Manmohan Singh, India's former prime minister, dies
Published: 02:12 PM,Dec 27,2024 | EDITED : 06:12 PM,Dec 27,2024
India's former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
Described as a 'reluctant king' in his first stint as prime minister, the soft-spoken Manmohan Singh, who died on Thursday at 92, was arguably 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.
'India mourns the loss of one of its most distinguished leaders,' said Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Born into a poor family in a part of British-ruled India now in Pakistan, Manmohan Singh studied by candlelight to win a place at Cambridge University before heading to Oxford, earning a doctorate with a thesis on the role of exports and free trade in India's economy. He became a respected economist, then India's central bank governor, and a government adviser. However, he 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, as well as other measures that opened an insular country to the world.
Famously quoting Victor Hugo in his first budget speech, he said: 'No power on earth can stop an idea whose time has come,' before adding: 'The emergence of India as a major economic power in the world happens to be one such idea.' Singh's ascension to prime minister in 2004 was even more unexpected.
He was asked to take on the job by Sonia Gandhi, who had led the center-left Congress Party to a surprise victory.
Italian by birth, she feared Hindu-nationalist opponents would use her ancestry to attack the government if she were to lead the country.
Riding an unprecedented period of economic growth, Singh's government shared the spoils of India's newfound wealth, introducing welfare schemes such as a jobs program 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.
But his efforts to further open up the Indian economy were frequently frustrated by political wrangling within his party and demands made by coalition partners.
'HISTORY WILL BE KINDER TO ME' While he was widely respected by other world leaders, at home, Singh always had to fend off the perception that Sonia Gandhi was the real power in the government.
The widow of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, whose family has dominated Indian politics since independence from Britain in 1947, she remained Congress Party leader and often made key decisions. Known for his simple lifestyle and with a reputation for honesty, Singh was not personally seen as corrupt.
But he came under attack for failing to crack down on members of his government as a series of scandals erupted in his second term, triggering mass protests.
The latter years of his premiership saw the Indian growth story that he had helped engineer wobble as global economic turbulence and slow government decision-making battered investment sentiment. In 2012, his government was tipped into a minority after the Congress Party's biggest ally quit their coalition in protest at the entry of foreign supermarkets.
Two years later Congress was decisively swept aside by the Bharatiya Janata Party under Narendra Modi, a strongman who promised to end the economic standstill, clean up graft, and bring inclusive growth to the hinterlands. At a press conference not long before he left office, Singh insisted he had done the best he could.
'I honestly believe that history will be kinder to me than the contemporary media or, for that matter, the opposition parties in parliament,' he said.
Singh is survived by his wife and three daughters.
India announced seven days of state mourning on Friday after the death of former prime minister Manmohan Singh, one of the architects of the country's economic liberalization in the early 1990s.
Singh, who held office from 2004 to 2014, died at the age of 92 late on Thursday evening at a hospital in New Delhi. He will also be accorded a state funeral.
'As a mark of respect for the departed dignitary, it has been decided that seven days of state mourning will be observed throughout India,' the Indian government said in a statement on Friday, with mourning running until January 1.
'It has also been decided that the state funeral will be accorded to late Dr. Manmohan Singh,' it said, with the national flag fluttering at half-mast on official buildings across the country. India's cricket team battling hosts Australia in the fourth Test took to the ground in Melbourne on Friday with black armbands to show respect for Singh.
India's main opposition Congress said that the former premier's body would be taken to the party's headquarters in New Delhi for an hour on Saturday morning. The 'public and Congress workers will have the opportunity to offer their tributes,' Congress said in a statement on Friday.
The body will then be transferred to the cremation ground from there. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India 'mourns the loss of one of its most distinguished leaders', while newspapers hailed his legacy. 'Man who liberated India's dreams,' The Times of India front page read.
'He opened India to the world,' The Indian Express headline ran. French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his condolences in a post on social media platform X, saying 'India has lost a great man, and France a true friend, in the person of Dr. Manmohan Singh'. 'He had devoted his life to his country,' Macron added.
- Understated technocrat - The former premier was an understated technocrat who was hailed for overseeing an economic boom in Asia's fourth-largest economy in his first term.
However, Singh's second stint ended with a series of major corruption scandals, slowing growth, and high inflation. Singh's unpopularity in his second term, and lackluster leadership by Nehru-Gandhi scion Rahul Gandhi, the current opposition leader in the lower house, led to Modi's first landslide victory in 2014.
Born in 1932 in the mud-house village of Gah, in what is now Pakistan, Singh studied economics to find a way to eradicate poverty in the vast nation and never held an elected post before taking the nation's highest office. He won scholarships to attend both Cambridge, where he obtained a first in economics, and Oxford, where he completed his doctorate.
Singh worked in a string of senior civil service posts, served as a central bank governor, and also held various jobs with global agencies such as the United Nations. He was tapped in 1991 by then Congress prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao to reel India back from the worst financial crisis in its modern history.
Singh steered the economy through a period of nine percent growth in his first term, lending India the international clout it had long sought. He also sealed a landmark nuclear deal with the United States that he said would help India meet its growing energy needs.
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.
'India mourns the loss of one of its most distinguished leaders,' said Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Born into a poor family in a part of British-ruled India now in Pakistan, Manmohan Singh studied by candlelight to win a place at Cambridge University before heading to Oxford, earning a doctorate with a thesis on the role of exports and free trade in India's economy. He became a respected economist, then India's central bank governor, and a government adviser. However, he 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, as well as other measures that opened an insular country to the world.
Famously quoting Victor Hugo in his first budget speech, he said: 'No power on earth can stop an idea whose time has come,' before adding: 'The emergence of India as a major economic power in the world happens to be one such idea.' Singh's ascension to prime minister in 2004 was even more unexpected.
He was asked to take on the job by Sonia Gandhi, who had led the center-left Congress Party to a surprise victory.
Italian by birth, she feared Hindu-nationalist opponents would use her ancestry to attack the government if she were to lead the country.
Riding an unprecedented period of economic growth, Singh's government shared the spoils of India's newfound wealth, introducing welfare schemes such as a jobs program 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.
But his efforts to further open up the Indian economy were frequently frustrated by political wrangling within his party and demands made by coalition partners.
'HISTORY WILL BE KINDER TO ME' While he was widely respected by other world leaders, at home, Singh always had to fend off the perception that Sonia Gandhi was the real power in the government.
The widow of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, whose family has dominated Indian politics since independence from Britain in 1947, she remained Congress Party leader and often made key decisions. Known for his simple lifestyle and with a reputation for honesty, Singh was not personally seen as corrupt.
But he came under attack for failing to crack down on members of his government as a series of scandals erupted in his second term, triggering mass protests.
The latter years of his premiership saw the Indian growth story that he had helped engineer wobble as global economic turbulence and slow government decision-making battered investment sentiment. In 2012, his government was tipped into a minority after the Congress Party's biggest ally quit their coalition in protest at the entry of foreign supermarkets.
Two years later Congress was decisively swept aside by the Bharatiya Janata Party under Narendra Modi, a strongman who promised to end the economic standstill, clean up graft, and bring inclusive growth to the hinterlands. At a press conference not long before he left office, Singh insisted he had done the best he could.
'I honestly believe that history will be kinder to me than the contemporary media or, for that matter, the opposition parties in parliament,' he said.
Singh is survived by his wife and three daughters.
India announced seven days of state mourning on Friday after the death of former prime minister Manmohan Singh, one of the architects of the country's economic liberalization in the early 1990s.
Singh, who held office from 2004 to 2014, died at the age of 92 late on Thursday evening at a hospital in New Delhi. He will also be accorded a state funeral.
'As a mark of respect for the departed dignitary, it has been decided that seven days of state mourning will be observed throughout India,' the Indian government said in a statement on Friday, with mourning running until January 1.
'It has also been decided that the state funeral will be accorded to late Dr. Manmohan Singh,' it said, with the national flag fluttering at half-mast on official buildings across the country. India's cricket team battling hosts Australia in the fourth Test took to the ground in Melbourne on Friday with black armbands to show respect for Singh.
India's main opposition Congress said that the former premier's body would be taken to the party's headquarters in New Delhi for an hour on Saturday morning. The 'public and Congress workers will have the opportunity to offer their tributes,' Congress said in a statement on Friday.
The body will then be transferred to the cremation ground from there. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India 'mourns the loss of one of its most distinguished leaders', while newspapers hailed his legacy. 'Man who liberated India's dreams,' The Times of India front page read.
'He opened India to the world,' The Indian Express headline ran. French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his condolences in a post on social media platform X, saying 'India has lost a great man, and France a true friend, in the person of Dr. Manmohan Singh'. 'He had devoted his life to his country,' Macron added.
- Understated technocrat - The former premier was an understated technocrat who was hailed for overseeing an economic boom in Asia's fourth-largest economy in his first term.
However, Singh's second stint ended with a series of major corruption scandals, slowing growth, and high inflation. Singh's unpopularity in his second term, and lackluster leadership by Nehru-Gandhi scion Rahul Gandhi, the current opposition leader in the lower house, led to Modi's first landslide victory in 2014.
Born in 1932 in the mud-house village of Gah, in what is now Pakistan, Singh studied economics to find a way to eradicate poverty in the vast nation and never held an elected post before taking the nation's highest office. He won scholarships to attend both Cambridge, where he obtained a first in economics, and Oxford, where he completed his doctorate.
Singh worked in a string of senior civil service posts, served as a central bank governor, and also held various jobs with global agencies such as the United Nations. He was tapped in 1991 by then Congress prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao to reel India back from the worst financial crisis in its modern history.
Singh steered the economy through a period of nine percent growth in his first term, lending India the international clout it had long sought. He also sealed a landmark nuclear deal with the United States that he said would help India meet its growing energy needs.