KAUSHIK BASU
The passing of Manmohan Singh, India’s prime minister from 2004 to 2014, has led to an unexpected eruption of nostalgia and appreciation. Singh’s modesty and low-key style made it easy for many to overlook his achievements in boosting India’s economic growth and elevating its global standing. His death, at 92, has thrown a spotlight on an impressive record.
Singh will be remembered as one of the world’s most important – and most unlikely – political leaders. I first met him in the late 1980s in the East Delhi housing complex where my family lived at the time. Singh had finished his term as governor of the Reserve Bank of India and was looking to buy a simple apartment in our locality. A friend of mine called to ask if he could bring Singh to see ours.
Singh came and met us and chatted with my mother. But he never moved to the area, because soon thereafter he was appointed secretary-general of the South Commission in Geneva; and, after that, in 1991, he became India’s finance minister. In 2004, my mother called me, excitedly informing me that the soft-spoken, unassuming Singh had just become India’s Prime Minister.
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