Dr Manmohan Singh: Scholar, gentleman and great son of India

As Finance Minister, after devaluing the Rupee, he donated the windfall to the Prime Minister's Relief Fund.

- AJIT RANADE

The passing of Dr. Manmohan Singh, architect of economic reforms, is truly the end of an era. His style of leadership exemplified simplicity, dignity, grace, and the art of seeking consensus. As Prime Minister for two terms from 2004 to 2014, he led coalition governments and achieved a great deal in terms of landmark legislation and high economic growth.

In that respect, his tenure can be compared to that of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who also led a government with 23 coalition partners.

This week marked the 100th birth anniversary of Vajpayee. There is a telling comment that Vajpayee left in the visitors' book after the death of Vice President Krishna Kant. Paying tribute to Kant, Vajpayee wrote in Hindi, in his impeccable, decorative handwriting: "Here was a beautiful lotus flower that bloomed despite being in the cesspool of politics." These remarks are equally applicable to Manmohan Singh—a scholar, economist, and statesman whose life embodied dignity, intellect, and humility.

Dr. Singh's journey is truly inspirational. Born in a small village in undivided Punjab, he was raised by his grandparents in frugal circumstances. His early life was shaped by the upheaval of Partition. Displaced by the chaos, Singh rose through sheer perseverance to achieve academic excellence. He earned scholarships to study at Cambridge and Oxford. At Cambridge, he topped the Economics Tripos and received the Adam Smith Prize, a rare accolade for an Indian.

At Cambridge, Singh's intellectual rigor earned him admiration from renowned economists like Joan Robinson and Nicholas Kaldor. His doctoral thesis on India's export prospects challenged the prevalent pessimism. His book, India's Export Trends and Prospects for Self-Sustained Growth (1964), became a seminal work advocating export-driven growth.