Tributes continued to pour in for former Indian prime minister and the country's economy architect Manmohan Singh, who passed away late on December 26 at the age of 92. He breathed his last at the AIIMS, Delhi.
From world leaders to dignitaries and celebrities, all paid glowing tributes to Singh, hailing him as the father of economic liberalisation in India, and a statesman par excellence.
Singh's funeral will be held at 11.45am today at the Nigambodh Ghat with full State honours. Late last night, the Union government agreed to allocate space for a memorial, after a controversy over it broke out yesterday.
'Bharat Ratna for Manmohan Singh'
With the passing away of Singh, the demand for Bharat Ratna—the highest civilian Award of the country—for the former prime minister is getting louder. The award, which was instituted in 1954, is given “in recognition of exceptional service/performance of the highest order in any field of human endeavour”.
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Chandigarh Pradesh Congress urged the Union government to confer Singh with the Bharat Ratna for his “remarkable services as the governor of Reserve Bank of India, finance minister and prime minister of India”. Nagarkurnool Congress MP Mallu Ravi, too, demanded the Centre award Singh the Bharat Ratna. In October this year, Sikh body Namdhari Sangat Sewa Samiti, too, had requested the Union government to honour Singh with the Bharat Ratna.
Singh went to the University of Cambridge, UK, where he earned a First Class Honours degree in Economics, and followed it up with a DPhil in Economics from Nuffield College of Oxford University.
He was the chief economic adviser in 1972, and later became the finance secretary. Singh was also in the planning commission from 1980 to 1982, before being appointed the RBI governor.
As finance minister in the P.V. Narasimha Rao government in 1991, Singh brought about a slew of economic reforms, which have, over time, proved to be revolutionary.
As the 13th prime minister of India, he played a key role in several strategic measures that shaped India's future. His UPA government introduced path-breaking initiatives such as the Right to Information Act, Right to Education Act and the MNREGA, along with National Food Security Act and Land Acquisition Act. It also inked the historic Indo-US Civil Nuclear Deal.
Interestingly, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections earlier this year, the Narendra Modi government had awarded the Bharat Ratna to former prime ministers Rao and Charan Singh, along with other personalities. It was widely believed that the honour for Congressman Rao was aimed at sending a message to people of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana ahead of the polls.