Former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in Bombay, October 6, 2004. SEBASTIAN D’SOUZA / AFP He was a discreet leader but he left his mark profoundly on the economy of India and beyond. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who had been in poor health for several years, died on Thursday February 26, at the age of 92. Eminent economist, member of the Congress Party, the Nehru-Gandhi formation, he was the first and only Sikh to occupy this position to date. He led India for two terms, from 2004 to 2014. He only retired from parliament in April 2024. His legacy is immense. His successor, Narendra Modi, praised his “wisdom and humility”. Manmohan Signh was the complete opposite. Born before the partition of 1947, in Gah, in a village in Punjab, in the future Pakistan, he was of modest origins but integrated the largest British educational establishments, Cambridge and Oxford. Humble, open, he was, without doubt, the most educated ruler of India. The economist arrived at the top of the state almost by accident. Sonia Gandhi, the widow of Rajiv Gandhi, led the Congress Party and naturally should have become prime minister after the victory of the old Independence Party in the 2004 elections. But a virulent campaign led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) against “the foreigner”, the threat from the opposition to boycott her investiture session and reluctance within her party itself had led her to give up. Italian, this woman married India when she married Rajiv Gandhi and took up the torch when her husband was assassinated on May 21, 1991 by a suicide squad of the Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka. You have 74.42% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
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