New Delhi: It is no secret that towards the end of his tenure, when allegations of corruption buffeted the UPA government, former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh was a disheartened man. His words, while addressing a press conference in January 2014, that “history will be kinder to me than the contemporary media, or for that matter, the Opposition parties in Parliament” betrayed, in a sense, deep personal anguish.

The outpouring of tributes, following his death on 26 December, 2024, have to a considerable degree validated the sentiment that he had then expressed, uncharacteristic for a man known for his fabled reticence.

On Saturday, addressing a small gathering held at New Delhi’s India Habitat Centre to celebrate the former PM’s life and remarkable career, his daughter Daman Singh said he would have not just been astonished with the tributes, but “would have been pleased in his own quiet way”.

Curated by Singh’s three daughters—Upinder, Daman and Amrit—and their children and spouses, the remembrance event, away from the glare of television cameras, was understated and warm, qualities that defined Singh as a person. 

“Never blow your own trumpet, he would tell us,” Upinder Singh, an accomplished historian, said in her brief speech.

The dais was bare save a garlanded portrait of Singh, and a white screen in which the family exhibited a short film that had Singh’s colleagues and family friends—from Professor Jagdish Bhagwati to the late Isher Judge Ahluwalia—recounting their impressions of Singh as a person and a professional.

Apart from Singh’s wife Gursharan Kaur, family members and friends, those in attendance included his Cabinet colleagues P. Chidambaram and Kapil Sibal; members of his core team as PM including former NSA Shivshankar Menon, former deputy chairperson of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia, former foreign secretary Shyam Saran; former Planning Commission member Syeda Hameed, Centre for Science and Environment chief Sunita Narain, lyricist Javed Akhtar, Bharti Enterprises chairperson Sunil Mittal and physician K. Srinath Reddy.

Many including Professor Amartya Sen, Professor Bhagwati, Infosys chairperson emeritus N.R. Narayana Murthy, British journalist Martin Wolf, historian Rudrangshu Mukherjee, human rights advocate Sanjoy Hazarika offered their tributes to Singh via video messages.

If one were to distill the evening’s eulogies, apart from his towering contributions in public life as finance minister and the PM of two consecutive terms, what emerged were anecdotes that shed light on the personal and humane aspects that shaped Singh as a person.

Recalling his love for shayari (poetry), Akhtar, who flew down from Mumbai for the memorial, said had Singh not been an economist or a politician, he would have been a poet. Akhtar also appeared to take an oblique jibe at the present dispensation, pointing out how Singh, derided as “Maun (silence) Mohan Singh” by his political detractors, actually addressed the press numerous times as the PM.

“He changed this country forever. He was humble in front of the humble but he had no humility in front of the powerful. He may not have been rude or arrogant but people often forget how firm he used to be on matters of policy. His contribution to India is no less than that of Jawaharlal Nehru,” Akhtar said. 

Mittal too paid glowing tributes to Singh, crediting the former PM’s economic policies for the growth of entrepreneurship in India. 

“I was a young entrepreneur in 1991 when Dr Singh took over as the finance minister. I can’t forget the day when the budget (1991) was announced. He truly took upon himself taking on the entrenched interests. In one fell swoop, this country opened up. I wouldn’t be standing here today but for that one moment when the face of this country changed. He laid the foundation of a modern India after Nehru in a new way,” Mittal said.

The recollections were also replete with instances that shone a light on Singh’s sharp wit, like when he first met the late Professor J.P.S. Uberoi at the Delhi School of Economics as a young faculty member. “Manmohan told Jit (as JPS was known) that he was hoping to be the first sardar to teach at the D school,” said academic Patricia Uberoi, JPS’s wife.

Shivshankar Menon said Singh will be remembered for his “strategic courage,” while also fondly remembering the former PM’s love for poetry and sense of humour. “He will be placed very high among the makers of modern India,” Menon said.

Menon, who became visibly emotional as he spoke, said the outpouring of tributes seen in the last few days was also perhaps a “reflection of yearning for decency in public life”. Singh, he said, represented collegial politics, “rather than divide and rule”.

Murthy said Singh was a leader with whom one could disagree, “yet remain friendly”. Saran said when he first went to Singh, in 2004, with the message that the Americans had proposed a civil nuclear deal between the two nations, the former PM made a cautious start, but following a few moments of reflection, he gave the go-ahead.

Ten days before he died, when Saran met Singh, the latter enquired about the political upheaval in Bangladesh and the implications of a Donald Trump presidency in the US for India, the former diplomat said.

Reddy, who was heading the cardiology department of AIIMS, New Delhi, where Singh had undergone an open-heart surgery, quipped how Singh, as a patient, always insisted on knowing the rationale and evidence behind the recommended treatment options to “make a reasoned choice”. Reddy also recounted how Singh refused to have any pain-killing medications after his surgery as Republic Day was looming and he wanted to be ready to make informed decisions as the occupant of the PM’s office.

Ahluwalia, sharing his personal experiences of working with Singh, said he always walked the extra mile to bring on board the best expertise possible, including during the 2008 financial crisis. The memorial ended with a poignant rendition of Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s “Gulon Mein Rang Bhare” by Singh’s daughter Amrit, a human rights lawyer based in the US.

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