NEW DELHI: Former prime minister Manmohan Singh, a well-known economist, walked down the memory lane on Tuesday as he recounted his sweet and sour interactions with politicians during a long innings in public life.
“I was not an alien to working with politicians,” Singh, known as the architect of the 1991 economic reforms as finance minister in the government of Narasimha Rao, said when asked about his long career as a bureaucrat.
The former PM, who has been accused of being a silent PM by the BJP, took a dig at PM Narendra Modi, saying he was not afraid of meeting the Press.
“I wasn’t the PM who was afraid of talking to the Press. I met the Press regularly and on every foreign trip that I undertook, I had a Press conference on return in the plane and after the visit,” Manmohan said.
Singh, speaking at the launch of his six-volume book series called Changing India, recalled how former prime minister Rao backed him but the Cabinet members were opposed to the new industrial licensing policy.
Manmohan thanked two of his former Cabinet colleagues, Mani Shankar Aiyar and Nathu Ram Mirdha, for supporting his reform ideas.
Singh, who has been described as the accidental prime minister, remarked that he was an accidental finance minister as well. He said Rao wanted him to head the finance ministry and conveyed the message through aide PC Alexander.
The next day Singh got a call from PM Rao, who told him to dress up properly and turn up at the Cabinet swearing-in ceremony.