Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has left us but his indelible contribution to India, will live on forever. After guiding India in 1991 during Balance of Payments crisis and leading country into a liberalised era, Manmohan Singh led country for ten years as Prime Minister from 2004 to 14. But the person behind Manmohan Singh’s transformation from an economist bureaucrat to successful politican was former PM PV Narasimha Rao.
When PV Narasimha Rao became Prime Minister in 1991 he chose Manmohan Singh, an apolitical bureaucrat to take up Finance Minister. This was completely out of the box decision which no one has expected. In fact when PV’s team communicated the decision to Manmohan Singh, even he was surprised.
This landmark decision of PV Narasimha Rao, has not just given a completey new direction to Manmohan Singh’s life but also India. When Manmohan Singh took oath as Finance Minister, India’s fiscal deficit was 8.5 percent of GDP and current account deficit was 3.5. And, shockingly country had foreign reserves of just USD 1 billion, sufficient for just 2 weeks imports. To put it simply, Indian was facing full-blown economic crisis.
Manmohan Singh as Finance Minister addressed the Balance of Payment Crisis by pledging the India’s gold reserves as an emergency measure. Later he gave a new direction to the Indian economy with economic reforms. However this was not a smooth journey.
Manmohan Singh had to face opposition from both leaders within Congress and Opposition parties, while implementing economic reforms. It was PV Narasimha Rao who stood firmly by Manmohan Singh and gave him full support to lead reforms.
As Manmohan had served as Chief Economic Advisor (1972-76), Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor (1982-85), Planning Commission Chairman (1985-87), he had extensive knowledge about Indian economy. But knowledge and expertise alone are not needed to make and execute decisions in politics. That too, when it comes to implement reforms in an alliance Government, one needs lot of maneuvering and ironwill. It was PV Narasimha Rao’s acumen and mentoring which led Manmohan Singh to successfully implement economic reforms.
In fact when a sensitive and honest Manmohan Singh offered to resign as Finance Minister during 1992 securities scandal, it was PV Narasimha Rao who prevailed upon him. Thus the unflinching support from PV Narasimha Rao, transformed Manmohan Singh into a visionary Finance Minister who led economic reforms in India, creating permanent place in the history of India. This experience has even helped Manmohan Singh, when he became Prime Minister of India, eventually turning him into one of the finest leaders India has ever seen.
