DM Deshpande
In the death of the former prime minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, India has lost a man who excelled in different fields and yet was known for simplicity and humility.
It is difficult to describe him in one or two words; he was a brilliant economist, an able administrator, a reluctant politician who steered India as the PM for over a decade, distinguished RBI Governor, a successful career bureaucrat who rose to highest positions, one of the youngest full professor at the age of 31, the list is almost endless and above all a humanist and gentleman who exuded warmth and grace. He stands among the tallest Indian leaders of modern India.
It is indeed difficult to point out his single most important achievement. However, for a student of Indian economics, Dr. Manmohan Singh’s tenure as a finance minister in the crucial crisis period of early 1990’s stands out as the most significant. He was the chief architect of India’s economic liberalisation program.
Though the thought process of economic reforms started in the late 1980’s, the year 1991 is remembered as the year of big bang reforms in modern history of India. The year marked the end of license-permit raj. In one stroke, most of the industrial sector was freed from the shackles of government license, quotas and control. By dismantling monopoly and restrictive trade practices, industry was now free to grow and expand.
The animal spirit of the private sector was unleashed resulting in a big jump in the GDP growth rate of the Indian economy. It was indeed an incredible achievement for an economy which was on the brink of a balance of payment crisis in 1991 to achieve an annual growth rate of 6.4% from 1992-93 to 1996-97. Since then India discarded the, Hindu rate of growth, tag. Cumulatively with other reform measures, it also laid down the base for an accelerated growth rate in the first decade of the 21st century.
It was not easy for the accidental FM (the term he used to describe himself in his own typical way) to convince the PM and others to devalue the Indian rupee. He was certain that industrial reforms and lowering of customs and export duties will be of no avail if the rupee was artificially pegged at a high rate. In fact, Singh held the view right from his doctoral thesis days of 1962.
While he made a powerful case in favour of devaluation, doing so was a sacrilege especially since Nehru trashed the idea as fantastic nonsense in 1958. The two part devaluation of the rupee brought down the value of the rupee. This led to a quantum jump in merchandise export-six times- between 2002-03 and 2011-12. The support he got from PM Narsimha Rao was indeed commendable as the changes reforms meant were far reaching and detrimental to certain well entrenched vested interests. Eventually Narasimha Rao lost elections in 1996 and never returned to active politics.
However, Manmohan Singh returned as the PM in 2004. Expectations were indeed high and why not, for, he had raised the bar for undertaking reforms as the FM. Unfortunately his hands were tied by party politics and therefore had to slow down the pace of economic reforms. In any case, the next set of reforms termed as second generation reforms, were never easy.
Yet not someone who would give up easily, he managed to reduce top customs duties from 20 per cent in 2004-05 to 10 per cent in 2007-08. He also ensured that the big list of items reserved for the small scale sector is pruned so that there will be efficiency gains as both large and small scale work in tandem and in close coordination.
India was fortunate to have Singh as the prime minister during the unprecedented global financial crisis of 2008. Along with the RBI, the nation was able to weather the storm almost unscathed. However, the fiscal discipline weakened since 2008-09 even as the economy reverted to Nehru-Indira era socialism in the form of retrospective taxation, food security act, right to education act and an unwritten ‘understanding’ to ban environmental clearances for infra projects. It must be admitted that food security served the cause of eradicating hunger among the poor in the country.
Beyond economic policy, Singh’s notable achievement was clinching Indo-US Civil Nuclear Agreement. Internal opposition apart, he had to navigate through several obstacles before the deal was stuck that ended India’s nuclear isolation. More importantly, it was a vote of confidence for emerging India to foster and sustain global partnerships. Dr. Singh took the Vajpayee legacy forward to see the logical conclusion of a deal that is remembered as a watershed in the relationship between our two nations.
Singh as the prime minister had his share of shortcomings. Despite his scholarship, knowledge and personal integrity he could not curb corruption within his own party, let alone the nation. The 2G scam and other charges of corruption were perceived as true and the coalition government led by the Congress was defeated in the 2014 general elections.
Arguably his biggest blemish was his tepid response to terrorist attacks and activities, particularly the 26/11 attack on Mumbai which disturbed the collective consciousness of every Indian. While he took it up diplomatically and militarily, critics thought that more could have been done.
History will judge him kindly for, on balance, his contributions far outweigh his deficiencies. He will be remembered as a leader who gave his best to the nation. And as a humanist, statesman and gentleman par excellence.
The author has four decades of experience in higher education teaching and research. He is the former first vice-chancellor of ISBM University, Chhattisgarh.
