In 1991 when India was on the brink of an economic collapse, the then Prime Minister of India, the shrewd polyglot P V Narasimha Rao, pulled off a masterstroke when he appointed Manmohan Singh, an Oxford educated economist who had served in various roles in the government as a bureaucrat as the Finance Minister. Taking a radical turn from Nehru's socialistic economic model, Manmohan Singh opened up the Indian markets with reforms that heralded the rebirth of the nation. In 2004, when Sonia Gandhi, much to everyone's surprise, decided not to occupy the PM's chair, she decided to appoint Manmohan to the top post. And thus began the UPA era. While the plan to have Sonia Gandhi handle the tribulations of coalition politics, it was decided that Manmohan would handle the administration. The dual centre model of power was fraught with peril and while UPA-I did see India touching unprecedented growth rates, UPA-II woul see Indian economy hitting the doldrums apart from being hit by a series of scams, unprecedented in both their scale and complicity of the government. Manmohan leaves behind a mixed legacy. While his crtics will continue to maintain that he was a rubber stamp Prime Minister, his supporters, though few in number, will credit him for his hard stance on the Indo-US nuclear deal. After heading the country for ten years, Manmohan Singh gets set to retire from politics and it is time to wish the Prime Minister goodbye.
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13 май 2014
