The Man Who Opened India to the World

Long hailed as the architect of economic reforms, Singh was more an insider to India’s “system,” one who knew its ins and outs, information that was vital to make the necessary changes when backed by political authority of the then Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao.

His career spanned three phases. In the first phase, from 1957 to 1990, when served in a number of academic and bureaucratic positions in India and abroad. The high points of this phase of his journey were his role in the Finance Ministry during a very turbulent time in India. He served as the chief economic adviser and in 1976, as secretary of the ministry. In 1982 he was appointed the Governor of the RBI.

It was in the second phase of his career (1991-1996), when he served as Finance Minister in the Narasimha Rao ministry, that he made a sharp break with the prevailing orthodoxy in India’s political economy. He designed and implemented the reforms package that devalued the rupee and partially opened product markets to foreign competition. The secret behind this successful change was his belief that India needed to become an export-oriented country instead of an economy mired in import substitution industrialisation that went nowhere. But the pre-condition for his ability to make these far-reaching changes was the political backing of his Prime Minister who managed the very tough political environment to undertake these major changes. Narasimha Rao did not have strength in Parliament and had to undertake some very skilful political manoeuvres to ensure that politics did not scuttle the reforms that Singh was undertaking.

The third phase of his career began in 2004 with his appointment as Prime Minister. He went on to serve for two terms until 2014. This was a phase in which he saw successes like the signing of the India US Civil Nuclear Agreement in 2008. This was probably the high watermark of his career. It is interesting to note that while India’s economy continued to grow at a very rapid clip during this period (2004-2008), it also marked the formulation and implementation of “welfare policies” that were very statist in nature. The government became the biggest “job” creator of sorts under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). Government backed the financial requirements to pay workers in rural areas for various works carried out under the MGNREGS. But these were not “jobs” in the ordinary sense of the word: they were cash transfers in disguise.

But worse was to come. By the end of his second term as Prime Minister, his government was caught in a web of scandals that cost his party dearly in 2014. By this time, “reforms” had become a bad word and the government had lost the steam to carry out the changes required to give momentum to the Indian economy. It was a marked contrast with his unalloyed success when he was India’s finance minister.

His legacy will have both positive and not-so-positive features. His role as the finance minister who cast away the albatross of failed socialism will always be remembered as an achievement that was undertaken in a very difficult economic and political environment. His legacy as Prime Minister is more difficult to assess as it had its own mix of positive and negative outcomes. Winston Churchill’s words for the life of Lord Curzon are fitting in Singh’s context as well: The morning had been golden; the noontide was bronze; and the evening lead. But all were solid, and each was polished till it shone after its fashion.

CongressdeathEconomic reformIn MemoriamManmohan SinghobituarypoliticsWeb Exclusive