The 13th Prime Minister of India Dr Manmohan Singh has passed away on 26th December 2024 at the age of 92 years in AIIMS, Delhi. I cast my first vote for him. He was a simple, well educated,soft spoken man who believes in talking with your deeds rather than your tongue which is the reason for the phrase from his last Press Conference as PM (Yes there used to be PC's by PM before 2014) i.e "History will be kinder to him". Today when he is no more in the world and lost the PM post more than 10 years ago many realizes what is the real meaning of this phrase.
Born in Gah in what is today Pakistan, Singh's family migrated to India during its partition in 1947. After obtaining his doctorate in economics from the University of Oxford, Singh worked for the United Nations during 1966–1969. He began his bureaucratic career as an advisor in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. During the 1970s and 1980s, Singh held several key posts in the Government of India, such as Chief Economic Advisor (1972–1976), governor of the Reserve Bank (1982–1985) and head of the Planning Commission (1985–1987).
In 1991, as India faced a severe economic crisis, the newly elected prime minister, P. V. Narasimha Rao, inducted the apolitical Singh into his cabinet as finance minister. Over the next few years, despite strong opposition, he carried out several structural reforms that liberalized India's economy. These measures proved successful in averting the crisis, and enhanced Singh's reputation globally as a leading reform-minded economist.
He was the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha during Atal Bihari Vajpayee's government and is selected as PM by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi in 2004. His first tenure as a PM gave MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act), National Rural Health Mission, RTI (Right to Information), Indo-US Nuclear Deal, co-founded BRICS, keep country unaffected during World Economic Crisis of 2009. India's economy grew rapidly during his term. His second term marked with controversy including 2G spectrum scam, Coal Scam, Nirbhaya Rape Case and than Anna Hazare nationwide agitation, which lead to his loss in 2014. He came clean out of these allegations and most of the allegations and Anna Hazare stir proved out to be political motivated by opposition BJP and its parent body RSS since many leaders from the movement joined BJP later and Arvind Kejriwal formed Aam Aadmi Party after the agitation which helped him becoming CM in Delhi.
Dr Manmohan Singh's reform of 1991 and his growth driven successful PM tenure proved him right that 'History will be kinder to him.' Since 2014 we haven't seen a Press Conference by Prime Minister, have seen falling status of centralized agencies like CBI, ED, ECI, etc, weakening of acts like RTI and NREGA, institutes like CAG and Lokpal are just for the namesake now and the media which was instrumental in bringing out 2G Scam, Coal-Gate and helped build public opinion during Nirbhaya and Anti-Corruption agitation is reduced to government mouth piece unable to work free and fair without government pressure.
He was the man whose work do the talking. In spite of mocking NREGA in the parliament PM Narendra Modi never dared to remove it owing to its power in uplifting rural lives. Many of his government's projects were renamed by NDA government and many others projects started by him completed after the end of his tenure. I will remember him as the first PM I voted to power and as the man who gave real 'Achche Din' to the country without self boosting himself.
Rest in peace Dr Manmohan Singh. May those who have not realized your worth realize it soon. Good by Sir.
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