Reformist leader, who was in step with history

Two episodes are telling. As finance minister in the 1990s, he had to devalue the currency. He had just returned from Geneva having served as chief of the South Commission there. He calculated the rupee gain due to the drastic devaluation decision and donated it to the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund. Another story is from the time he fought the parliamentary elections and lost. He had taken a loan for his campaign expenses, which he returned to Khushwant Singh, much to the surprise and amusement of the latter. He had not expected a neta to return the borrowed money.

Singh’s passing away is truly the end of an era. From humble beginnings, a Partition refugee, he rose to great eminence through sheer hard work and perseverance. His life ran parallel to the rise of India, from an impoverished and illiterate nation under British rule to becoming the fifth-largest economy in the world today. He studied at Cambridge and Oxford, having won scholarships, and came back to teach at Panjab University and later, at the prestigious Delhi School of Economics. At Cambridge, he topped the Economics Tripos and was awarded the Adam Smith Prize, one of only four Indians to win that prize. His PhD thesis at Oxford — later his 1964 book, India’s Export Trends and Prospects for Self-Sustained Growth — was an advocacy against the then prevailing export pessimism. It took another three decades for India to adopt exports also as a driver of economic growth.

The economic reforms he unleashed in 1991, with the dismantling of the Licence Raj, deregulation of banking, and opening of the economy for trade and foreign investment are some of Singh’s most prominent achievements as finance minister. He quoted Victor Hugo in his maiden budget speech on July 24, 1991, saying, “No power on earth can stop an idea whose time has come.” That idea was the emergence of India as an economic power, driven by its youthful demography and entrepreneurial dynamism, unleashed by the bold reforms.

The audacious reforms were buttressed by Singh’s consultative style and co-opting of diverse views. He set up committees to chart out reforms in banking, insurance, and taxation, chaired by appropriate eminent persons. Singh brought an unusual combination of skills as an economist and scholar, administrator, regulator and also politician.

Later, as Prime Minister (PM), his consultative style sought decisions and results amidst strong differences among members within his party and among coalition partners. During his tenure, landmark legislations such as the right to information, right to food, and right to employment were introduced, and he oversaw the rollout of Aadhaar. He showed extraordinary courage and even staked his government’s survival to ensure the passage of the historic Indo-US civil nuclear cooperation deal.

His career graph went from being a professor in the 1970s to the governor of the Reserve Bank of India and head of the Planning Commission in the 1980s, and from Union finance minister in the 1990s to the PM in 2004. During his term as head of the government, India clocked its highest-ever growth rates and joined the league of two trillion-dollar economies. No other economist comes even close to these spectacular achievements — of a major career leap in every decade.

Singh had more than his share of strident critics. But he never hesitated to listen, engage, debate or even confront them. He once said, better than thousands of accusatory questions is my silence, for I have maintained the dignity of my detractors. As he assured, history will judge him more kindly than his contemporaries.

Ajit Ranade is an economist.The views expressed are personal

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