28 December 2024

Dr Manmohan Singh will be remembered as a soft-spoken and rather accidental Congress Prime Minister, the only Prime Minister from a minority community till date, who presided over ten years of stable coalition rule. As an economic administrator and then first as Finance Minister in the PV Narasimha Rao government and finally as the Prime Minister of the UPA government, Singh was instrumental in effecting major shifts in both economic and foreign policy spheres, marking India's transition from the Nehruvian era of mixed economy to open market neo-liberalism and from non-alignment to strategic partnership with the United States.

The first phase of UPA government with significant Left backing also saw a series of progressive legislations like the Rural Employment Guarantee Act and Forest Rights Act that sought to create some safety net for the poor in an otherwise overwhelmingly pro-rich and pro-corporate policy environment. Paradoxically Manmohan Singh will also be remembered for both pro-citizen measures like the Right to Information (RTI) Act as well as for a series of actions that significantly eroded civil liberties. Back in power for a second successive term after the Indo-US nuclear deal, his government presided over the amended UAPA and Operation Greenhunt in Chhattisgarh, with Singh himself labelling Naxalism the greatest internal security threat to India even as fascist communal venom and violence spread across the country.

By 2014 the UPA government had come under the cloud of charges of mega corruption – which remain unproved - and advocates of unbridled neo-liberalism also accused Manmohan Singh of policy paralysis. Corporate India and the RSS were ready to seize the opportunity and replicate the Gujarat model of communal carnage and extra-judicial governance on the all-India plane. The country has since been reeling under a relentless fascist onslaught marked by unprecedented levels of corrupt crony capitalism, systematic subversion of the Constitution and erosion of rights of citizens.

As a former Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh of course continued to speak out primarily on issues of economic mismanagement. The comments he made about demonetisation in the Rajya Sabha, calling it a monumental disaster, a brazen case of organised loot and legalised plunder, continue to resonate as the economy has never really overcome the serial blows of demonetisation, GST and prolonged unplanned lockdown.

As we approach the 75th anniversary of the coming into force of the Indian Constitution, and the foundation of the Indian republic, the nation would remember Manmohan Singh as a Prime Minister who while departing fundamentally from the economic and foreign policies of Nehru remained a steadfast champion of the Nehruvian legacy in upholding the constitutional principles of diversity, secularism and federalism. CPI(ML) extends heartfelt condolences to Dr Singh’s family and all his friends and admirers.

- Central Committee, CPI(ML) Liberation