MANMOHAN SINGH BELIEVED IN GROWTH WITH EQUITY

DR Manmohan Singh belongs to an era when politicians were respected for allowing institutions to flourish.

- KIL SIBAL Member of Rajya Sabha

It is not as if there were no aberrations in the past. By and large, the spirit of the Constitution was honoured by those in power. Even when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister (1999-2004), he respected and heard the voice of the opposition. Narasimha Rao, on one occasion, requested Vajpayee, who was the Leader of Opposition at the time, to lead a delegation to the UN. It was during those years that Manmohan Singh, from being a bureaucrat, who served the nation in several capacities, became the Prime Minister in 2004.

The opening up of the Indian economy, when a radical shift was made in 1991, by Singh as Finance Minister with India's balance of payments in deep crisis. His economic liberalisation policy paved the way for what India is today. Every sector of the economy moved away from the license quota raj and from a 3.3% growth rate prior to 1991, we in the 1990s witnessing India's GDP growing at 6%. Between 2004 and 2014, GDP growth averaged 7.7% with 8.1% average growth between 2004 and 2009.

Those were golden years, when India's growth story was lauded internationally and 271 million people moved above the poverty line. Economic growth during these years was tempered with equity. Singh believed that growth without equity, is not the path India should tread.