Assam remembers a diligent tenant, true representative

For 28 years, a two-room rented space in Sorumotoria locality in Guwahati had the distinction of being the residence of Manmohan Singh, the 13th prime minister of India who died at 92 of age-related illnesses in New Delhi on Thursday.

- Utpal Parashar

GUWAHATI:

Those two rooms were part of the residence of Hemoprova Saikia, wife of former Assam chief minister and Congress leader Hiteswar Saikia. When Singh was inducted into PV Narasimha Rao's government at the Centre for a consequential tenure as the Union finance minister in 1991, it also marked the beginning of his three-decade association with Assam. Rao got Singh elected as a Rajya Sabha member from the northeastern state at the suggestion of then chief minister Saikia.

Singh represented Assam in the Rajya Sabha for five terms, from October 1991 till 2019. After the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) dislodged the Congress from power in Assam in 2016, Singh was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan in August 2019.