“Let us honour if we can
The vertical man,
Though we value none
But the horizontal one.’’
– W.H. Auden
The Greek philosopher Plato wrote about a philosopher-king. It was some kind of an ideal to which perhaps Ashoka and Marcus Aurelius approximated. But India can boast that in Manmohan Singh it had a scholar-prime minister, who in his private moments, perhaps because he was a scholar, could be philosophical.
His scholarship was in the field of economics, more specifically international trade. His beginnings were humble in undivided India, but through sheer merit which was buttressed by hard work, he went from Punjab University to St John’s College, Cambridge, from where he took the Economics tripos and won the Adam Smith prize. For his doctoral work, he was elected to a fellowship at Nuffield College, Oxford. He was thus truly Oxbridge, and both universities bestowed on him, later on in his life, honorary degrees. I always had the feeling that his heart lay in the university by the Cam because light blue was the hallmark colour of his turban.
Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at a book release event in 2018. Photo: Press Information Bureau.
He came back to India to join the Delhi School of Economics which then had a star studded faculty – K.N.Raj, Amartya Sen, Sukhamoy Chakraborty, Jagadish Bhagwati, M.N.Srinivas, Andre Beteille, Tapan Raychaudhuri and Dharma Kumar – to name only the titans.
He moved seamlessly from academia into the corridors of power and went on to hold the top jobs in economic administration –finance secretary, chief economic advisor, governor of the RBI and so on. This experience stood him in good stead when through a series of fortuitous circumstances, he became the finance minister of India under P. V. Narasimha Rao at a very critical time for the Indian economy.
India’s first and only scholar-prime minister
What followed was unexpected and dramatic. Surprising everybody, including perhaps its own leaders and cadre, the Congress and its allies secured a majority in the Lok Sabha in the elections of 2004. The hope within and without the Congress was that the president of the party, Sonia Gandhi, would become the prime minister. But Gandhi refused to take the top job and announced that Singh would be the prime minister. Singh was thus pitch-forked into the tumultuous sea of politics and became India’s first, and to date, only scholar-prime minister.
The early 1990s, when Singh became finance minister, and the first decade and a half of the 21st century, when he was the helmsman, were not easy times. Singh’s career as finance minister showed that he was not shy of taking tough decisions. In the middle of 1991, a minority Congress government with Rao as prime minister came to power.
Also read: The Silent Strength of Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister Was His Moral Compass
The first challenge before this government was the Indian economy which was on the verge of bankruptcy. In June 1991, India’s foreign exchange reserves had fallen so low that it could only pay for just two weeks of imports. It was also evident that India was at the edge of defaulting on its external debt obligations.
The IMF did not believe that India was in a position to repay any loans that it could provide. So it refused to provide one. As a guarantee, India had to pledge its gold reserves which were lodged in the vaults of the Bank of England. Rao appointed Singh as his finance minister, who undertook a series of bold and pathbreaking economic reforms. The first step in these reforms was the devaluation of the rupee; next was the dismantling of the state’s stranglehold on the economy — in practical terms this meant the end of the licence raj and socialistic regulations.
These were the first momentous steps towards liberalising the economy. A looming crisis had induced the reforms which changed the face and the future of the Indian economy. By the middle of 1992, foreign exchange reserves were inching towards normalcy, the stock market was booming and the signs of rapid economic growth were also evident. Thus began the process of making India a growing economic power. Singh proclaimed the birth of a new economic era for India in his maiden budget speech and in a follow up speech in parliament in December 1991. A backward economy afflicted by decades of low growth was transformed by liberalisation into one of the biggest emerging economies of the world.
Why his speeches were noteworthy
The mention of Singh’s two landmark speeches opens up the space to discuss his style of public speaking and communication. He was by no means a great orator; he was certainly not a rabble rouser. He did not attempt to counter propaganda and misinformation by descending to that level. He spoke to persuade with reason. He trusted the people of India: he believed that they would understand if things were explained to them. He did not treat the people as puppets on a string that he held.
Manmohan Singh in the Prime Minister’s Office after taking oath as PM in 2004. Photo: Shome Basu/The Wire.
In his first speech to the nation as prime minister on June 24, 2004, he permitted himself a brief autobiographical foray. He spoke about his reasons for entering public life: “When I chose to enter public life I did so because I was convinced that our democracy needs more professionals to become more engaged and active in politics.’’ He used his own example to urge his fellow citizens to come forward and play an active role in the public affairs of the country. This appeal went hand in hand with a quiet and clinical spelling out of the many serious problems facing India and also with a sense of profound humility at the honour that had been bestowed upon him and his party which had been entrusted with ruling the country for the next five years. There was no table thumping and not a remote note of self-congratulation. There was recognition of the responsibility assigned and of the tasks ahead. The speech was noteworthy because it was so extraordinarily self-effacing.
Also read: A Farewell to My Friend: The Humanity and Legacy of Dr. Manmohan Singh
On February 21, 2014, Manmohan Singh delivered his farewell speech to the 15th Lok Sabha. He was, of course, then unaware that this would be his last speech as the prime minister of India. He returned in this speech to the theme of working together to rise above partisan strife. This was particularly poignant as the previous few months had been particularly tumultuous in the Lok Sabha.
Singh recalled the few occasions when members of the Lok Sabha had successfully worked to pass pieces of important legislation. He was aware of course that the deliberate stalling of Parliament proceedings by a noisy opposition had critically hindered the process of decision-making during what turned out to be the twilight of his prime ministership but he was unwilling to have acrimony tinge his farewell speech. So he spoke of hope: “…out of this strife, out of this tension-filled atmosphere which prevailed sometimes, there will be birth of a new atmosphere of hope.’’ He did not choose to lament or to cast aspersion and blame; he chose instead to stand a bit apart and attempted to instil into Indian democracy’s most important institution an element of much-needed optimism.
Even on occasions that most prime ministers use or have used to deliver stirring speeches, for example addresses to the nation delivered from the ramparts of the Lal Qilla on August 15, Singh resisted the temptation to make himself into a rabble rouser. He remained committed to the style in which he believed a prime minister should speak to his fellow citizens.
In his first Independence Day address as prime minister in 2014, he made the almost axiomatic (but often forgotten) and profound statement: “Our nation is what we are. It will become what we make of ourselves.’’ He set out in simple terms what he wanted Indians to make of themselves and therefore of India, “A Bharat that is just and humane. A Bharat that treats all its citizens as equals. A Bharat that is prosperous. A Bharat that lives in peace. A Bharat in which every person is literate and healthy. A Bharat in which everyone who seeks work is able to find it, and works for a brighter future for all of us.’’
Such public utterances exemplify the quiet dignity that Singh embodied. He was gracious to a fault even when he was under stress. Above everything else, he was a man of rectitude and integrity. Ramu Damodaran, who served as Rao’s aide in the PMO when Singh was the finance minister, recalled how one day, immediately after the devaluation of the rupee, Singh came to the PMO and walked straight to Rao’s office. On his way out, he handed Ramu an envelope and said, “Please make sure that this is credited to the PM’s Relief Fund.’’ When Ramu opened the envelope, he found a cheque of a very large amount and a note. The latter said, “Representing the difference in rupee value of my assets abroad consequent upon devaluation.’’ What more needs to be said about such an individual’s probity and integrity?
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This piece will be woefully incomplete if I did not disclose that I was close to him. There are very few people who I respected more. He, in his turn, was unusually fond of me. When the news of his passing made headlines, memories of his affection towards me have been crowding my mind. There were countless visits to his house, especially when he was out of power, when we chatted over tea and cakes and sometimes over a simple vegetarian meal. Both of us had to keep an eye on our blood sugar levels and the ever-kind Mrs Singh would make sure that we didn’t over indulge. Her presence was an integral part of our chats redolent as they were with anecdotes and Singh’s wisdom. The chats had no agenda. I feel blessed that I received his affection: I had a lump in my throat when he once described me as his friend. When his health was frail and too much talking tired him, he used to hold my hand as a sign of affection and solidarity. I cherish the memory of that touch.
There are two interrelated things to which the Singh couple opened up my mind. Mr Singh, in his quiet way, suggested I read the Guru Granth and both of them urged me to visit the Golden Temple, which I did. They thus directed me to a new vista of piety.
The angels claimed Singh the night after Christmas, when hardly anything stirred. They took away a humble and pious Sikh on the holy period of Nativity. Manmohan Singh was the gift of the magi to India.
Rudrangshu Mukherjee is chancellor and professor of History at Ashoka University. Views are personal.
