DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2024, NEW DELHI, LATE CITY, 26 PAGES SINCE 1932 ● MANMOHAN `7.00 (`8 BIHAR & RAIPUR, `15 SRINAGAR) WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINGH: 1932-2024 ● Dr Singh walks into history HIS REFORMS ROADMAP POLITICAL LEGACY He opened India to the world, set stage for seat at global high table Foundation of New India to be set, he said before 1991 Budget As PM, ended India’s nuclear winter; graft shadow clouded second term Former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao with Manmohan Singh at a Planning Commission meeting in July 1993. Archive along with him for a meeting with Petroleum Minister B Shankaranand. I was quite disappointed when he spurned Singh’spersuasionefforts todisinvestment in government oil MANMOHAN SINGH was an companies. Shankaranand deeconomist with spectacular do- scribedtheseas‘temples’builtby mainexpertise,butas (Jawaharlal) Nehru. Finance Minister in Manmohan SPECIAL TO ticked me Singh PV Narasimha Rao’s off. Cabinet, he was “Nandu, don’t be so deeply conscious of impatient, please the limits of India’s recognise that govpolitical economy of change. ernments must survive to When he was the FM, I went CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 By N K Singh Former PM Manmohan Singh with Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi . Prem Nath Pandey MANOJ C G NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 26 MANMOHAN SINGH, the architect of opening India’s economy to the world that lifted a record number out of poverty and set the stage for the nation to secure a seat at the global high table, died in New Delhi Thursday night. He was 92. The former Prime Minister is survived by his wife Gursharan Kaur and three daughters. His passing was announced by the AIIMS which,inabulletin,stated that he was brought to Emergency at 8.06 pm after “sudden loss of consciousnessat home”. It said despite all efforts, he could not be revived and was declared dead at 9.51 pm. AsPrimeMinisterfrom2004 to 2014, Singh broke the country’slongnuclearwinter,steered itsuccessfullythroughtheglobal financial crisis and marked a place for the country in the new world order. An unlikely politician, the scholarly,soft-spokenacademicpolitician — born in Gah in what is today Pakistan, his family migrated to India during Partition; he was an alumnus of both Oxford and Cambridge universi- FULL COVERAGE BUSINESS AS USUAL Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at an event in New Delhi in October 2019. Anil Sharma ENDED LICENCE PERMIT RAJ Truth hurts, he said, when asked why he didn’t write memoir SHAJI VIKRAMAN CHENNAI, DECEMBER 26 ties—believedintheimportance ofthefreemarketandatthesame time redefined the role of the welfare state when he was PM. Under him, the UPA government,inits10yearsattheCentre, ushered in a second wave of financial reforms and unveiled a raft of welfare measures, breaking the long held belief that economicreformsandsocialwelfare cannot go hand in hand. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 INEARLY2016,afewmonthsbefore the country marked 25 years of its famous economic reforms, one of the key architects of liberalisation and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh shed a bit of his usual reticence at the end of a session at his New Delhi home. Asked by this reporter, why he chose not to write a memoir, considering that he had held top jobs in the country — chief economic CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 PM Narendra Modi with former PM Manmohan Singh in 2017. PTI file President, PM, LoP lead nation paying tribute, seven-day mourning for Singh EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 26 PRESIDENT DROUPADI Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the nation in paying rich tribute to former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh who died Thursday night. Cutting across parties, leader PAGES 10, 11, 12, 13 THEEXPRESS BY UNNY after leader described Singh’s passing as a loss to the nation, hailing him as one of its most distinguished leaders. Officials said the Union governmenthasdeclaredaseven-day mourningforSinghandcancelled all government programmes scheduled for Friday. TheCabinet,officialssaid,will meetat11amFridaytopaytribute toSingh.Hislastriteswillbeconducted with full state honours. President Murmu said Singh was“oneof thoserarepoliticians whoalsostraddledtheworldsof academia and administration with equal ease”. “In his various roles in public offices, he made critical contributions to reforming the Indian economy. He will CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Happy Birthday on plane; defer interview ‘for the time being’ RITU SARIN NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 26 LUXURIOUS DUBAI FOR MONTHS now, Dr ManmohanSingh’sfailinghealthand the need for him to rest was a refrain among his staff when they regretted scheduling any meeting or interview. ButtheformerPrimeMinister himselfwasmeticulousaboutreplying to all requests on e-mail. Inonesuchreplythis year,he wrote to this reporter: “I regret becauseof myill-healthIwillnot be able to record an interview, for the time being.” CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 The vehicle carrying his body outside AIIMS, in New Delhi on Thursday night. Gajendra Yadav