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Talk of Manmohan Singh and his term as the finance minister in the Narasimha Rao Cabinet flashes up in our collective memory. The Oxford scholar helped liberalise India’s economy and usher in never-seen-before economic growth. What is rarely talked about is how Singh, as Prime Minister, shaped India’s foreign policy and steered the talks for a civilian nuclear deal with the US amid stiff opposition from political parties.
The gentle and calm politician, often critiqued as “maunmohan” for being a man of few words, was, in fact, a man of action. India lost one of its economists and prime minister on Thursday. Singh was 92.
“No power on earth can stop an idea whose time has come,” is how Manmohan Singh, then the finance minister, ended his Budget speech in 1991. “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.”
When Singh took over as finance minister in 1991, India was grappling with a severe balance-of-payments crisis. Foreign exchange reserves were perilously low, barely sufficient to cover two weeks of imports.
The country needed bold reforms, and Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh were the ones who were tasked to bring about those.
They spearheaded a series of groundbreaking economic reforms, moving away from a state-controlled, protectionist model to a more market-oriented, liberalised framework.
Singh dismantled the infamous Licence Raj that throttled industries and opened up the economy to foreign direct investment (FDI).
These helped stabilise the economy and unleash India’s economic potential. The GDP growth rate, which had been languishing at around 3-4% annually, averaged at 7.7% during Singh’s term as Prime Minister.
Manmohan Singh became the PM in 2004 and served two terms till 2014.
The calm exterior hid a steely interior that prioritised the nation above partisan politics.
Singh, running a coalition UPA government and facing stiff opposition from political parties, decided to push ahead with the India–United States Civil Nuclear Agreement.
The deal would allow India to cooperate with the US on a civilian nuclear programme.
With help from then-President APJ Abdul Kalam, Singh was able to convince some of the parties who dropped their opposition to the nuclear deal. However, the Left parties kept opposing the deal vehemently, and withdrew their support from the government. The Samajwadi Party had earlier supported the Left Front in opposing it, but changed its stand.
Singh’s government was put to a test of confidence and survived by 275–256 votes.
Singh and then-US President George W Bush made a joint announcement on the framework of the deal on July 18, 2005, and it formally came into force in October 2008.
This was a major victory for India, which was treated as a nuclear pariah by the US. The deal not only confirmed India as a responsible nuclear power, it also allowed the US to assist India with technology for civilian programmes.
The tough stance that Singh took on the nuclear deal, which also helped bring India and the US into a tighter embrace, and the way he steered the country through the 2008 economic recession was rewarded, especially by the middle class, in the 2009 election.
“Moreover, the stand he took on the nuclear deal erased any memory of his submissiveness to Sonia [Gandhi] in the public imagination. In the end, Singh was King,” wrote Sanjaya Baru, in his 2015 book, The Accidental Prime Minister: The Making and Unmaking of Manmohan Singh.
Baru called the deal “Singh’s crowning glory”.
The Manmohan Singh-led Congress won 206 seats in the 2009 Lok Sabha election, increasing its 2004 tally by 61 seats.
However, the UPA II years were hit by policy paralysis. As the government battled the taints of scams, bureaucrats were too scared to clear files.
Manmohan Singh, who had overseen the economic resurgence of India, was left to preside over years of stagnation in terms of government policy. The government stopped communicating and the lustre of earlier Manmohan days was lost in a thick cover of moss.
It was during his term as the PM that the world’s biggest jobs guarantee scheme, the MNREGS, and the Right to Information (RTI) Act were rolled out.
“I do not believe that I have been a weak Prime Minister … I honestly believe that history will be kinder to me than the contemporary media, or for that matter, the Opposition in Parliament… Given the political compulsions, I have done the best I could do,” said Singh in January 2014, months before demitting office.
It was Manmohan Singh who cemented the edifice of India’s economy and that would help subsequent governments to take India from strength to strength. It was also India’s first turbaned Prime Minister who would stand firm on the nuclear deal with the US, and get India a seat on the nuclear high table.
