His supporters said he was cautious don’t pick unnecessary battles or make high promises and that he focused on results – perhaps the best example is pro-market reforms he became the finance minister, which opened India’s economy to the world.
“I don’t think anyone in India believes that Manmohan Singh can do anything wrong or screw things up,” he said. former Congress colleague Kapil Sibal once said, external,. “He was very cautious and always wanted to be on the right side of the law.”
His opponents, on the contrary, mocked him, saying that he shows some kind of blur, inappropriate politics, not to mention the prime minister of a country with more than a billion people. His voice – hoarse and breathless, almost like a tired whisper – was often the subject of jokes.
But that same voice was also endearing to many who found him relatable in the world of politics, where lofty, high-octane speeches were the norm.
Singh’s image as a media-shy, modest, self-absorbed politician never left him, even as his contemporaries, including members of his own party, went through dramatic cycles of rethinking.
However, it was the dignity with which he maneuvered through every situation – even a difficult one – that made him so memorable.
Born into a poor family in what is now Pakistan, Singh was the first Sikh Prime Minister of India. His personal story – as a Cambridge- and Oxford-educated economist who overcame insurmountable odds to climb the corporate ladder – combined with his image as an honest and thoughtful leader has already made him a hero for India’s middle class.
But in 2005, he surprised everyone when he publicly apologized in Parliament for the 1984 riots that killed around 3,000 Sikhs.
The riots, in which several members of the Congress party were accused, erupted after the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards. One of them later said they shot the Congress politician to avenge a military operation she ordered against separatists holed up in Sikhism’s holiest temple in Amritsar, northern India.
It was a bold move – no other prime minister, including from the Congress party, had gone so far as to apologise. But it healed the Sikh community and politicians from different parties respected him for his courageous act.
