Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh breathed his last on December 26 at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi. The 92-year-old, who led the country from 2004 to 2014, had been in poor health for the last few months.
Soon after his
demise, leaders across parties, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid tribute to Singh, calling him one of the country’s “most distinguished leaders”. Even leaders across the globe paid their condolences following the news of Singh’s demise with former President of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai writing on X that India has lost one of its most illustrious sons. “India has lost one of its most illustrious sons. #Dr_Manmohan_Singh was an unwavering ally and friend to the people of #Afghanistan. I profoundly mourn his passing and extend my deepest condolences to his family, the government, and the people of India. May his soul find eternal peace,” Karzai said on X.
Scores of netizens and people paid tribute to the former PM online with many referring to him as “reluctant” and even as the “accidental PM”.
But how did Manmohan Singh become known as the accidental PM and how he proved time after time that he was no accident?
The former PM, Singh was born on September 26 1932 in a mud house in the village of Gah in what is now Pakistan. The village lacked both water and electricity. He was one of 10 children to his parents — his father being a dry-fruit seller in Amritsar.
Singh was determined to gain an education; for this, he would study under the streetlights because it was too noisy at home, his brother Surjit Singh told AFP. “Our father always used to say Manmohan will be the prime minister of India since he stuck out among the 10 children,” said Singh. “He always had his nose in a book.”
And it paid off. Singh won scholarships to attend both Cambridge, where he obtained a first in economics, and Oxford, where he completed his PhD. His daughter, Daman, recounts how Manmohan Singh was conscientious of his spending in college owing to a lack of funds. “His tuition and living expenses came to about £600 a year. The Panjab University scholarship gave him about £160. For the rest, he had to depend on his father. Manmohan was careful to live very stingily. Subsidised meals in the dining hall were relatively cheap at two shillings sixpence.”
On completion of his education, he took up academia at Panjab University and the Delhi School of Economics from 1966 to 1971.
However, life had different plans for Manmohan. In 1971, he transitioned to public service, joining the Government of India as an Economic Advisor in the Ministry of Commerce. Over the next decades, he held pivotal positions, including Chief Economic Advisor (1972), Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (1982–1985), and Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission (1985–1987).
It was in 1991 that Manmohan Singh’s career pivoted. Then PM PV Narasimha Rao picked Singh to be his finance minister and pull India out of the severe economic crisis it was facing. But Singh didn’t cower in front of the challenge. He spearheaded several liberalisation reforms such as deregulation, reduction of import tariffs, and privatisation of state-owned enterprises.
In his maiden Budget speech in 1991, Manmohan Singh quoted Victor Hugo, “No power on Earth can stop an idea whose time has come” — a sign of things to come.
It was his vision and policies that stabilised India’s economy and even paved the way for sustained growth.
It was in 2004 that Manmohan Singh unexpectedly became India’s first Sikh prime minister. However, his road to the PM’s chair is unique. In the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) scored an unexpected win. Following that, Sonia Gandhi was elected as the Congress Parliamentary Party leader and was also chosen as the UPA chairperson.
Everyone assumed that she would become the country’s PM too. But she decided against it.
In his book, Turning Points, then President APJ Abdul Kalam recounted the events that led to Singh and not Gandhi taking the oath of office.
“During this time there were many political leaders who came to meet me to request me not to succumb to any pressure and appoint Mrs Gandhi as the prime minister, a request that would not have been constitutionally tenable. If she had made any claim for herself, I would have had no option but to appoint her,” wrote Kalam in his book.
He further wrote, “It was a cause of concern for me and I asked my secretaries and rushed a letter to the leader of the largest party — in this case, the Congress — to come forward and stake the claim for forming the government.
“I was told that Sonia Gandhi was meeting me at 12.15 in the afternoon of 18 May. She came in time but instead of coming alone, she came with Dr Manmohan Singh and had a discussion with me. She said that she had the requisite numbers but she did not bring the letter of support signed by party functionaries,” the book mentions.
“She would come with the letters of support on the 19th, she said. I asked her why do you postpone. We can even finish it this afternoon. She went away. Later I received a message that she would meet me in the evening, at 8.15 pm,” the book further states.
On May 19, 2014, at the allotted time, 8.15 pm, Gandhi came to Rashtrapati Bhavan along with Singh. “In this meeting after exchanging pleasantries, she showed me the letters of support from various parties. Thereupon, I said that is welcome. The Rashtrapati Bhavan is ready for the swearing-in ceremony at the time of your choice. That is when she told me that she would like to nominate Dr Manmohan Singh, who was the architect of economic reforms in 1991 and a trusted lieutenant of the Congress party with an impeccable image, as the prime minister,” the book reads.
“This was definitely a surprise to me and the Rashtrapati Bhavan secretariat had to rework the letter appointing Dr Manmohan Singh as the prime minister and inviting him to form the government at the earliest,” Kalam wrote.
With this, Singh was sworn in as PM and the country witnessed a strange power-sharing model — Singh as the head of governance and Gandhi as head of politics. Many criticised Singh saying Gandhi was the real source of power while he was prime minister, and that he was never truly in charge.
However, Manmohan Singh soldiered on. His biggest triumph was to bring India out of nuclear isolation by signing a landmark deal securing access to American nuclear technology.
It was in his first term that India also achieved an average economic growth rate of 7.7 per cent. Moreover, his administration enacted transformative laws such as the Right to Information (RTI) Act and the Right to Education (RTE) Act.
Singh was re-elected in 2009 as prime minister. However, his second term was marred by scandal after scandal. It was then that BJP’s LK Advani, called Singh India’s “weakest prime minister”.
Following his ouster, when asked about the tag of being an accidental PM, he said in 2018, “I have been termed as an accidental prime minister of the country, but I think that I was also an accidental finance minister.”
With inputs from agencies
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