Mumbai, Dec 27 (IANS) Top Opposition leaders of Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) and other parties in Maharashtra paid glowing tributes to the late former Prime Minister of India Dr Manmohan Singh, who passed away late Thursday night.
State Congress President Nana F. Patole, CWC Member Vijay Balasaheb Thorat, Nationalist Congress Party (SP) President Sharad Pawar, Working President Supriya Sule, General Secretary Dr Jitendra Awhad, Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Aaditya Thackeray, Sanjay Raut, Priyanka Chaturvedi, Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) President Prakash Ambedkar and others condoled the passing of Dr Singh.
Patole described him as a great economist and brilliant scholar “who laid the foundations for India’s strong economy” during his long administrative and political career”.
Expressing deep grief over Dr Singh’s passing, Pawar said the nation has lost “one of its greatest economists, a visionary reformist, a global statesman whose departure is an unbearable loss”.
Thackeray Jr recalled Dr Singh’s personal and political achievements, “how PMs can be truly humble, graceful and dignified despite the very many achievements marked out against their name and tenure”, and how for youth born in the 1990s, the opening up of India to the world and vice-versa was like growing up in a decade where each day was new”, putting India truly on the world map.
Prakash Ambedkar lauded Singh’s intellectual brilliance and as a parliamentarian who always listened and assessed what his contemporaries had to suggest/add. “When we raised questions on liberalization and how the subsequent competition could severely hit SMSEs, he was quick to correct his policy measures and reinvent it to support and protect them,” recalled Ambedkar.
Thorat said India has lost a world-class economist who built a strong India that could compete with the whole world, and he took the first steps to change the direction of the Indian economy through financial reforms from 1991 onwards as the Finance Minister. “As the PM (2004-2014), he stressed on social and economic reforms, raised his voice to protect the rights of commoners, announced a nationwide farm loan waiver in 2008, launched the National Employment Guarantee Scheme, Right To Information, Aadhaar Card for, the Direct Transfer of benefits to bank accounts, Food Security Act, Right To Education, etc,” said Thorat.
Dr Awhad recalled the days when the whole world shunned India, but it was Dr Singh who converted an economic disaster into an opportunity to build India, “and in his passing not only India, but the whole world has lost a scholarly economist and academician”.
“With his experiences as a top bureaucrat, FM, then PM, Dr Singh truly shaped Indian economy with unique decisions, bold ideas, despite the difficult times the nation experienced, and made it into the world’s second fastest growing major economy in 2007 with 9 per cent growth,” said Dr Awhad.
Raut said that current PM Narendra Modi is reaping the benefits of the hard work and dedication of ex-PM Dr Singh, “who was a renowned economist, a sincere leader whose contributions to nation-building will forever be cherished”.
Chaturvedi said her ‘heart broke on hearing the news of Dr Singh’s passing’, how he hugely believed in the power of youth contributing to politics, with his encouragement, kind words, blessings that made her entire political journey worthwhile.
Pawar said that Dr Singh was “a godly soul who embodied humility, forbearance, tolerance and compassion, and as the architect of modern India’s economic reforms, his legacy will forever inspire generations to come”.
Dr Awhad said, “The then Opposition used to criticize him for being ‘a quiet PM’ but he remained busy by never compromising on his integrity for the sake of the country”, and clinched deals like the India-US Civil Nuclear Agreement (2005), showing the whole world and India that he was a strong economic Gibraltar.
Other leaders like M. Arif Naseem Khan, Atul Londhe, Kishore Tiwari, Sushma Andhare, Clyde Crasto, also lauded Dr Singh and his exemplary services to the country for over six decades in various capacities, including as Reserve Bank of India Governor.
–IANS
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