NewDelhi: Dr. Manmohan Singh, who undertook responsibilities as the Prime Minister of India for ten years, has left this world at the age of ninety-two. He died on Thursday evening at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi after battling severe age-related diseases. Singh had been in a deteriorating health condition for a while, and due to breathing problems, he was hospitalised.
Actually, Singh was born on September 26, 1932, in Gah city, which is now in Pakistan, and was a well-known economist and a person who contributed a lot to India’s economic policies. He began to study economics at Punjab University and then went on to get a doctor’s degree at Oxford University. His political career, when he was appointed Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission in 1985, really got started.
Over the years, Singh stood against many obstacles that were intended to weaken his position and integrity. Though these were the circumstances, he never ceased to uphold his principles of serving people as well as doing good for the nation. The fact that he survived harder times is the reason why he said when he left the office that history would value him as a good person.
One incident that stands out occurred in 1986, when the then-Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi verbally rebuked Singh in public as he was presenting a rural development project. Gandhi’s insulting remarks on the Planning Commission infuriated Singh that much that he began to weigh out the option to resign. Nevertheless, he preferred to stay for the sake of the country.
In 1991, Singh took hold of the portfolio of Finance Minister under Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao during a hard time when the economy was in crisis. His budget brought about far-reaching liberalisation measures that revolutionised the Indian economy, but it was confronted by backlash from the Congress MPs, who thought it was a blow to the middle class.
Singh’s elevation to the office of the Prime Minister came in 2004 when Sonia Gandhi drew her attention to him, and he was assigned to this role after the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance had won the elections. In spite of being appointed the prime minister, he was affected by internal conflicts in the cabinet concerning his authority, which were generated by the pressures from party leaders.
In 2013, Singh’s government was going to pass an ordinance that was aimed at countering a Supreme Court ruling that disqualified politicians who were involved in criminal activities. The ordinance got a lot of objections from the people, the apex of which came when Rahul Gandhi publicly ripped it apart, an act that reportedly upset Singh a lot.
While walking the political path, Dr. Manmohan Singh was celebrated for his modesty and service to the public. His death has inspired a plethora of tributes from both hemispheres of the political spectrum, which highlights his legacy as a guiding force during the period of major economic transformations in India.