Manmohan Singh’s death draws tributes from political and industry leaders

Former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh spending tuesday at the age of 92 sparked an avalanche of messages of condolence and tributes from political leaders on both sides of the aisle and titans of industry.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi called Singh one of India’s “most distinguished leaders” in a mail on X. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party defeated Singh’s Congress alliance in the 2014 elections and has been in power ever since.

Singh was a “respected economist,” Modi added, who left “a strong mark” on India’s economic policy.

Before becoming prime minister in 2004, Singh was governor of the Reserve Bank of India in 1982 and finance minister in 1991.

As finance minister, he led a series of reforms that deregulated India’s economy and opened the country to foreign investment.

Faced with an acute balance of payments crisis, then Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao and Singh liberalized the economy, paving the way for its rapid expansion in the following decades.

“History will always honor his pivotal role in the transformative reforms of 1991 that reshaped India and opened its doors to the world.” wrote Gautam Adani, India’s second richest person and chairman of the Indian conglomerate Adani Group.

Singh returned to politics in 2004, when a Congress-led coalition swept the elections and party leader Sonia Gandhi named him prime minister.

During his tenure between 2004 and 2014, India’s gross domestic product initially expanded rapidly, allowing Singh to use the new wealth on programs such as the National Rural Employment Guarantee Lawthat guaranteed jobs for the poor.

However, the final years of Singh’s tenure as prime minister were marred by sclerotic growth, stalled reforms and corruption allegations against certain members of the government.

Singh played a pivotal role in strengthening India’s ties with Washington, visit the US several times as prime minister. In 2006, when US President George W. Bush visited India, Singh managed to negotiate a deal which gave India access to American nuclear technology.

“Dr. Singh was one of the greatest advocates of the US-India strategic partnership and his work laid the foundation for much of what our countries have accomplished together over the past two decades.” wrote US Department of State on Singh’s death.

Besides the United States, Singh also strengthened India’s ties with Russia. He regularly attended the annual India-Russia Summit, which began in 2000 and aims to deepen cooperation between the two countries and between the BRIC nations.

Russian ambassador to India, Denis Alipov saying in X that “Dr Manmohan Singh’s contribution to our bilateral relations was immeasurable.”