It couldn't have been better. India has a scientist as its President and an economist as the prime minister. Who better to lead the country in these difficult times other than the man who really pulled us out of the economic disaster we were in?
When Dr Manmohan Singh took over as finance minister in 1991, our foreign exchange reserves were less than $2 billion, hardly enough to sustain us for a couple of weeks, compared to today's reserves of $118 billion.
And the man did it with thorough humility and efficiency. The good doctor had changed the direction and we are reaping those fruits, but in unusual modesty, he has never claimed any credit for the great changeover.
In 1991, I, then an insignificant inspector in the Income-Tax Department, wrote a letter to him and I promptly received a reply signed by him. You can rarely find a letter addressed to an inspector signed by even an assistant commissioner!
As finance minister he took some hard and bold decisions and succeeded eminently; no reason why he cannot repeat the performance.
He used to say then, "There is a chance I may succeed; if I fail, it doesn't matter, but who fails if India succeeds?"
In 1994 he brought in partial convertibility and in his budget speech said, "No power on earth can stop an idea whose time has come." Prophetic! Indeed, nobody can stop a man whose time has come.
His budget speeches -- apart from being scholarly economic documents -- were interesting and humorous. In one of those speeches, he said tongue in cheek, "This I am doing under pressure from WB, and WB is not World Bank, it is West Bengal."
Once he told the then prime minister P V Narasimha Rao, "It is possible that we will still collapse, but there is a chance that if we take bold measures we may turn around, and that is an opportunity. We must convert this crisis into an opportunity to build a new India, to do things which many people before us have thought and said should be done, but somehow were never done."
And that changed India's destiny.
While announcing concessions to North East states, he said, "This is in gratitude for providing a home for a homeless finance minister." Giving certain benefits to Mumbai, which elected the Congress in the Municipal elections, he said: "Voting the Congress is not only good politics, it is good economics." It has indeed proved to be so.
This was the man who introduced service tax, the tax of the future.
Just take a look at his credentials:
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Recipient of honorary degree of D.Litt. from Punjab, Guru Nanak, Delhi, Sri Venkateshwar, Mysore, Kurukshetra, Osmania, Nagarjuna and many other universities;
- First in B.A (Hons), Economics, Panjab University, Chandigarh, 1952;
- First in M.A.(Economics) 1954;
- Wright's Prize for distinguished performance at St. John's College, Cambridge, 1956 and 1957;
- Adam Smith Prize, University of Cambridge, U.K., 1956;
- Padma Vibhushan, 1987;
- Author of a book titled India's Export Trends and Prospects for Self-Sustained Growth (Clarendon Press, Oxford University, 1964);
- Worked as a lecturer, reader and professor of economics in Punjab University, Chandigarh from 1957 to 1965. Later he joined the Delhi School of Economics as professor of international trade;
- Chief, financing for Trade Section, UNCTAD, United Nations Secretariat, New York, 1966-69;
- Chairman, UGC;
- Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, January 15, 1985 to July 31, 1987;
- Governor, Reserve Bank of India, September 16, 1982 to January 14, 1985;
- Chief Economic Advisor, Ministry of Finance, India, 1972-76;
- Secretary, Ministry of Finance (Department of Economic Affairs), Government of India, November, 1976 to April, 1980;
- Member-Secretary, Planning Commission, April, 1980 to September 15, 1982;
- Alternate Governor for India, (i) Board of Governors, IBRD, 1976-80, (ii) Board of Governors IMF, 1982-85 and (iii) Board of Governors Asian Development Bank, Manila, 1976-80; Governor for India on the Board of Governors of the IMF and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, 1991-95;
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Union Finance Minister, June 21, 1991 to May 15, 1996.
Nobody had a better resume for any job.
And now he is to take over as the prime minister of India. Let's wish the good doctor all the best.
The writer is Superintendent of Central Excise, Hyderabad
