As finance minister in the Narasimha Rao government, Singh played a lead role in unshackling the Indian economy from the controlled system. (Express Archives)
Jan 6, 2025 16:11 IST First published on: Jan 6, 2025 at 16:10 IST
It was former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh whose tenure witnessed the firm establishment of India as a “rising power” and lifted it from the category of a regional power. The contributions Singh made are immense and can be categorised into three distinct dimensions that allowed India’s rise and status recognition globally. First was the liberalisation of the Indian economy in 1991. As finance minister in the Narasimha Rao government, he played a lead role in unshackling the Indian economy from the controlled system. These policies allowed India to grow at a minimum of 6.5 per cent annually and then, over his two terms as Prime Minister from 2004 to 2014, increased it to over 8 per cent. This sustained economic growth has allowed India to emerge as the fifth largest economy in the world today. This accomplishment would not have happened without his astute steering of the economy as both finance minister and prime minister. India’s recognition as a rising power has been very much the result of hitting this key marker of sustained economic growth.
The second achievement was India’s diplomatic accommodation by the United States that occurred during his term and the risks he undertook to accomplish this goal. His policy produced the visionary nuclear accord that he signed with the then-US President George W Bush. This agreement released India from what he astutely described to me personally as the “nuclear apartheid,” meaning a series of debilitating sanctions under which it was placed for over three decades by the nuclear weapon states and their allies. This was a pivotal event as without the US recognising India as a rising swing power in the context of China’s aggressive rise and as a potential balancing partner, India would have remained under sanctions imposed on it since the 1974 and 1998 nuclear tests. The agreement facilitated India’s strategic engagement with other western powers and recognition as an implicit nuclear weapon state with special rights, unlike others that have not signed the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. Critics often do not appreciate the strategic vision Singh showed in going forward with this agreement, even at the cost of losing coalition support and political power itself.
The third area where he played an instrumental role was in the creation of new institutional architectures that allowed India to be recognised as a rising power. The most important one was the creation of the BRICS forum with Brazil, Russia, China, and South Africa. The pivotal role that India and its BRICS partners played in resolving the 2008-2009 financial crisis to save the world economy gave India an enormous status rise. In addition to BRICS, he played a key role in the creation of the G20 along with several industrialised countries, which also resulted in India having a new institutional role it did not possess before. The formation of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD) in 2007 took place under his visionary leadership along with former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. This soft balancing forum improved India’s relations with previously estranged Japan and Australia and brought a new appreciation of it in the Indo-Pacific as a key swing power.
Significantly, he brought decency and diplomacy to a higher level. Personally, I experienced this at my interview with him in February 2000 when he discussed a variety of issues relating to India’s rise in a candid manner. He convinced me that much of his effort was to bring India to the higher stature that it deserved in the international pecking order, and he did that with finesse, integrity and political acumen even when he was facing enormous domestic opposition.
Last but not least, Singh was a very humble and erudite leader with whom people felt comfortable engaging. In February 2020, he responded to my request for an interview using his personal e-mail and was available when I visited Delhi for a lengthy meeting. Despite their political differences, the current Indian establishment should recognise his contributions appropriately, in particular, in bringing India to the forefront of the international system as a rising power and giving hope for the rise of it as a legitimate major power in the 21st century. Many of his policies are followed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has really benefited from the foundations laid by Singh.
The writer is Distinguished James McGill professor in political science department at McGill University, Montreal, and the author of the new book: The Unfinished Quest: India’s Search for Major Power Status from Nehru to Modi (Westland-Context, 2024)
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