Praveen Chakravarty writes: Manmohan Singh was India’s last true Nehruvian

Any tribute to Manmohan Singh would inevitably list his long and dazzling array of professional accomplishments and the offices he occupied from Chief Economic Advisor to the Prime Minister of India. But the larger and more meaningful story of his life is about how it is possible to uphold the highest principles and still succeed in public life. At a time when the pursuit of power has supplanted all decency and decorum in public life, when showmanship trumped workmanship, Manmohan Singh showed that virtues of sincerity, honesty, loyalty and ideological commitment can succeed enormously.

Since 2019, I called on him nearly every month, and our typical 90-minute conversation would encompass a wide range of subjects — the state of Indian politics, internal affairs of the Congress party, intricate government policy details, global developments, reminiscences of his past from Cambridge to North Block, our current readings, and technical economic trends of Modern Monetary Theory. To the outside world, he was a global statesman and the wisest sage in India. Inside his living room, he was curious like a child, with a greater desire to learn than lecture, to be informed than to inform. I last met him few weeks before the US presidential elections. He mused about how the lopsided gains of global free trade — one he had fervently advocated for — have fundamentally impacted the political landscape in nations from Argentina and Germany to the United States. He had a Keynesian approach to letting new facts change his old opinions about theories, issues and people. This is perhaps the greatest hallmark of the sagacity of Manmohan Singh.

When I went to wish him on his 90th birthday in September 2022, he was more interested in discussing the then UK Prime Minister Liz Truss’s controversial budget than cutting a cake or greeting visitors that were streaming in to wish him. While he acknowledged the technical mishandling of her budget, he was also sympathetic to the fact that Truss only did what she promised to her supporters. Keeping one’s word in public life was enormously important to him even if it led to one’s own downfall. He talked about having a resignation letter handy in his pocket all the time which he could use, should he be forced to compromise on his core principles. He emphasised being detached from power and attached to purpose. Counter-intuitively, such a “tapasvian” and virtue-laden approach to power may have helped him scale Himalayan heights in public office. Credit is due to Sonia Gandhi for using the power bestowed on her to choose Manmohan Singh and shine a light on his politics of virtues and principles.

He was convinced that politics is the best medium to make a meaningful impact, however treacherous and harsh it may be. Navigating the brutal terrains of politics, riddled with jealousy, insecurity and deceit while still upholding the highest virtues may have been Manmohan Singh’s greatest challenge in his professional life. His Napoleonic approach of “picking the right battles” and his disarming equanimity helped him steer through this maze and emerge victorious.

Above all else, he was foremost an unflinching and unabashed patriot. He adored his country and nothing mattered to him more than its progress and development. He was acutely concerned in his last months over the volatile political situations and deteriorating relationships with every country in India’s neighbourhood and its impact on national security. When this newspaper requested him for an interview on the day prior to the G20 summit in September 2023, he was reluctant, out of concern of being misinterpreted that could even remotely harm the nation’s interests and agreed to it only after an assurance that it would only be to outline his vision for India in the world. Such was his commitment to the nation’s interests even in the twilight of his years.

He was a deep-rooted institutionalist. During the Covid-19 pandemic, he argued that the government should spend whatever it takes to ensure that people don’t slip into poverty but not force the Reserve Bank of India to monetise the deficit (print money) and destroy its independence. He firmly believed that institutional integrity is the bedrock of our republic and that attacks on the independence of institutions are attacks on the nation itself.

Manmohan Singh devoted his entire life to exemplary service to the nation and improved the lives of a billion people. He is perhaps the only Indian leader after Nehru to command unanimous respect, admiration and awe from all over the world. The last Nehruvian may have died. But Manmohan Singh would not want our nation’s pursuit of Nehruvian ideals to die.

The writer is chairman, the All India Professionals’ Congress