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Dr Manmohan Singh, a down-to-earth man of principles
A seven-day national mourning has been declared in India following the passing of Dr Manmohan Singh.
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Prabhjot Singh with former PM Manmohan Singh. / Prabhjot Singh
It was in July 2009. Dr Manmohan Singh, the then Prime Minister of India, had come to Jalalabad in Ferozepur district, on an electioneering campaign. I was assigned to cover his rally.
Since I had been interacting with him for a long time, I had requested the organisers for an interview with him. The request was granted. Before he went to address the rally, I was escorted to a makeshift tent on a side of the main dais where a couple of chairs and a table were organised to facilitate the interview.
I was already seated in the tent when Dr Manmohan Singh came. “Hello Prabhjot, how are you?”
I was pleasantly surprised by the way he greeted me. I was overwhelmed to hear my name from Dr Singh as he still remembered my name as I had not met him after he became the Prime Minister in 2004. A down-to-earth man, his simplicity and his respect for others always impressed me.
“Sir, I am fine. How about you? You just had a heart procedure,” I asked him.
“It went very well. I am fine. How is Mr Dua? How is The Tribune doing?” were his next questions before the start of the interview. Mr H K Dua was at that time Editor-in-Chief of The Tribune group of newspapers.
Dr Manmohan Singh had the best of relations with all Editors of The Tribune, including Mr H.K. Dua and his predecessor, Mr Hari Jaisingh.
After covering the rally when I returned to Chandigarh, the first thing Mr Dua asked me was whether I was able to talk to him.
“Yes, sir, I did. I had a brief interview with him as he had to address a couple of other election rallies also,” I told him before I got busy with my copy. I was conscious that Dr Singh would look for The Tribune and my interview with him the next morning.
Dr Manmohan Singh was often quoted saying that the first thing he wanted with his morning cup of tea was the latest edition of The Tribune. Besides The Tribune, he was in love with Chandigarh where he worked as a Professor of Economics at Panjab University and had a house close to the Panjab University campus.
Besides Panjab University, he loved to be at CRRID to participate in various programmes related to rural development. He was close to the then Director of CRRID, Dr Racchpal Malhotra, who also had served Panjab University earlier.
Dr Singh visited the Sector 19 Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID) in Chandigarh. Invariably, I was assigned to cover his events and interview him.
In 2004 he became the Prime Minister. But our interactions continued. Though he did not belong to the typical genre of politicians, he was an academician, a world class economist, who led the country for 10 long years or two consecutive terms. He demonstrated his political acumen by heading a coalition government and survived a no-confidence motion, thanks to a dissident Akali MP SS Libra from historic Sri Fatehgarh Sahib.
After assuming office as Prime Minister, my interactions were considerably reduced. Besides Jalalabad, I got another chance to interact with him when he came to Paonta Sahib in Himachal Pradesh. Again, he was on an electioneering campaign.
Though Dr Manmohan Singh could never become a member of Lok Sabha, the lower House of Parliament, he represented the Upper House, Rajya Sabha, till he retired as a Parliamentarian in April this year after a stint that lasted more than three decades.
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