Manmohan Singh

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Manmohan Singh ਮਨਮੋਹਨ ਸਿੰਘ
Prime Minister of India
Incumbent
Assumed office  22 May 2004
President	Abdul Kalam Pratibha Patil
Preceded by	Atal Bihari Vajpayee
External Affairs Minister of India
In office 06 November 2005 – 24 October 2006
Preceded by	Kunwar Natwar Singh
Succeeded by	Pranab Mukherjee
Finance Minister of India
In office 21 June 1991 – 16 May 1996
Prime Minister	Pamulaparthi Venkata Narasimha Rao
Preceded by	Madhu Dandavate
Succeeded by	Jaswant Singh
Governor of Reserve Bank of India
In office 1982 – 1985
Preceded by	I. G. Patel
Succeeded by	Amitav Ghosh
Born	26 September 1932 (1932-09-26) (age 75) Gah, Punjab, British India
Political party	INC
Spouse	Gursharan Kaur
Residence	7 Racecourse Road, New Delhi
Alma mater	Panjab University, Chandigarh St John's College, Cambridge University Nuffield College, Oxford University
Profession	Economist
Religion	Sikhism

Manmohan Singh (Punjabi: ਮਨਮੋਹਨ ਸਿੰਘ) (born 26 September 1932) is the 17^th and current Prime Minister of India. Singh is a member of the Indian National Congress party, and became the first Sikh Prime Minister of India on May 22, 2004. He is considered one of the most influential figures in India's recent history, mainly because of the economic reforms he had initiated in 1991 when he was Finance Minister under Prime Minister Narasimha Rao.^[1]

[edit] Early life

He was born on 26 September 1932, in Gah, Punjab (now in Chakwal District, Pakistan). He has an Undergraduate (1952) and a Master's degree (1954) from Panjab University, Chandigarh; an Undergraduate degree (1957) from Cambridge University (St. John's College) and a Ph.D (1962) from Oxford University (Nuffield College). In 1997, the University of Alberta presented him with an Honorary Doctor of Laws. The University of Oxford awarded him an honorary Doctor of Civil Law degree in June 2005, and in October 2006, the University of Cambridge followed with the same honour. St John's College and the University of Cambridge further honoured him by naming a PhD Scholarship after him, the Dr Manmohan Singh Scholarship.

Singh married Gursharan Kaur in 1958, and they have three daughters.

[edit] Political career

Singh, an economist by profession, worked for the International Monetary Fund in his younger days.^[2] Dr. Singh calls himself, a "politician by accident". Dr. Singh is known to be an unassuming politician, enjoying a formidable, highly respected and admired image.^[3] Due to his work at the UN, International Monetary Fund and other international bodies, he is highly respected around the world.^{[citation needed]} He was the governor of the Reserve Bank of India, from 1982 to 1985. He served as the Finance Minister under Narasimha Rao from 1991 to 1996, before becoming Prime Minister. He is credited with transforming the economy in the early 1990s during the financial crisis, dismantling License Raj, and allowing easier and more Foreign Direct Investment and beginning the process of the privatization of public sector companies. He served as Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha (upper house) from March 1998 to May 2004, when the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government was in office.

His economic policies - which included getting rid of several socialist policies, especially the License Raj - were popular. He enjoys strong support among the middle classes of India due to his education. Singh lost the election in the Lok Sabha from South Delhi constituency in the 1999 general elections. He is thus the only Indian Prime Minister never to have been an elected member of the Lower House of Parliament. In fact he has not won a direct election. He has been a member of the Rajya Sabha from Assam since 1995. He was re-elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2001 and 2007. He was awarded the Outstanding Parliamentarian Award in 2002.

[edit] Economic reforms and ascent to power

See Also: Economic Reforms under Rao

Singh served as Governor of the Reserve Bank of India from 1982 to 1985, and was hand picked as finance minister in cabinet of then Prime Minister Narasimha Rao in 1991.

Singh is widely regarded as the architect of India's original economic reform programme, which was enacted in 1991 under Rao's administration. The economic liberalization package pushed by Singh and Rao opened the nation to foreign direct investment. The liberalization was prompted by an acute balance-of-payments crisis whereby the Indian government, left without sufficient reserves to meet its obligations, had begun preparations to mortgage its gold reserves to the Bank of England in order to obtain the cash reserves needed to run the country.

Many see the 1991 liberalization as the first of a series of economic restructuring efforts throughout the 1990s and 2000s that have raised India's growth rates to amongst highest in world. Despite its liberal economic policies, Rao's government was voted out in the next general election in 1996.

[edit] Opposition and 2004 election

Singh became leader of opposition in upper house of Indian Parliament, and stayed with the Congress Party during a major split in 1999, when three senior Congress leaders objected to Sonia Gandhi's rise as Congress President. Being touted as the Congress choice for the PM's job, Gandhi had become a target of nationalists who objected to her Italian birth.

An alliance led by the Congress Party won a surprisingly high number of seats in the Parliamentary elections of 2004. The Left Front decided to support a coalition government led by the Congress Party from the outside. Sonia Gandhi was elected leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party and was expected to become the Prime Minister. In a surprise move, she declined to accept the post and instead nominated Dr. Singh. He secured the nomination for prime minister on 19 May 2004 when the then President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam officially asked him to form a government. Although most expected him to head the Finance Ministry himself, he entrusted the job to P. Chidambaram.

His appointment is notable as it comes 20 years after India witnessed significant tensions between the Indian central government and the Punjabi Sikh community. After Congress Party Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, the mother-in-law of Sonia Gandhi, was assassinated by two of her Sikh guards acting in the aftermath of Operation Bluestar, in which the Indian Army attacked Sikh militants hiding in the Harimandir Sahib, the holiest Sikh shrine, causing damage and subsequently outrage amongst Sikhs. This resulted in the Anti-Sikhs riots immediately after the assassination in which many innocent Sikhs lost their lives.

[edit] Tenure as Prime Minister

Manmohan Singh with US President George W. Bush at the Oval Office.

Singh's image is generally regarded as intellectual, honest but cautious, attentive to working class people (on whose votes he was elected), and technocratic. Although legislative achievements have been few and the Congress-led alliance is routinely hampered by conflicts, Singh's administration has focused on reducing the fiscal deficit, providing debt-relief to poor farmers, extending social programs and advancing the pro-industry economic and tax policies that have launched the country on a major economic expansion course since 2002. Singh has been the image of the Congress campaign to defuse religious tensions and conflicts and bolster political support from minorities like Muslims, Christians and Sikhs.

The Prime Minister's foreign policy has been to continue the new peace process with Pakistan initiated by his predecessor, Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Exchange visits by top leaders from both countries have highlighted this year, as has reduced terrorism and increased prosperity in the state of Kashmir. Border disputes, with the People's Republic of China, have been solved to some extent. In November 2006, Chinese President Hu Jintao, visited India, as did Dr. Singh, in January 2008. A big achievement, was the reopening of the Nathula Pass, in 2006, after being closed for more than 4 decades.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh shakes hands with U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney after delivering a speech to the Joint session of the United States Congress as Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert looks on.

His government has endeavored to build stronger relations with the United States, the People's Republic of China and European nations. The Government suffered a setback when it lost the support of a key ally, several African Union members, for its bid for a permanent membership to the U.N. Security Council with veto privileges^{[citation needed]}. One of the biggest achievements^{[citation needed]} of Manmohan Singh's Government has been the Indo-US Civilian Nuclear Agreement between India and the United States. Under Dr. Singh, an economist and Finance minister P. Chidambaram, India's economic growth has continued, with the GDP growing at a very fast rate of 9%. This has resulted in India becoming a trillion dollar economy, in June 2007.

[edit] Legislation

The important NREGA act and the RTI act were passed by the Parliament in 2005 during his tenure. While the effectiveness of the NREGA has been successful at various degrees, in various regions, the RTI act has proved crucial in India's fight against corruption.

[edit] Criticism

Manmohan Singh on his visit to Arunachal Pradesh

• Manmohan Singh is criticized by BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani by portraying him as the "weakest Prime Minister until now". ^[4] Dr. Manmohan Singh responded by saying that Advani's astrologers had misled him, when they said that he'd win the 22 July trust vote. He also accused Advani of being the inspiration behind the destruction of the Babri Masjid.^[5]

• Some Parties have been criticising him since he was elected as Rajya Sabha member in 1991 from Assam. Their main argument was that he is not eligible to become a Member of Parliament from a state where he does not reside.
• His statement about losing sleep on Hanif's arrest in Australia was also criticised.^[6]. Opposition asked whether he lost sleep when hundreds of people were killed in Hyderabad, Varanasi and Ajmer blasts.

[edit] Motion of confidence

On 22 July 2008 the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) faced it's first confidence vote in the Lok Sabha after the Communist Party of India (Marxist) led Left Front withdraw support from the government over India approaching the IAEA for Indo-US nuclear deal. The President had asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to prove the majority. The UPA won the trust vote with 275-256.

The historic win was marred when 3 BJP lawmakers waved bundles of cash, 30 million rupees (715,000 dollars) amid accusations of vote-buying. Speaker Somnath Chatterjee asked New Delhi's police chief to investigate the bribery issues.^[7]

[edit] Quotations

• "We will have to devise innovative plans to ensure that minorities, particularly the Muslim minority, are empowered to share equitably in the fruits of development. They must have the first claim on resources"
• "I could not sleep thinking about Hanif"
• "Rahul Gandhi is the future of you people" (While addressing a rally in Uttar Pradesh assembly elections).
• "India happens to be a rich country inhabited by very poor people."
• "Life is never free of contradictions"
• "Together with international unity and resolve we can meet the challenge of this global scourge and work to bring about an international law of zero tolerance for terrorism."
• "We are a coalition government, and that limits our options in some ways. Privatization happens to be one such area."
• "We need bipolar democracy like United States. Multiparty system has its own disadvantages."
• "In this increasingly interdependent world in which we live in we have an obligation to explore areas of convergence."
• "By appointing me as Prime Minister of India, Soniyaji (Sonia Gandhi) has proved her sacrifice. I will continue to work on her footsteps."
• "Jawaharlal Nehru wanted India to develop close ties with Japan and learn from its experience."^[8]
• "As the largest and most developed democracies of Asia (India and Japan), we have a mutual stake in each other’s progress and prosperity." ^[8]

[edit] Manmohan Singh's career

• First Class Honours degree in Economics, University of Cambridge, St John's College, Cambridge (1957)
• Panjab University, Chandigarh, India
  • Senior Lecturer, Economics (1957-1959)
  • Professor of International Trade (1969-1971)
  • Reader (1959-1963)
  • Professor (1963-1965)
• D. Phil in Economics, Nuffield College at University of Oxford, (1962)
• Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi
  • Honorary Professor (1996)
• Chief, Financing for Trade Section, UNCTAD, United Nations Secretariat, New York
  • 1966 : Economic Affairs Officer 1966
• Economic Advisor, Ministry of Foreign Trade, India (1971-1972)
• Chief Economic Advisor, Ministry of Finance, India, (1972-1976)
• Honorary Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi (1976)
• Director, Reserve Bank of India (1976-1980)
• Director, Industrial Development Bank of India (1976-1980)
• Secretary, Ministry of Finance (Department of Economic Affairs), Government of India, (1977-1980)
• Governor, Reserve Bank of India (1982-1985)
• Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission of India, (1985-1987)
• Advisor to Prime Minister of India on Economic Affairs (1990-1991)
• Finance Minister of India, (21 June 1991 - 15 May 1996)
• Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha (1998-2004)
• Prime Minister of India (22 May 2004 - Present)

[edit] See also

• Gursharan Kaur, his wife
• Amrit Singh, his youngest daughter, a staff attorney at the ACLU
• Dr Manmohan Singh Scholarship
• Economic reforms under Narasimha Rao

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Manmohan Singh

Government of India Links

• Prime Minister's Office - Official page includes Profile and Curriculum Vitae
• ManmohanSingh.org
• Prime Minister's profile at the Government of India website
• List of current Union Ministers, includes the portfolios held by the Prime Minister.

Other Sites

• Dr. Singh the Prime Minister - ArasiyalTalk.com
• Profile of Manmohan Singh from Nilacharal
• Our Problems are internal
• India's architect of reforms - BBC NEWS
• Soni leads the new ministers to thank Gandhi

v • d • e Prime Ministers of India Jawaharlal Nehru · Gulzarilal Nanda · Lal Bahadur Shastri · Indira Gandhi · Morarji Desai · Choudhary Charan Singh · Rajiv Gandhi · Vishwanath Pratap Singh · Chandra Shekhar · P.V. Narasimha Rao · Atal Bihari Vajpayee · H.D. Deve Gowda · Inder Kumar Gujral · Manmohan Singh