NEW DELHI: Former Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, who governed the South Asian country for two terms and liberalised its economy in an earlier stint as finance minister, died on Thursday at the age of 92.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said: “India mourns the loss of one of its most distinguished leaders, Dr. Manmohan Singh Ji.” He applauded the economist-turned-politician’s body of work.
The first Sikh in office, Singh, was being treated for age-related medical conditions and died after he was brought to AIIMS hospital in Delhi after a sudden loss of consciousness on Thursday.
Dr Singh retired from the Rajya Sabha in April 2024, concluding a parliamentary career that spanned 33 years. He joined the Rajya Sabha in October 1991, shortly after being appointed Union Finance Minister in the PV Narasimha Rao-led government.
Born into a poor family on September 26, 1932, in a village in the Punjab province of undivided India, Dr Singh made significant contributions to India’s economic and political landscape.
He served as the Chief Economic Advisor in the Ministry of Finance in 1972. He later held the position of Governor of the Reserve Bank of India from 1982 to 1985.
Described as a “reluctant king” in his first stint as prime minister, the quietly spoken Manmohan Singh was arguably one of India’s most successful leaders.
He is credited with steering India to unprecedented economic growth and lifting hundreds of millions out of dire poverty. He went on to serve a rare second term.
Singh studied by candlelight to win a place at Cambridge University before heading to Oxford, earning a doctorate with a thesis on the role of exports and free trade in India’s economy.
He became a respected economist, then India’s central bank governor and a government advisor but had no apparent plans for a political career when he was suddenly tapped to become finance minister in 1991.
During that tenure to 1996, Singh was the architect of reforms that saved India’s economy from a severe balance of payments crisis and promoted deregulation and other measures that opened an insular country to the world.
Famously quoting Victor Hugo in his maiden budget speech, he said: “No power on earth can stop an idea whose time has come,” before adding: “The emergence of India as a major economic power in the world happens to be one such idea.”
Singh’s ascension to prime minister in 2004 was even more unexpected.
He was asked to take on the job by Sonia Gandhi, who led the centre-left Congress party to a surprise victory. Italian by birth, she feared her ancestry would be used by Hindu nationalist opponents to attack the government if she were to lead the country.
Riding an unprecedented period of economic growth, Singh’s government shared the spoils of the country’s newfound wealth, introducing welfare schemes such as a jobs programme for the rural poor.
But his efforts to further open up the Indian economy were frequently frustrated by political wrangling within his own party and demands made by coalition partners.
While he was widely respected by other world leaders, at home, Singh always had to fend off the perception that Sonia Gandhi was the real power in the government.
Known for his simple lifestyle and with a reputation for honesty, Singh was not personally seen as corrupt. But he came under attack for failing to crack down on members of his government as a series of scandals erupted in his second term, triggering mass protests.
In 2012, his government was tipped into a minority after the Congress party’s biggest ally quit their coalition in protest at the entry of foreign supermarkets.
