‘Giant of an intellectual, had strategic courage’: At memorial service for Manmohan Singh, tributes pour in

“For members of Dr Manmohan Singh’s family, this is a time of loss and sorrow. But our father led a long, remarkable life full of personal fulfillment and professional achievements rising to the position of Prime Minister of this country. This is a life that must be celebrated,” said Upinder Singh.

Among the dignitaries present at the memorial were former Union Minister P Chidambaram, Rajya Sabha member Kapil Sibal, former R&AW chief A S Dulat, industrialist Sunil Bharti Mittal, former foreign secretaries Shyam Saran and Shivshankar Menon, writer Javed Akhtar, academic Patricia Uberoi, former Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia, and former member of the Planning Commission Syeda Hameed.

Several dignitaries who could not attend the memorial sent videos of their tribute to the former PM which were played at the memorial. These included Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen, writer and commentator Sanjoy Hazarika, British journalist Martin Wolf, and historian and author Rudrangshu Mukherjee.

At the memorial service, Javed Akhtar said, “He never made any false promises… He never praised himself… It was our luck that this country had an educated PM, who was a giant of an intellectual. He was a PM who wasn’t a politician.”

Menon said that “no one has done as much as Singh to lift Indians out of poverty”. “What I would always remember about him is his strategic courage — in foreign policy with Pakistan, the US, nuclear issue, and China. That is why he was so successful,” said Menon.

He said that when India’s history is “objectively written”, Singh will be “high on the list of makers of modern India”.

Praising Singh for ushering in economic reforms in 1991, Chairperson of Bharti Enterprises Sunil Bharti Mittal said, “I wouldn’t be standing here today but for that very important golden moment in which the fate of this country changed. So many new dreams were established… Millions started to believe.”

“History will remember him as one of the few tall leaders of this country. He built this country, laid the foundation so strong that other leaders who will follow him will keep on putting more and more storeys, more wealth, more economic prosperity on that foundation,” said Mittal.