Soft of Speech but Solid in Struggle, That Was Manmohan Singh

For thousands of years, Narcissus weeps at its blindness

With difficulty does an eye-worthy flower blooms in the garden.

That for me is Dr Manmohan Singh. The news of his passing away has left me devastated. I came within his orbit for the last two decades. In 2004, I stood before him as he administered my oath as a member of the Planning Commission. In 2024, I stood before him with my autobiography ‘Drop in the Ocean’ for which he had written some beautiful lines. Two decades of proximity and suddenly a vacuum for me, India and the world.

Many people will recount what he meant for the country; I will write my personal experience through which the reader can see the larger picture.

Surrounded by members of the Planning Commission who were economists and administrators, I was overwhelmed by my own inadequacy. The best I had was some writing skill and some activism. For 10 years I was the only woman member in the Yojana Bhavan. The person who extended a helping hand and listening ear to all this was the Chairperson of the country’s apex planning body, Dr Manmohan Singh.

He saw some of my reports from the field which the deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia had sent him. He spoke very little, a few measured words. But his very first words etched my heart. “You go out and explore the country. Then write what you have seen. Kusum Nair wrote Blossoms in the Dust; that was in 1961. It’s time for an update.”

His words became my mission; going to the unseen and unwritten parts of the country to record my chashm deed gawahi (eye witness account) to place before the apex planning body. The result was my book Beautiful Country: Stories from Another India co-authored with Gunjan Veda in 2012.

I took special pride in two of my 45 reports because they brought policy change. My report on Gadchiroli, ‘Ordinary Women who did the Extraordinary’, was sent to him by Ahluwalia. “Though long it is recommended for reading in toto”. Ten days later came his handwritten reply, “There should be a discussion with the health ministry if village health workers under Rural Health Mission could be entrusted with the responsibilities of village health workers of this report.”

My earlier report on Mewat brought it under MNREGA and Gadchiroli was factored under NRHM. All this happened because he listened and heeded.

For me Dr Sahib epitomised the ganga-jamni (composite) culture of my country. In 2008, there was a new visitor to the prime minister’s house. A man from his village, Gah in Pakistan’s Chakwal district, had crossed the border to meet his school friend ‘Mohna’.  He carried soil and water from the village in Punjab for his friend with whom he shared a bench in his school. Ali Raja Mohammad and Manmohan Singh had parted in 1947 and met in 2008. Not only this region, but all of South Asia was Dr Singh’s very own.

That became clear to me when his friend Madanjeet Singh, a refugee from Lahore – who rose to become UNESCO goodwill Ambassador – started the South Asia Foundation in 2000. Dr Sahib was the inspiration behind this Rainbow Coalition as I watched it grow as its founding member. Not only South Asia, Dr Singh’s vision encompassed the human race regardless of religion, caste, class ethnicity.

In his poem Mosque of Cordova, Iqbal describes the ‘ideal man’ which to me epitomises Dr Manmohan Singh.

Soft of speech but solid in struggle

Whether in fight or feast.. always pure hearted.