Former Indian Prime Minister dies at 92

Former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has died at the age of 92.

Singh was one of India’s longest-serving prime ministers and was seen as a key figure in economic reforms, serving as prime minister from 2004-2014 and before that as finance minister.

Reports say he was admitted to a hospital in the capital Delhi after his health deteriorated.

Among those who paid tribute to Singh on Thursday was Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who tweeted that “India is mourning the loss of its legendary leader”.

Modi said Singh’s “intelligence and humility always shine through” during their conversation and that he “worked hard to improve people’s lives” during his tenure as prime minister.

Priyanka Gandhi, the daughter of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and a member of the Congress party, said Singh was “truly equal, intelligent, wise and brave to the end”.

His brother Rahul, who heads the Congress, said he had “lost his mentor and guide”.

Singh was the first Indian leader since Jawaharlal Nehru to be re-elected after his first term, and the first Sikh to hold the country’s highest office. He publicly apologized in parliament for the 1984 riots in which 3,000 Sikhs were killed.

But his second term in office was marred by a series of corruption scandals that marred his leadership. These negatives, many say, are what led to his Congress party’s massive defeat in the 2014 elections.

Singh was born on September 26, 1932, in a desolate village in the Punjab province of India, where there was no running water or electricity.

After attending Panjab University, he took a master’s degree at the University of Cambridge and then a DPhil at Oxford.

While he was studying at Cambridge, the lack of money troubled Singh, his daughter, Daman Singh, wrote in a book about her parents.

“His tuition and living expenses were about £600 a year. The Panjab University tuition gave him about £160. For the rest he depended on his father. Manmohan was careful to live a very frugal life. cheaply at two shillings and sixpence.”

Daman Singh recalled that his father “had nothing to do at home and could not cook an egg, or turn on the television”.

Singh rose to political prominence as India’s finance minister in 1991, taking over as the country slipped into bankruptcy.

His unexpected appointment led to a long and distinguished career as an academic and civil servant – he served as a financial adviser to the government, and became the governor of India’s central bank.

In his first speech as finance minister he quoted Victor Hugo, “no power on earth can stop an idea whose time has come”.

This became the starting point for an unprecedented program of economic reform: he cut taxes, devalued the rupee, established public companies and encouraged foreign investment.

The economy recovered, industry rose, inflation was controlled and growth rates remained high throughout the 1990s.

Manmohan Singh was a man who knew very well that he had no political base. “It’s good to be a political leader, but to be a democratic leader you have to win elections,” he once said.

When he tried to win the Indian lower house election in 1999, he was defeated. He took his place in the upper house, elected by his Congress party.

The same thing happened in 2004, when Singh was appointed as the first minister after Congress president Sonia Gandhi turned down the post – apparently to protect the party from the damage caused by Italy. Critics however pointed out that Sonia Gandhi was the real source of power when she was the prime minister, and that she was not the ruler.

A major achievement in his first five years was to get India out of nuclear power by signing an agreement to provide access to American technology.

But the deal came at a price – allies of the Communist government withdrew support after protesting against it, and the Congress had to make up the lost numbers by asking for the support of another party amid accusations of vote-buying.

A team builder, Singh led a team of sometimes difficult, self-reliant and unruly and supportive teams.

Although he was respected for his integrity and wisdom, he was also known as a quiet and passive person. Some critics say that the reforms were slow and that he failed to do what he had done when he was finance minister.

When Singh led the Congress to a second, decisive victory in 2009, he vowed that the party would “come back”.

But the gloss soon began to wear off and his second term was in the news mainly for the wrong reasons: several scandals related to his ministers that allegedly cost the country billions of dollars, parliament was suspended by the opposition, and violations of fundamental principles. This caused a great loss of wealth.

LK Advani, a senior BJP leader, called Singh India’s “weakest minister”.

Manmohan Singh defended his reputation, saying that his government has worked with “sacrifice and great devotion to the country and the welfare of its people”.

Singh adopted the foreign policy followed by his two predecessors.

He continued peace talks with Pakistan – although this was thwarted by alleged attacks by Pakistani militants, culminating in the November 2008 Mumbai shootings and bombings.

He tried to resolve the border dispute with China, and brokered an agreement to reopen Nathu La to Tibet which had been closed for more than 40 years.

Singh increased economic aid to Afghanistan and became the first Indian leader to visit the country in nearly 30 years.

He has also angered many opposition politicians by appearing to cut ties with India’s old ally, Iran.

Once a well-educated and well-educated person, Kale was known to be reticent and always considered herself to be unimportant. His social media account became popular for his nonsensical posts and had few followers.

A man of few words, his quiet demeanor won him admiration.

Responding to questions about the coal issue related to the illegal allocation of permits worth billions of dollars, he defended his silence on the matter saying “it is better than a thousand answers”.

In 2015 he was summoned to appear in court to answer charges of conspiracy, breach of trust and corruption-related charges. A distraught Singh told reporters that he was “ready for a legal inquiry” and that “truth will prevail”.

After his tenure as Prime Minister, Singh remained deeply involved in the issues of the day as the senior leader of the opposition Congress party despite his advanced age.

In August 2020, he told the BBC in a recent interview that India must take three steps “immediately” to address the economic damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic, which has caused the country’s economy to collapse.

The government should provide direct assistance to the people, generate investment for businesses, and improve the financial sector, he said.

History will remember Singh for bringing India out of economic and nuclear power, although historians would argue that he should have retired earlier.

“I sincerely believe that history will be better for me than today’s journalists, or even the opposition parties in parliament,” he told an interviewer in 2014.

Singh is survived by his wife and three daughters.