Saturday, 28 December 2024
Saturday, 28 December 2024
Kaushik Basu highlights the academic prime minister
India’ former chief economic advisor Kaushik Basu posted an image of the six volumes of Changing India by Dr Manmohan Singh that Oxford University Press published.
The books are a compilation of Dr Singh's essays and speeches on various subjects – economic reforms, India's export trends and the prospects for self-sustained growth, trade and development, and international economic order and equity in development.
Each volume is introduced by an expert in the field, who provides an assessment of Dr Singh's work and also introduces the essays.
“It is a huge loss for India. And a personal loss for me. R.I.P,” Basu wrote.
Manmohan Singh: Stand-up saviour?
Lyricist and stand-up comedian Varun Grover credited Dr Singh for the stand-up boom.
“Standup Comedy thrived in India post 2004. Dr. Manmohan Singh was the key because: 1. The generation and social class that benefited from liberalisation of the 90s grew up to be the voice of the confident new India - demanding accountability and seeing sense of humor as an essential trait of social discourse.
“2. Another result of liberalisation - mobile internet became a reality for a huge section of the middle/upper middle classes, giving new, uncensored platforms for a new form of art/humor.
“3. His government - like all governments - was flawed, creating enough relatable material to go viral. And they did push back - like introducing the draconian IT Act Sec 66A late in the day.
“But unlike many other governments of past and future - MMS didn’t practice brutal censorship or punitive action against humour/satire. The entire social media opposed the IT Act or the “various acts of alleged corruption/inefficiency without being labelled anti-national or getting r*pe threats.
“The artists - not just professional standup comedians but big film stars also - felt safe sharing jokes about the govt policies/PM/ministers.
“A sense of freedom is the biggest incentive artists crave for - and the MMS govt provided that above anything else.”
“Thanks Dr. Saab,” he signed off.
Manmohan Singh and 1984
One X handle quoted from a review of journalist Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay’s book, Sikhs: The Untold Agony of 1984.
“A Sikh gentleman arrived every morning with his wife to deposit relief material in 1984. A friend of Mr. Mukhopadhyay asked the man his name. ‘My name is Manmohan Singh. I work as the Governor of Reserve Bank of India,’ he said and walked away.”
In June 2013, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh apologised to Parliament on the anti-Sikh riots that killed over 4,000 after Indira Gandhi’s assassination.
“I have no hesitation in apologising to not only the Sikh community but also to the nation. I bow my head in shame that such a thing happened,” Dr Singh said.
Manmohan Singh, the honest reformer
Sanjeev Bhikchandani, owner of the job portal Naukri.com, picked up an anecdote about Dr. Manmohan Singh that he received from Ramu Damodaran – a former IFS officer who had worked in the Prime Minister’s Office from 1991 to 1994 – in a St. Stephen’s College Alumni WhatsApp Group.
“My first meeting with Dr MMS was in July ‘91, the day I joined Prime Minister Narasimha Rao’s office. The devaluations of the rupee had taken place a few days earlier.
“He came to the PM’s Race Course Road office and walked straight into his room from the car. On the way out he detoured to come to my room. He had a small envelope in his hand which he gave me saying “please make sure this is credited to PM’s Relief Fund.
“I opened the envelope after he left to find a cheque for a huge amount I cannot now precisely remember . With it a note saying “Representing the difference in rupee value of my assets abroad consequent upon devaluation.””
“There are huge lessons in this story for all founders, start ups, investors, managers, business leaders and others around integrity, probity, good governance, resolving conflict of interest, not profiting from inside information etc. etc.
“Thank you Dr. Manmohan Singh,” he wrote, adding, “Thank you Ramu_Damodaran for this story.”
Manmohan Singh’s PhD thesis
Academic Adil Hossain shared an image of Singh’s PhD thesis, titled: ‘India’s Export Performance, 1951-60; Export Prospects and Policy Implications.’.
“PhD thesis of former Indian PM late Dr. Manmohan Singh. By chance, I found it in the SSL library, Oxford, while looking for something else,” Hossain wrote.
The money trivia
A post by Hindole Ghosh Dastidar, a graphic designer and writer, highlighted a piece of trivia about Dr. Manmohan Singh:
“Dr. Manmohan Singh is the only Indian prime minister whose signature appears on two types of Indian currency notes.”
The post explained that in 1976, as India’s finance secretary, Dr Singh’s signature appeared on Re 1 notes, which are issued by the finance ministry. Later, as RBI governor from 1982-1985, his signature was on all other currency notes.
Relishing fish and aam aada
Singh attended the 200-year celebration of Presidency University in 2017, where, during lunch, he relished a Bengali meal.
“He was very particular about excellence in education and freedom of speech in his speech. He also joined us for lunch with his wife,” said Bivas Chaudhuri, member of Presidency Alumni Association. “I found that he was relishing fish and mooger dal with aam aada. He was asking about the dish and then someone explained to him that we call it aam aada. We asked him, ‘Sir, how can you be in politics being such a gentleman?’ He started laughing. He also praised politicians and said that they contribute towards nation building.”
A teacher at heart
One post spoke of how teaching came first to Dr Singh during his early years.
“Early in his career, Singh declined an offer to join the government made by then-PM Jawaharlal Nehru because he wanted to honour his commitment to teaching at his college in Amritsar.”
The architect of digital infrastructure
CEO of National Stock Exchange (NSE) Ashish Chauhan wrote: “ In the early 1990s, as the finance minister, he initiated major reforms. Setting up of @nseindia was a part of the reforms undertaken by Dr. Manmohan Singh as the first public digital infrastructure of India. A small video clip showing his contribution to @nseindia with some old photos of his at NSE inauguration. Om shanti.”
