Whatever one may say about him — that he is not aggressive enough or that he might not make a good Prime Minister — one thing is for sure: after a long time we will have a Prime Minister who is absolutely honest,’’ says friend and former colleague Prof S.N. Ahuja, retired from the Department of Economics, Panjab University. Dr Manmohan Singh, the youngest professor at Panjab University in the early sixties, was revered by students and colleagues alike. ‘‘Students would talk in hushed tones as Manmohan Singh walked by. He attracted the same adulation that filmstars do today,’’ says former student Prof H.S. Shergill of the Dept of Economics. And there were enough reasons for Dr Singh’s star billing. He had got the gold medal from PU for topping the MA (Economics) exams in 1954. He had won a fellowship to Cambridge, where he again topped in the MA examination. On his return to PU, he was made a professor at the age of 33. ‘‘The then vice-chancellor, A.C. Joshi, knew how to spot talent. He immediately made Dr Manmohan Singh a professor at a time when the average age of professors was more than 50. He knew that if Dr Singh was not retained in some manner, he would be absorbed by the Americans into their university system,’’ says Shergill. Former head of the Economics Department Prof M.R. Aggarwal says: ‘‘The status of this department has been immeasurably raised due to its association with Dr Singh. People like to associate their names with top schools, but there are a few people that top schools like to associate their names with, and Manmohan Singh is one of them.’’ His former colleague at Panjab University, M.L. Lakhanpal, who later went on to become Vice-Chancellor of Jammu University, recalls that Dr Singh made a mark for himself through his honesty. ‘‘We are lucky to have him,’’ he adds. ‘‘Once while I was doing my PhD under his guidance, Dr Singh gave me a lift to the department on his cycle, and mind you, I was a heavy guy,’’ laughs Prof V.K. Gupta. ‘‘As Planning Commission member, he came to visit me. I was a bit embarrassed about dropping him back, as I just had a scooter. However, the simple man that he is , he didn’t want to trouble me and took a cycle rickshaw to the bus stand,’’ he adds. Shergill recalls that during a major non-teaching staff strike, that led to no work for nearly 38 days at PU, Dr Singh gave an assurance on behalf of the university. ‘‘Such was his credibility, that on his assurance, the strike was withdrawn,’’ he says.
