A new book reveals that Atal Bihari Vajpayee rejected an offer to become President of India, a move that would have made Lal Krishna Advani Prime Minister. Vajpayee believed that a sitting PM becoming President would set a bad precedent for Indian democracy.
Many were hoping that with Vajpayee's NDA gone, there would be a return to the Congress normal. Nobody was prepared for the opposite. Sonia Gandhi was sceptical. This became the only issue over which Manmohan Singh took on his party bosses and risked his government. Politically, it was riskier than the 1991 reform, recalls Shekhar Gupta.
The family of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has approved the proposed site for his memorial at the Rashtriya Smriti Sthal in New Delhi. The memorial, measuring around 900 square metres, will be located adjacent to the memorial of former President Pranab Mukherjee. A trust will be set up to oversee the construction of the memorial, which will be funded by a government grant of Rs 25 lakh.
'Our problem is not a budget deficit but a trust deficit. We need to trust our institutions and industries to innovate and lead. That is the way forward for India.'
22 images that captures glimpses of a most unusual Indian who led the nation for 10 years.
'He will be remembered more for what he did as finance minister -- as someone who functioned well when the political fallout was taken care of.'
Scoffing at the Congress' assertion that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and party president Sonia Gandhi shared a unique relationship, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday said though Dr Singh was technically at the helm, the real power rested in the hands of Gandhi.
L&T chairman and managing director A M naik has written a letter to Prime Minister Dr Manmohan ingh saying there is a conflict of interest in the way the defence ministry is organised.
'The sense of Constitutional propriety and political morality seems to be vanishing fast.' 'There are many things in today's politics of governance which Manmohan Singh would have never dreamt of saying or doing.'
Former British Prime Minister David Cameron has mentioned in his memoir that Manmohan Singh had told him after the July 2011 Mumbai bombings that in case of another such attack, India would have to take military action against Pakistan.
'The preparedness of our defence forces and positioning of intelligence assets were very different in 2008, so we had to rebuild our assets and preparedness.'
Recalling Singh as a very humble person, Kumar said, "Dr Singh used to live here. I was a child when his family shifted out. It was a very nice family." The house where the Singh family lived is in a dilapidated state now as no one stays there since they moved out a long time ago, Kumar said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge were among the top leaders who paid homage to former prime minister Manmohan Singh at his home in New Delhi on Friday.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's music sense... Starlet Nupur Mehta's proud parents... Ghulam Nabi Azad is disillusioned... Congress's coup attempt... Anand Sharma, the already chief minister... All this and more in this week's Dilli Gupshup.
'I had to persuade him. I think he was a sceptic to begin with, but later on he was convinced that what we were doing was the right thing to do, that there was no other way out.'
The BJP has accused the Congress of politicising the death of former prime minister Manmohan Singh and levelling "baseless allegations" of disrespect and mismanagement at his State funeral. The Congress has countered by alleging that the government's arrangements for the funeral were a "shocking display" of disrespect. The row comes as the Congress alleges that the Centre did not allow news agencies except for DD (Doordarshan) to cover the funeral, did not provide enough space for Singh's family around the pyre, and did not stand up for the national flag during the gun salute. The BJP has refuted all of these charges.
Dr Manmohan Singh, the architect of India's economic reforms, had to literally face a trial-by-fire to ensure widespread acceptance of his path-breaking Union Budget of 1991 that saw the nation rise from its darkest financial crises.
Dr Singh, who has so far shied away from birthday celebrations, has a busy today. He will be attending a function where he would give away the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar awards and Council for Scientific and Industrial Research awards on the organisation''s 70th Foundation Day function.
'The demise of #ManmohanSingh ji who (looking back) presided over India's actual 'Acchey Din' feels like the end of an era when India was actually (more) democratic, when Indians were free(er) of fear & intolerance and when Indian public discourse had more decency.'
Veteran Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar, in his latest book, argues that Pranab Mukherjee should have been made Prime Minister in 2012 instead of Manmohan Singh, who was then recovering from health issues. Aiyar believes this would have prevented the "paralysis of governance" and "doomed" any prospects the Congress might have had to form UPA-III. He also criticizes the government's handling of the Anna Hazare-led agitation and the Commonwealth Games scandal, which he believes contributed to the party's downfall in the 2014 general elections.
The village of Gah in Pakistan is mourning the death of former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was born there. Villagers are remembering Singh's rise to prominence and the impact it had on their community. They are also hoping that someone from his family will visit the village to pay their respects.
Dhurandhar's most dangerous idea is that Director Aditya Dhar envisions an Indian state run by a deep state -- an intelligence machinery not accountable to Parliament, courts, or voters. A future political system where unelected officials decide when Indian democracy is 'fit' to function, observes Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
Stalwarts of Indian sports paid rich tributes to former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, who died on Thursday, describing him as a visionary, who had quiet strength and humility.
Join India in wishing Dr Singh a quick recovery.
Both prime ministers believed in crafting schemes to help the common man. Modi used quite effectively the instruments Dr Singh introduced. In assessing Modi's success with many schemes, Dr Singh's fundamental work should not be ignored, points out A K Bhattacharya.
Manmohan Singh represented the finest aspects of India, asserts Aakar Patel.
'The real story of 2025 is that India officially stopped being a 'market of the future' and started acting as the world's primary economic engine.'
Bush Sr is in Japan for business meetings.
Hailed as the architect of India's economic reforms, former prime minister Manmohan Singh in one his last interviews had said in 2019 that the country's economy was 'over-regulated', the government exerted control and interferences were aplenty with even regulators having 'morphed into controllers'.
'Whenever you see him on television or anywhere else, he gives off grandfatherly vibes.'
A Russian defence expert says the reported sale of RD-93 engines to Pakistan for integration into the JF-17 will actually benefit India, dismissing criticism of the Indian government by the opposition.
'If anyone is able to understand the importance of Modi's endeavours to revive the economy -- even against opposition from sections of his own saffron brotherhood -- it is the former prime minister,' says Amulya Ganguli.
'Kashmir needs to be divided and we need the land of Panun Kashmir in Kashmir.'
Singh's humility and grounded nature were highlighted in a heartfelt social media memoir by Uttar Pradesh Minister of State for Social Welfare (Independent Charge) Asim Arun.
A leader of reserve and quiet dignity, former prime minister Manmohan Singh had a keen taste for Urdu verses, and his poetic banters with Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sushma Swaraj in the Lok Sabha are among the most viewed parliamentary debates on social media.
The India-US nuclear deal was aimed at ending India's nuclear isolation and nuclear apartheid, recalls Rup Narayan Das.
In seniority in the BJP leadership team, V K Malhotra, who passed into the ages this week, was next only to Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L K Advani and Nanaji Deshmukh, notes Sudhir Bisht.
In his speech, PM emphasised on the need to bring India's current account deficit under control and reduce demand for gold and petroleum products.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday left for home after an overnight halt here while on his way back from the US where he held talks with President Barack Obama and met his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif, besides addressing the United Nations General Assembly.
You see him seated at meetings, looking a trifle lost, or mouthing homilies at government functions (the MAFA syndrome -- mistaking articulation for action). Other than that, he is both invisible and silent. This is no way to lead.
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