deep understanding of economics inspired the nation. My heartfelt condolences to Mrs. Kaur and the family. I have lost a mentor and guide. Millions of us who admired him will remember him with the utmost pride.”
The Union government declared a seven day national mourning.
Priyanka Gandhi said, “Few people in politics inspire the kind of respect that Sardar Manmohan Singh ji did. His honesty will always be an inspiration for us and he will forever stand tall among those who truly love this country as someone who remained steadfast in his commitment to serve the nation despite being subjected to unfair and deeply personal attacks by his opponents. He was genuinely egalitarian, wise, strongwilled and courageous until the end. A uniquely dignified and gentle man in the rough world of politics.”
Singh was tough on economic reforms, but he was often criticized for being silent or reluctant openly speak out. Shashi Tharoor shared one of Singh’s lines, ‘”I honestly believe that history will be kinder to me than the contemporary media, or for that matter, the Opposition parties in Parliament,” Dr Manmohan Singh said in 2014. Just ten years later, he is already being proven right.”
P Chidambaram, India’s famous finance minister, said, “It is a deeply emotional moment for me to speak about Dr Manmohan Singh. The life and work of Dr Manmohan Singh and the period from 1991 till 2014 will be a golden chapter in the history of India. I worked closely with him for many years. I have not met a person more humble and self-effacing than Dr Singh. He wore his scholarship lightly and never claimed credit for any of his historic achievements. The story of India turned, after Dr Singh became Finance Minister. The present middle class of India was virtually the creation of his policies as Finance Minister and Prime Minister. Throughout his tenure, he had great empathy for the poor. He did not hide the fact that many millions of India are poor and reminded us that government’s policies must lean in favour of the poor. Examples of his empathy are MGNREGA and the restructuring of PDS and the extension of the mid-day meal scheme His story has not been told fully. His achievements have not been recorded fully. I am sure when we look back upon the 23 years that Dr Singh was in active politics, we will realize his true contribution.”
