It was in early to mid-1980s that India found itself beginning to transform its economic policy, though hesitantly, from the 3-decade old one of a closed economy import substituting, command and control framework, to a more contemporary open economy market oriented model. This would subsequently transform it to where it is today and lead to its current strong positioning in geo-politics.
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The world knows Dr Manmohan Singh for his simplicity, but I remember him not only for his simplicity and integrity but also for his ability to delegate work and place complete trust in his teams across different periods of time, said Rakesh Mohan, an Indian economist and former Chief Economic Adviser, Secretary, Economic Affairs, and Deputy Governor of Reserve Bank of India.
“Right through the 1980s and 1990s Dr Singh was getting a number of highly qualified young economists as economic advisors to the government... he was building a whole group of good, very good economists, to advise the government on economic reforms, economic policy, etc,” he said. This perhaps reflected his own induction to the government as an economic adviser when he was in his late thirties.
I too was one such young economist. “In fact, I was invited by the Indian government prior to when Dr Singh came in. I was called to join the Planning Commission in late 1970s as a young team member. But, by the time I extricated myself from the World Bank and Princeton University earlier, it was December 1980 and in India two governments had changed.”
Urban development
Joining the Planning Commission as senior consultant, where Dr Singh was the member-secretary, gave me my first an opportunity to work closely with him. “I was a young 32-year-old, and my area was Urban Development. But then no one was really interested in urban planning and development in the Commission. And it made me wonder what I was doing?”
Full of ideas, I reached out to him and gave various proposals to do research projects on policies for urban development. Since my ideas were a bit grandiose he said somewhat sternly, though gently, “This is not the World Bank”, like a kindly uncle! “But I persisted, and he encouraged me consistently. Consequently, he reposed enough faith in me to constitute four task forces on housing and urban development. I was made member secretary of all the four task forces which had 6-10 members each, including the most reputed experts in urban development.
“What I want to say is that his trusted his teams so much to get the best out of them, that he reposed enough faith in a 33-year-old to let me steer these task forces with very senior experts in urban development. He was so open and accessible that anyone could approach him any time. I had not known him before I came and joined the Commission,” he said.
“I would usually just go into his room and seek an appointment. He would talk with me as an economist. He was a very inspiring person,” Mohan recollected adding that “I had taken leave from World Bank and come. So, I had to go back. But when Dr Singh was made the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission in 1985 during the Rajiv Gandhi government, he rang me up and said now I want you to come back as economic adviser. I said OK to him.”
But, by the time I came it was 1986. “Why I am narrating this is to tell you about man’s simplicity and the trust he reposed. When I returned, he called me home. You will not believe that here was Dr Singh walking with a heating rod in his hand trying to locate a plug point to beat the Delhi cold, his wife Mrs Gursharan Kaur served the tea herself. He was not looking for any staff to do it.”
Following his tenure in Planning Commission, Dr Singh was Secretary General of the South Commission, an independent economic policy thinktank headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland from 1987 to November 1990. And it is said that one of the things that influenced him the most was when he visited Malaysia during this period. He was amazed by what he saw in terms of their development.
He came back to India in 1990 when Chandrashekar was the Prime Minister. I was then in the India as economic adviser to the Ministry of Industry. Under the guidance of the industry secretary AN Varma (who later served as Prime Minister Narasimha Rao’s Principal Secretary) we had done extensive work on industrial policy reforms in 1990 in the VP Singh government, and a full policy document had been prepared. Dr Singh had come to know about it. He called me one day and asked me if he could see that document. So I trotted off and brought him that document the next day. “Why I am sharing this is to stress that the man didn’t believe in any hierarchy or protocol: he just called me directly. He was accessible to all,” Rakesh Mohan said.
And that Industrial Policy document became the basis of the path breaking industrial policy reforms announced in 1991, he said adding that “of course, a lot more work was done to it. But you know, Dr Singh always remembered me for that.”
Right through the period when he was the finance minister and subsequently the Prime Minister, he was always approachable.
When asked how he saw Dr Singh as an economist, he said, “Today India’s economic stability and strength is from the base that Dr Singh had created. Yes, we cannot take it away from him.”
Tackling 1991 crisis
“The advantage Dr Singh had as a finance minister and then as the Prime Minister was that he was an accomplished economist with decades of experience in economic administration and policy making. So, he had a very good sense of what was feasible, and what constituted good economics. And he had internal comprehensive domain knowledge of the economy. So, he knew how to sift through bad and good advice instinctively. That he could undertake the bold economic reforms of 1991 with confidence was because his knowledge of the working of the Indian economy was totally internalised,” he said.
“One cannot forget that it was these reforms that helped the country come out of the 1991 crisis. There are few countries that have undertaken reforms and then come out as quickly from the crisis with higher growth,” he pointed out.
Although consistently gentle and non-confrontationist, there were instances where he disagreed with his higher authorities, too. He could take strong stands and because of his straightforwardness, his integrity, and his knowledge of economics, everyone respected him and took his advice,” Rakesh Mohan said.
Roping in subject experts
Dr Singh believed in the power of expertise and therefore appointed committees with subject experts across categories so that all the reforms were fully thought out. For example: the Tax Reforms Committee chaired by Prof. Raja Chelliah guided the subsequent path breaking tax reforms; the financial sector reforms committee under Mr Narasimham, former Governor RBI, which led to the far reaching transformation of the financial sector. There was a Committee on Infrastructure that led to the introduction of the private sector in infrastructure... While as Finance Minister using his expertise as finances he brought in changes, as the Prime Minister, people should not forget that he brought the Right to Information Act. He introduced the Right to Education. There are many more social welfare things that he brought in.
India is lucky to have had such a man who served the country with dedication, integrity, dignity and simplicity, despite all the highest offices that he held. There will never be another like him.
(As told to Richa Mishra, businessline)