Year 1991, Indian economy was on the brink of bankruptcy, the
collapse of the Soviet Union, which was India's major trading partner, and the Gulf
War, which caused a spike in oil prices, resulted in a major
balance-of-payments crisis for India. The country has voted a new government
and PV Narsimha Rao was all set to become Prime Minister. He had a great challenge
ahead of him to revive the economy and bring reforms. He needed a “Nightwatchman”
who can bring reforms and give push to Indian Economy.
Narsimha Rao wanted I.
G. Patel as his finance minister. Patel was an official who helped prepare 14
budgets, an ex-governor of Reserve Bank of India and had headed The London
School of Economics and Political Science. But Patel declined. Narsimha Rao sent his
Principal Secretary to Manmohan Singh saying, “The PM would like you to become
the Minister of Finance”. MMS didn’t take it seriously. Rao eventually called
Manmohan Singh the next morning, rather angry, and demanded that to get dressed
up and come to Rashtrapati Bhavan for the swearing in. MMS put a condition that
he would need complete freedom as Finance Minister and Mr. Rao agreed. So that’s how a “Night-watchman” came into
politics to guard the poor economy.
At that time, India's fiscal deficit was close to 8.5 per
cent of the gross domestic product, the balance of payments deficit was huge
and the current account deficit was close to 3.5 percent of India's GDP. India's foreign reserves barely
amounted to US$1 billion. But a no nonsense Finance Minister has taken guard to
steer the Indian Economy. MMS brought reforms through abolishing Licnse Raj and
paving way for Foreign Direct Investment. Year 1991 is said to be the era of
reforms and strong economy. Indian economy came on the track and reforms have
been made which resulted into more employment and a stable nation. To those who
thinks MMS is a silent man, he has given signs of his brevity in 1993 when he
was criticised as Finance Minister, He sent his resignation to the PM. Prime
Minister Narsimha Rao refused Singh's resignation and assured the support.
Later P. Chidambaram has referred to Singh as the “Deng
Xiaoping” of India.
MMS showed his mettle more often, soon after becoming PM of
India, he advocated for Nuclear deal with US, The left party with its 68 MPs
boycotted the move. Singh’s coalition government was on the verge of collapse.
But, MMS did not worry about left parties leaving the coalition. Even in
congress leaders were worried about the numbers. But, MMS was rigid and vowed
to go ahead with the deal else offered to leave. Such is his persona that party
had to accept his words and went ahead with the nuclear deal. MMS had to prove numbers in the parliament as
left parties had withdrawn the support to the UPA government. However, RJD and
DMK remained together. But Samajwadi Party opposed the deal. SP later changed
its stand and supported the government and the deal. The Government survived a
vote of confidence after the Left Front withdrew their support to the
government. Incidentally, results showed ten MP's belonging to the opposing BJP
party cross-voting in the favour of the government.
"I don't think there is any truth in this political
criticism. The voluntary moratorium on not conducting further nuclear tests was
imposed by our government," said Bal Thackeray criticising the opposition
of the deal by BJP.
This is one of those examples showing the will power of an
often termed as silent PM of India. But that was way back in 2005 and our opposition has a habit
of forgetting things easily. MMS showed his power
again in 2012 by passing FDI in parliament after a strong opposition by BJP and
TMC. Mamta Banerjee led TMS left the Government saying it has lost its
credibility. But MMS was unmoved and determined to pass FDI in parliament. Parliament voted against the motion on FDI moved by Leader
of Opposition Sushma Swaraj.
The discussion on FDI in parliament discovered a new young
and vibrant leader in Deepender Hooda, who took on opposition and exposed the
hypocrisy of BJP and Akali Dal.
Lalu Prasad went on saying: “Nescafe peene walon, poocho
Advaniji se Twitter ka istemal kyun kartein hain, woh videshi nahi hain kya”
Manmohan Singh addressed the
nation and spoke about FDI and its benefit to the Indian Economy and his
critics were numb. When Singh roars then roars further.
But some wannabe PM calls MMS a “Night-watchman”.
Much to his ignorance, perhaps he didn’t know the meaning of “Night-watchman”.
A night-watchman’s job is to maintain most of the strike in the adverse
circumstances and protect the government. Which MMS is doing since 1991, then
as a Finance Minister, and now as Prime Minister of India from last 9
consecutive years.
Praises for Manmohan Singh:
Khushwant Singh stated,
"When people talk of integrity, I say the best example is the man who
occupies the country's highest office.”
Forbes magazine described Singh
as being "universally praised as India's best prime minister since
Nehru"
Barack Obama said: “When Manmohan
Singh speaks people listen”
PS: You can’t teach the ignorant,
who talks about glass half full with air, and thus the fact is that the glass
is half full with blood.
@Tarique_Anwer
