Praveen Davar 
The phrase ‘gentle colossus’ was used by communist leader Hiren Mukherjee in parliament while paying tribute to Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first, and most popular ever, prime minister in 1964. Six decades later the epithet fully fits the persona of the country’s 13th prime minister who was at the helm of affairs for seven years less than Nehru.
After his passing on December 26, 2024 much has been written, and will continue to be written on Dr Manmohan Singh’s monumental contribution in transforming the nation’s economy both as finance minister and later as prime minister from 2004-2014. But barring a few exceptions not much has been said on how brilliantly he handled the country’s defence and foreign affairs, reminiscent of the Rajiv Gandhi era for generations born after independence.
The India-US nuclear deal signed in 2008 was the culmination of a laborious process that started with a meeting of Singh with then US president George Bush in New York in 2004. The deal, which went through many difficult obstacles like the waiver on nuclear issues by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the 123 Agreement, would not have been possible without the dogged determination of the prime minister. As M.K. Narayanan, his National Security Advisor (NSA) has recently written in an obituary piece:
“His gentle mien concealed a steely resolve to achieve what he believed was in the best interest of the nation…I can say, without fear of contradiction, that there would not have been no nuclear deal, without Manmohan Singh. The role of US President George Bush was no less in this regard.”
The former NSA also recalled how in his first meeting with Singh, Barack Obama, the successor of George Bush, paid obeisance to India’s PM by his remark ‘Dr. Singh, you are my Guru.’
Also read: Manmohan Singh’s Tenure Saw Many Legislative Milestones
Predecessors
However, despite improving India-US relations as never before in the last two decades, Singh, like Rajiv Gandhi in the mid-eighties, ensured that India-Russia ties were not adversely affected and Russia (like the erstwhile Soviet Union) remained India’s biggest supplier of arms and military hardware. However it was his neighbourhood policy, especially with Pakistan, that was perhaps the crowning achievement of his successful foreign policy.
Unlike the present incumbent, Manmohan Singh built upon the strengths of his predecessors without at anytime flaying their perceived shortcomings. In a recent cover story the editor of The Week wrote: “Never finding fault with Nehruvian non-alignment, Indira’s Soviet leaning, Rajiv’s muscular militarism, Rao’s Look East. he counted all these as blessings and would build upon the strengths of all!”
The line dividing the foreign policy of the nation from its defence policy becomes thin when it comes to dealing with Pakistan and China.
While the diplomatic situation arising out of the Mumbai attack on 26/11 was handled with great caution and maturity, the commandos of the Indian Army carried out a number of surgical strikes across the LoC, a fact that was never publicised to maintain secrecy of the operations. The decision not to bomb interior places in Pakistan was taken by the prime minister after he had taken the chief of all the three services into confidence. It was an extremely courageous decision keeping in mind the tremendous pressure from many political parties and the media.
Tackling China
In 2008 when China started upgrading its highways and building new roads connecting Tibetan towns with its military stations and depots. that Manmohan Singh took no time to approve the proposal of defence minister A.K. Antony to order the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) to build and upgrade roads linking corps and divisional headquarters in Arunachal Pradesh and other parts of the Northeast. From 2009 to 2012 over 8500-km of roads were built anew or double-laned to facilitate movement of tanks, artillery and heavy duty transporters. Responding quickly to the build up of Chinese air capability Singh also agreed with his self-effacing defence minister to move the deep strike Su-30 aircraft to Tezpur in June 2009 and Su-30 MKI aircraft to Chhabua in March 2001.
After a gap of 29 years the Army raised two mountain infantry divisions under the Dimapur based 3 Corps and4 Corps in Tezpur. The UPA-II government also gave a nod in 2013 for raising the Army’s first mountain strike Corps to provide a decisive, lightning reaction offensive capability at a cost of Rs 65,000 crore. Unfortunately, in 2014 the moment the Modi government took over it shelved the plan, and as can be seen from the situation arising out of Chinese incursions at the Line of Actual Control (LAC), the country has had to pay a very heavy price.
Focus on maritime power
However, more than the Army and the Air Force, it was the Navy that perhaps received the maximum focus of modernisation towards its goal of acquiring a blue water capability. The Indian Navy inducted its second aircraft carrier, the 44,500-tonne INS Vikramaditya which was commissioned by Antony at a Russian shipyard on November 16, 2013. This was preceded by the launching of India’s first indigenous aircraft carrier INS Vikrant in September 2013 (commissioned 10 years later) at Cochin Shipyard placing India amongst the group of select countries which can design and build their own aircraft carriers. Indian naval aviation also received a major fillip with the arrival of the first Boeing P-81 long range maritime reconnaissance and anti- submarine warfare aircraft. A total of 28 warships were inducted or acquired during the 10 year tenure of Singh, and other 45 ships were in the pipeline in various shipyards when he stepped down in May 2014.
No one, before or later, has done more for the welfare of ex-servicemen than the Singh government. Initially accepting One Rank One Pension (OROP) scheme for personnel below officer rank (PBOR) in 2004 (officers were added later), the government announced full OROP to be effective from April 1, 2004. But on change of the government a month later, Prime Minister Narendra Modi dragged his feet for one year before announcing, half-heartedly, a half-baked OROP which is nowhere near the principle of OROP accepted by the parliament. Lest it be forgotten, the UPA-I and UPA-II governments sanctioned Rs 4,500 crores in 2010 and 2012 to narrow the gap between old and new pensioners which was a giant stride towards OROP being finally sanctioned in 2015 but not fully.
I must end this with a personal note.
In 2012 the three living recipients of Param Vir Chakra came to see me at the Congress headquarters as I was looking after ex-servicemen affairs. They asked for enhancement of their monthly gallantry allowance. When the matter was placed before prime minister Singh, he took only a couple of days to increase their allowance to more than three times of what they were drawing then. Captain Bana Singh, the senior-most Param Vir Chakra recepient amongst them rang me up from Jammu and said (in chaste Punjabi): ‘Sir, this is unbelievable. We have never ever experienced this kind of lightning action in our civil life.’
That was Dr Manmohan Singh, the ‘gentle colossus’.
Praveen Davar is an ex-Army officer, a columnist and the author of Freedom Struggle and Beyond.
This piece was first published on The India Cable – a premium newsletter from The Wire & Galileo Ideas – and has been updated and republished here. To subscribe to The India Cable, click here.