His approach was supremely effective in creating the space for an exchange of views. He did not take criticism as a sign of hostility. How different our country would be if more leaders imbibed this spirit.
I remember a lunch he hosted for senior officials to discuss the final report of a committee I chaired on financial sector reforms. Throughout the meeting, Dr Singh was silent while others debated. I remember thinking that few people in authority would be so self-effacing. (Illustration: C R Sasikumar)
I came to know Dr Manmohan Singh during his first term as Prime Minister when he, on the advice of Montek Ahluwalia, appointed me as an economic advisor. Over the years since then, through my term as RBI governor and after, I had the privilege of interacting with him periodically.
Dr Singh was a brilliant economist with an ambitious vision of what a liberal India could be, combined with a fine sense of what was possible politically. He was understated and soft spoken, which allowed him to attract the best and the brightest, ranging from Montek Singh Ahluwalia to C Rangarajan, to his team. The liberalisation and reforms he undertook with the support of Prime Minister Narasimha Rao laid the foundations of the modern Indian economy, and spurred the decades of robust growth we still enjoy.
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