NEW DELHI: Senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar recalled in his book how Dr Manmohan never quite recovered physically after undergoing operations for multiple coronary bypasses in 2012.
In his book “A Maverick in Politics”, Ayiar wrote that the operations slowed Manmohan down which also showed up in governance, veteran Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar says in his book.
Aiyar’s insight into the period post-2012 comes into the spotlight as Singh, who was the country’s Prime Minister from 2004-14, passed away at AIIMS Delhi on Thursday.
“In 2012, the prime minister (Manmohan Singh) underwent operations for multiple coronary bypasses. He never quite recovered physically. It slowed him down and this showed up in governance. As for the party, there was no official announcement about the Congress president’s health when she took ill at about the same time as the PM,” Aiyar says.
Ayiar claimed in the book that Pranab Mukherjee should have been given the reins of the UPA-II government and Singh elevated to President when the office of Rashtrapati presented an opening in 2012.
The 83-year-old Aiyar states in the book that if this step had been taken, the UPA would not have gone into a “paralysis of governance”.
He says the decision to retain Singh as the Prime Minister and shift Mukherjee to the Rashtrapati Bhawan “doomed” any prospects the Congress might have had to form UPA-III.
Singh’s political career
In his long political career, Singh was a member of the Rajya Sabha since 1991, where he was leader of the opposition between 1998 and 2004. He retired from the Rajya Sabha in April 2024. Singh represented India at many international conferences and in several international organizations.
He led Indian Delegations to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Cyprus (1993) and to the World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna in 1993. One of the key decisions Manmohan Singh took as PM included the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) (2005), a flagship program that guaranteed 100 days of wage employment per year to rural households.
His government also launched the Right to Information Act in 2005 to strengthen transparency and accountability in governance by granting citizens the right to access information held by public authorities.
In 2013, his government launched the National Food Security Act to ensure subsidized food grains to approximately two-thirds of India’s population.