Manmohan Singh, the former Indian prime minister whose economic reforms made his country a global powerhouse, has died at the age of 92, current leader Narendra Modi said. Modi posted on X that India “mourns the loss of one of its most distinguished leaders,” adding that Singh “led India with immense wisdom and integrity. As our Prime Minister, he made extensive efforts to improve people’s lives.”
Singh was taken to a hospital in New Delhi after he lost consciousness at his home on Thursday, December 26, but could not be resuscitated and was pronounced dead at 9:51 pm local time, according to a statement by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.
“I have lost a mentor and guide,” opposition Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said in a statement, adding that Singh had “led India with immense wisdom and integrity.””Millions of us who admired him will remember him with the utmost pride,” said Gandhi, a scion of India’s powerful Nehru-Gandhi dynasty and the most prominent challenger to Modi.
Mallikarjun Kharge, leader of the opposition in parliament’s upper house, said “India has lost a visionary statesman, a leader of unimpeachable integrity, and an economist of unparalleled stature.” President Droupadi Murmu wrote on X that Singh will “always be remembered for his service to the nation, his unblemished political life and his utmost humility.”
Singh, who held office from 2004 to 2014, is credited with having overseen an economic boom in Asia’s fourth-largest economy in his first term, although slowing growth in later years marred his second stint.
Born in 1932 in the mud-house village of Gah in what is now Pakistan, Singh studied economics to find a way to eradicate poverty in the vast nation and never held elected office before taking the nation’s highest office.
He won scholarships to attend both Cambridge, where he obtained a first in economics, and Oxford, where he completed his PhD. Singh worked in a string of senior civil posts, served as a central bank governor and also held various jobs with global agencies such as the United Nations.
‘Mr. Clean’
Singh was tapped in 1991 by then Congress prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao to reel India back from the worst financial crisis in its modern history. In his first term, Singh steered the economy through a period of nine-percent growth, lending the country the international clout it had long sought.
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He also sealed a landmark nuclear deal with the US that he said would help India meet its growing energy needs. Known as “Mr Clean,” Singh nonetheless saw his image tarnished during his decade-long tenure when a series of corruption cases became public.
Several months before the 2014 elections, Singh said he would retire after the polls, with Sonia Gandhi’s son Rahul earmarked to take his place if Congress won. But Congress crashed to its worst-ever result at that time as the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, led by Modi, won by a landslide.
Singh – who said historians would be kinder to him than contemporary detractors – became a vocal critic of Modi’s economic policies and more recently warned about the risks that rising communal tensions posed to India’s democracy.
On Friday, India announced seven days of state mourning after Singh’s death. He will also be accorded a state funeral.
“As a mark of respect for the departed dignitary, it has been decided that seven days of state mourning will be observed throughout India,” the Indian government said in a statement Friday, with mourning running until January 1. “It has also been decided that the state funeral will be accorded to late Dr. Manmohan Singh,” it said, adding that the national flag will also be flown at half-mast.
