NEW DELHI: Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh passed away on Thursday night at the age of 92 due to age-related medical conditions. He was admitted to AIIMS Delhi after his health deteriorated.
The veteran Congress leader was brought to the emergency department of the hospital.
“With profound grief, we inform the demise of former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, aged 92. He was being treated for age-related medical conditions and had sudden loss of consciousness at home on 26th December 2024. Resuscitative measures were started immediately at home. He was brought to the Medical Emergency at AIIMS, New Delhi at 8:06 PM. Despite all efforts, he could not be revived and was declared dead at 9:51 PM,” AIIMS said in a press release.
He retired from Rajya Sabha earlier this year after serving for 33 years in the House.
Here’s are some top quotes of India’s fourteenth Prime Minister:
- “I would be the last person to say there is no scope of doing more” Singh said at a press conference at the National Media Centre, New Delhi on January 3, 2014.
- “I have never felt like resigning at any time. I have enjoyed doing my work. I have tried to do my work with all honesty, with all sense of integrity, without regard, or fear or favour,” Singh said at a press conference on January 3, 2014.
- “I do not believe that I have been a weak Prime Minister. That is for historians to judge. The BJP and its associates may say whatever they like. But if by “strong Prime Minister”, you mean that you preside over a mass massacre of innocent citizens on the streets of Ahmedabad, that is the measure of strength, I do not believe that sort of strength this country needs, least of all, in its Prime Minister,” he had said at the same press conference when he was asked “The BJP and Mr Modi’s charge against you is that you have been a weak PM. Does the party have a role,” he said in a conference.
- “It is for you to judge. As far as I am concerned, I feel I have done reasonably well. The growth process that we sustained in the last ten years despite the global financial crisis, despite the Euro-zone crisis, and considering also what is happening in other emerging countries like Brazil, like South Africa, like Indonesia, I don’t think ours is a story which can be described as non-successful or eventful,” said Singh when he was asked to rate his tenure on a scale of ten at a press conference on Jan 3, 2014.
- “Let me say at the outset that I do believe we are set for better times. The cycle of global economic growth is turning for the better,” he had said during opening remarks at a press conference.
- “Well, if I can succeed in normalising relations between India and Pakistan as they should prevail between two normal states, I will consider my job well done,” he said while he was returning from a two-nation tour of China and Kazkhstan in 2011.
- “I would be the first person to admit that we could have done more. We should not be satisfied with what we have achieved. There is always room for improvement and for better outcomes. But I do believe that the record of our first year is a record of reasonable achievement,” he said.
- “I honestly believe that history will be kinder to me than the contemporary media, or for that matter, the Opposition parties in Parliament,” he said in a press conference.
- “India is a hospitable environment for FDI and will continue to do so. We will continue to improve our practices wherever they are needed,” he said in a press conference in Jan 2014.
- “It is often said that time is a great healer. But unfortunately, in the case of demonetisation, the scars and wounds of demonetisation are only getting more visible with time,” he said on demonetisation in 2018.
- “More than any other period of human history, the need for unity of thought and action today is the most urgent,” he said during an event by Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID) in 2019.
- “When the world is breaking up into fragments, and fragments clash with fragments, surrendering all sense and purpose of living for the larger humanity, it is the humanity which seeks transcendence from narrow limits and boundaries,” he said during an event by Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID) in 2019.
Dr Manmohan Singh served as India’s fourteenth Prime Minister. He was born on September 26, 1932, in a Punjab province village in undivided India. He completed his Matriculation from Punjab University in 1948. His studies led him to the University of Cambridge, UK, where he obtained a First Class Honours in Economics in 1957. He subsequently earned his D Phil in Economics from Oxford University’s Nuffield College in 1962. His publication, “India’s Export Trends and Prospects for Self-Sustained Growth” [Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1964] provided an early analysis of India’s inward-focused trade policies.
His government service began in 1971 as economic advisor in the commerce ministry, followed by his appointment as chief economic advisor in the finance ministry in 1972. His distinguished career included positions as finance ministry secretary, planning commission deputy chairman, Reserve Bank of India governor, Prime Minister’s advisor, and University Grants Commission chairman.
A significant period in independent India’s economic history occurred during 1991-1996 when Dr Singh served as finance minister. His contribution to implementing comprehensive economic reforms received global recognition.
In his political journey, Dr Singh has represented India’s Upper House of Parliament (the Rajya Sabha) since 1991, serving as leader of the opposition from 1998 to 2004. He assumed office as Prime Minister on May 22 following the 2004 general elections and began his second term on May 22, 2009.