Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the first PM outside the Nehru-Gandhi family to complete a full term in office, will finish a remarkable political innings in the Rajya Sabha spanning 33 years on Wednesday.
The architect of India’s economic liberalisation and the force behind the 2008 Indo-US nuclear agreement, Singh headed a government that transformed the social welfare framework with a bouquet of rights-based legislation and ushered in a slew of reforms including Direct Benefit Transfer and launched Aadhaar.
Manmohan Singh Retired From Rajya Sabha
Singh, 91, was the third PM from the Rajya Sabha after Indira Gandhi (in her first term) and Inder Kumar Gujral.
On a personal level, India’s only Sikh PM was known as an epitome of grace and politeness. When the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government was formed, defence minister Pranab Mukherjee had to force Singh to stop addressing him as “sir” — an old habit since Singh was the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor when Mukherjee was the Union finance minister.
Proficient In Urdu, English And Many Languages
Proficient in Urdu and English, Singh remained one of the best parliamentary speakers in the recent past. “No power on earth can stop an idea whose time has come. I suggest to this august House that the emergence of India as a major economic power in the world happens to be one such idea,” Singh said as he presented his first budget in 1991.
Has Many Memories In Rajya Sabha
Old timers in the Rajya Sabha shared many memories of Manmohan Singh, who was a regular at the Parliament library to scan magazines for articles on economics. Once, he drank lassi at the milk department’s stall outside the Central Hall and started digging in his pockets for money.