Manmohan Singh, former Indian prime minister die at 92

Manmohan Singh,  former Indian  prime minister and architect of economic reform,  has died at  the age of 92.
Manmohan Singh is  considered the architect of  major liberalization reforms in  India.
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Former Indian  Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has died at the age of  92.
Singh was one of India's longest-serving prime ministers and was considered the architect of  major liberalization reforms,  serving as  prime minister from  2004 to 2014 and  previously as finance  minister.
He had been admitted to a hospital in the capital Delhi after his health deteriorated,  according to reports.
Among those  paying tribute to Singh on Thursday  was Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who wrote on social media that "India mourns the loss of one of its most distinguished  leaders."
Modi said Singh's "wisdom and humility were always  evident" during their interactions and that he had "made  extraordinary efforts to improve  the lives of people" during his  tenure as prime  minister. Priyanka Gandhi, daughter of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and a  member of the Congress  party, said Singh was  "truly egalitarian, wise,  determined and courageous  to the  end".
His brother Rahul, who leads  the Congress, said he had "lost a mentor and  a guide".
Singh was the first Indian leader since Jawaharlal Nehru to be re-elected after a full  term and the first Sikh to hold the country's  highest office. He  publicly apologized in  Parliament for the 1984 riots in which  about 3,000 Sikhs were  killed.
But his second term was marred by a  series of corruption allegations that  have rocked his administration. The scandals, many  believe, were  partly responsible for his Congress party's defeat in the 2014 general  election.
Singh was born on September  26, 1932, in a desolate village in  India's undivided Punjab  province, which lacked  running water and  electricity.
After attending  Punjab University, he  received a master's degree  from the University of Cambridge and then a  doctorate from Oxford.
While studying at Cambridge,  Singh was troubled by a lack of  funds, his daughter, Daman Singh, wrote in a book  about her  parents.
Getty Images Manmohan SinghGetty Images
Singh was often called the "accidental prime minister"
"His tuition and living expenses  were about £600 a year. The  scholarship from Panjab University  allowed him  to earn about £160. For the  rest, he had to  rely on his father. Manmohan was careful to live very  frugally. The subsidised meals in the dining hall were relatively  cheap, at two shillings  and six pence. »
Daman Singh  remembers his father as  a man "who was completely helpless  at home and  couldn't boil an  egg or turn on the  television".
A consensus builder
Singh  became a prominent political  player when he became India's finance minister in 1991, taking over as the country  sank into  bankruptcy. His surprise appointment capped a long and  distinguished career as an academic and civil  servant: he served as an economic adviser to the  government and became governor of India's central  bank.
In his  first speech as finance  minister, he quoted Victor Hugo, saying that "no power on Earth can stop an idea whose time has  come."
This served as  the launching pad for an ambitious and unprecedented  program of economic  reforms: it cut taxes, devalued the rupee,  privatized state-owned enterprises and encouraged foreign  investment.
The economy  recovered, industry  rebounded, inflation was  controlled, and growth rates remained high  throughout the  1990s.
"A prime minister by chance"
Manmohan Singh was a man aware of his lack of political base.  "It's good to be a statesman, but to be a statesman in a  democracy, you have to win  an election first," he once  said.
When he tried to  run for election to  India's lower house in 1999, he was defeated. He  served in the upper house,  elected by his  party, the Congress.
The same  thing happened in 2004, when Singh was appointed prime minister after Congress president Sonia Gandhi  declined the post  — ostensibly to protect the party from damaging attacks  on his Italian origins.  Critics, however, have said that Sonia Gandhi was the real source of power  when he was prime  minister and that he was never  really in  office.
Mr Singh, his critics say, has always played second fiddle to Sonia  Gandhi.
The greatest triumph  of his first five-year term was to  lift India out of  its nuclear isolation by signing a  historic deal  that guaranteed access to American nuclear  technology.
But the deal came at a  price: the government's  communist allies withdrew  their support after protesting against it, and  the Congress had to make up  for lost  time by  securing the support of another  party, accused of  vote-buying.
A consensus builder, Singh presided over a coalition of sometimes difficult,  confident and potentially unruly regional allies and  supporters.
Although he  won respect for his integrity and intelligence, he also had a reputation for being  soft-spoken and indecisive. Some critics  said the pace of  reforms has slowed and he  has failed to  regain the momentum he had  when he was finance  minister. AFP George W Bush and Manmohan Singh, March  2006 AFP
Singh's greatest triumph during  his first five-year term was  lifting India out of  its nuclear isolation by signing a landmark deal with the  United States.
When Singh  led the Congress to a  second landslide election victory in 2009, he  promised that the party would  "raise the  bar".
But the  shine soon began to  fade, and his second term  made headlines for mostly the wrong reasons: several scandals involving his ministers  that are said to have cost the country billions of dollars, a parliament  paralyzed by the  opposition and a  major political paralysis that  led to a serious economic  crisis.
LK Advani, a  former leader  of the rival BJP party, called Singh  "India's weakest prime  minister".
Manmohan Singh defended his record, saying his government had worked with "utmost  dedication and commitment  to the country and the welfare of its  people."
A pragmatic foreign policy
Singh adopted the pragmatic foreign  policy followed by his two  predecessors. He continued the peace process with  Pakistan, although it was hampered by attacks blamed on Pakistani militants, culminating in the Mumbai  attacks and  shootings in November  2008.
He attempted to end the border  conflict with China,  concluding an agreement to reopen the Nathu La  Pass in Tibet, which had been closed for more than 40 years.
Singh with his daughter Upinder Singh  (right) and wife Gursharan Kaur  (left)
Singh increased financial support  to Afghanistan and became the first Indian leader to visit the country  in nearly 30  years.
He also angered many opposition politicians  who appeared to  be cutting ties with India's old ally,  Iran.
A cautious leader
A former academic and  scholarly bureaucrat, he was known for being  reclusive and always  reserved. His social media account was  known mostly for  his boring posts and had a limited number of  followers.
A man of few words, his  quiet demeanor nevertheless won him many  admirers. Responding to questions  about a coal scandal involving the illegal allocation of billions of  dollars in licenses, he defended his silence on the  matter by saying it was "better than thousands of  answers".
AFP An  India Anti-Corruption (IAC) activist  holds up a picture of Manmohan Singh before marching towards the  prime minister's residence in Delhi on August 26,  2012. AFP Singh's opponents  have accused him of involvement in a  2012 coal  scandal. In  2015, he was summoned to court to answer  charges of criminal conspiracy, breach of trust and  corruption. A distraught Singh told reporters that he was "open  to legal scrutiny" and  "the truth will prevail". After his  tenure as  prime minister, Singh remained deeply  involved in day-to-day affairs as a senior leader of the main opposition  party, the Congress, despite his  advanced age. In August 2020, he told the BBC in a rare interview that India needed to take three steps  "immediately" to stem the economic damage  from the coronavirus pandemic, which had  plunged the  country's economy into recession. The government  should provide direct  financial assistance to  the population, make capital available for  businesses and  take over the financial sector, he said. History will remember Singh for bringing India out of economic and nuclear isolation, although some historians may suggest  that he should have retired earlier. "I honestly believe that history will be kinder to me than the contemporary media, or for that matter, the opposition parties in  Parliament," he told  a reporter in 2014. Singh is survived by his wife and three daughters.

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