The former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh was probably the most educated man who became the PM of our country, India. He is an Indian economist, academic, and politician who served India from 2004 to 2014 as the 13th Prime Minister. Dr Singh was also the first PM since Jawaharlal Nehru who was re-elected after completing his 5 years term. And although he dealt with quite a lot of criticisms in his 10 years term, he was actually quite the visionary.
Here are some of the things he said by Manmohan Singh that are kind of coming true and we should have not ignored them.
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1. Manmohan Singh said a few days after the Prime Minister said that no Chinese troops had intruded into the territory of India.
“We remind the Government that disinformation is no substitute for diplomacy or decisive leadership. The truth cannot be suppressed by having pliant allies spout comforting but false statements.”
2. In a quarterly interview with McKinsey he was asked about what the country was doing to promote India as a manufacturing base, especially food processing and agribusiness, Dr Singh said
“What India needs most is unified food laws.”
3. When the former PM was asked about how he planned to take care of the poor in an interview with American journalist Charlie Rose in 2006, he said
“We should put more money into health. We should put more money into devising credible social safety nets for the poor.”
4. Dr Singh said this while addressing the journalists
“Unity and secularism will be the motto of the government. We can’t afford divisive polity in India.”
5. Dr Manmohan Singh was the first Indian PM to internally acknowledge the gravity of the Dalit- Minority situation in India in the International Conference in 2006
“Dalits have faced a unique Discrimination in a society that is fundamentally different from the problems of minority groups in general. The only parallel to the practice of untouchability was apartheid.”
6. Dr Singh was responding to BJP leader L.K. Advani calling him the weakest PM India had.
“The proof of the pudding is not in the eating. I have done nothing to deserve such epithets. I should be judged by not what Mr Advani says but what I do.”
7. The former Prime Minister was responding to the Modi government repackaging Congress-era economic drives in 2015.
“I have to acknowledge that my successor has been a more adept salesman, event manager and communicated than me.”
8. In an interview in 1999, he said that he already warned the members of parliament that should we assume India has some divine destiny, we too shall suffer a fate similar to that of the Soviet Union.
“Great nations like the Soviet Union have perished. They have disappeared from the surface of the earth. If the Indian polity is not well managed, I think we ought to recognise what is similar danger can overtake us too.”
9. While addressing the media at a press conference, at the very end of his 2nd term in office, Dr Singh said
“History will be kinder to me than contemporary media and opposition parties in Parliament.”
10. The former PM said that the conclusion he drew was from a book he read when he was young. The book led him to become an economist.
“India happens to be a rich country inhabited by very poor people.”
11. While addressing the decision of demonetisation, Manmohan Singh predicted in the parliament just how bad this decision would be for the country.
“Those who say demonetisation is good in the long run should recall the quote: ‘In the long run, we are all dead’.”
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