MANMOHAN SINGH'S CALM AMID DIN IN PARLIAMENT

Last Thursday, when Rahul Gandhi was railing against the government, I was reminded of Manmohan Singh.

- SHASHI SHEKHAR

Though the Lok Sabha chair scuttled Rahul's allegations, let me elaborate on this scenario by illustrating incidents related to Singh.

It was 24 July 1991. Presenting a landmark budget, the then finance minister Manmohan Singh uttered two lines. “Time has come for India to rise as a great economic power.” His concluding remark was, “No power on Earth can stop an idea whose time has come,” trying to rouse hope in a depressed economy and society.

His optimism was aimed to address the prevailing pessimism. Two months ago, the Chandra Shekhar government had sold 20 tonnes of gold to Union Bank of Switzerland with a buyback pledge. The Narasimha Rao government had mortgaged 47 tonnes gold to the Bank of England. In such a scenario, people found it difficult to trust Manmohan Singh's assertions in entirety.

Many in politics were uncomfortable with ‘economic reforms’.

Some thought India would disintegrate the way Mikhail Gorbachev's Glasnost and Perestroika led to the crumbling of the Soviet Union.