Sometimes I think Dr. Manmohan Singh had many lives. Scant details are available about his early life and education. All we know is that it was tough, dependent on the benevolence of relatives and scholarships, spartan when he studied in Cambridge and Oxford and, later in life, like a middle-class family’s in sarkari Delhi. Dr. Singh started as an Economic Adviser to the government and dutifully carried out the policies of the government of the day. Apart from the fact that he was an excellent student, and he read extensively, there is not anything remarkable about the early years of his journey.
As the years rolled by, Dr. Singh held many positions in government, but he seems to have blended with the environment—controls and regulations, dominance of the public sector, protectionism, licences, permits and quotas, suspicion of the private sector, wariness about foreign trade especially imports, and all other incidents of a closed economy. There is no evidence that Dr. Singh rebelled against the economic policies of the day.
Read this | Manmohan Singh, the leader who liberalized India
His tenure at the South Commission seems to have brought about a revolutionary change in his thinking and outlook. In a sense, it was a preparation for his work after 1991.
Dr. Singh’s opportunity came when he was appointed—literally out of the blue — as Finance Minister by Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao. There is an anecdote that he did not believe Dr P.C. Alexander when he was told that he would be appointed Finance Minister. He was sworn in the next day; those of us who were present on the occasion wondered—though we knew him by name and face—what responsibility would be given to the blue-turbaned, soft-spoken, elder-looking gentleman.
In June 1991, India faced an economic crisis of unprecedented magnitude.
No one knew what the new Finance Minister would bring to the job that was, at that time, the most difficult job in the government.
I was witness from a very close quarter—as the new Commerce Minister who was, by instinct and inclination, raring to go to dismantle the policies that had hamstrung foreign trade and reduced a great trading nation, as India was, into a bit player in world trade.
Read this | Manmohan Singh: The archetypical insider who guided India towards its economic potential
The 30 days of July 1991 were like a non-stop storm that battered the edifice of a government-directed and government-controlled economy. The old guard—both political leaders and civil servants—were taken by surprise and bewildered. Some of them never recovered and, mercifully, faded away.
From the two-step devaluation to the foreign trade policy to the new industrial policy to his first Budget—every step pushed India in a new direction. The journey that started on 1 July, 1991, though interrupted a few times, continues today. Throughout the stormy journey, especially in the 15 years that Dr Singh was Finance Minister (1991-96) and Prime Minister (2004-14), he was an astute and assured captain at the wheel, steering the ship called Indian economy.
Look at the milestones that we have crossed: an open foreign trade policy, an open industrial policy, wholesale revision of old laws, new liberating laws, foreign direct investment, burgeoning foreign exchange reserves, an ever-growing private sector, new regulatory authorities and new developmental bodies. It was Dr. Singh who made the annual budget an instrument of liberalization and progress, and the most important and anticipated policy statement of the government.
Dr Manmohan Singh was the proponent and author of the Right To Information Act, Right To Education Act, Right to Food Act, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, Forest Rights Act, zero-balance accounts in banks, Aadhaar, direct benefit transfer, the telecom and communications revolution, and many other novel and revolutionary ideas that have transformed India.
Also read | On the Indian century: Manmohan Singh’s 2007 essay in Mint’s first edition
Dr Singh started a journey into the unknown and strongly urged his fellow citizens to follow him without fear. His life’s journey on this planet may have come to an end, but the exciting journey that he started continues until this day. We should feel blessed and grateful that we are travellers on this journey.
P. Chidambaram is a member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha, and former finance minister of India.
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