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Farewell Manmohan Singh! A phone call that changed the country and the life of the former PM; The story is from 1991

  New Delhi: Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh passed away on the night of December 26 at around 10 pm. Born in Pakistan on September 26, 1932, the biggest day in the life of Manmohan Singh came in June 1991. Manmohan Singh returned to Delhi after attending a conference in the Netherlands and slept in his room. He received a call at night. After a long time, Singh's son-in-law Vijay Tankha picked up his phone. The voice on the other end was that of PV Narasimha Rao's confidant PC Sikandar. Sikandar appealed to Vijay to wake up Manmohan Singh.

A meeting changed Singh's life

Manmohan Singh and Sikandar met a few hours later and the official told Singh about Narasimha Rao's plan to appoint him as the Finance Minister. Singh, who was the Chairman of UGC at that time and had never been in politics, did not take Sikandar seriously but Rao was serious. The incident took place a day before the swearing-in ceremony.

Manmohan Singh, in his daughter Daman Singh's book 'Strictly Personal, Manmohan and Gursharan', says that on June 21, he was in his UGC office. He was asked to go home, get dressed and attend the oath-taking ceremony. He said, "Everyone was surprised to see me as the new team member ready to take the oath of office. My portfolio was allotted later but Narasimha Rao ji told me straight away that I was going to be the Finance Minister."

That appointment changed the direction of India's economy. From a tight, control-heavy, low-growth economy, it has become the fastest-growing major economy in the world today.

Rao and Singh were the architects of the 1991 reforms, which faced attacks from within and outside the Congress. The economy was in a bad shape. Foreign exchange reserves had fallen to Rs 2,500 crore, which was barely enough to cover 2 weeks of imports, global banks were refusing to lend, inflation was rising.

PC Alexander had suggested Singh's name

PC Alexander was Narasimha Rao's advisor at the time. Narasimha Rao told him that a person of international standing was needed for the Finance Minister. Alexander suggested the name of former RBI Governor IG Patel to him but due to his mother's illness, he refused and then Alexander suggested Manmohan Singh's name.

Political journey

Manmohan Singh's political journey began after he was sworn in as Finance Minister. He became a Rajya Sabha member from Assam in 1991. His tenure as Finance Minister was from 1991 to 1996. As Finance Minister, Manmohan Singh became the leader of economic liberalization. Licensee Raj was abolished, foreign investment increased and jobs came. After this, Manmohan Singh was the Leader of the Opposition from 1998 to 2004 and then the Prime Minister of the country from 2004 to 2014.

No power in the world can stop that idea...

In his first budget, Manmohan Singh had mentioned Victor Hugo's famous line that "No power in the world can stop an idea whose time has come." He repeatedly mentioned the names of Rajiv Gandhi, Indira and Nehru in his budget speech, but he did not hesitate at all to overturn their economic policies.
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