INDIA HOLDS STATE FUNERAL FOR FORMER PRIME MINISTER, MANMOHAN SINGH

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India on Saturday honored former Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, one of the architects of the country’s economic liberalization in the 1990s, with a state funeral that included full military honors and a gun salute.

Singh, who served as Prime Minister from 2004 to 2014, passed away on Thursday at the age of 92, prompting the declaration of seven days of state mourning.

The solemn ceremony was led by President Draupadi Murmu and attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alongside top civilian and military officials. Among international dignitaries was Bhutan’s King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, who also paid his respects.

Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, who described Singh as his mentor and guide, joined the late leader’s family in offering prayers before his cremation.

Earlier in the day, mourners gathered to pay their respects as Singh’s flower-draped coffin, flanked by an honor guard, was transported to the Congress Party headquarters in New Delhi.

The funeral procession moved through the capital to the cremation grounds, accompanied by military guards and full state honors, as the nation bid farewell to one of its most distinguished leaders.

Modi called Singh one of India’s “most distinguished leaders”.

US President Joe Biden called Singh a “true statesman”, saying that he “charted pathbreaking progress that will continue to strengthen our nations — and the world — for generations to come”.

The former prime minister was an understated technocrat who was hailed for overseeing an economic boom in his first term.

Singh’s second stint ended with a series of major corruption scandals, slowing growth and high inflation.

Singh’s unpopularity in his second term, and lacklustre leadership by Nehru-Gandhi scion Rahul Gandhi, the current opposition leader in the lower house, led to Modi’s first landslide victory in 2014.

Born in 1932 in the mud-house village of Gah in what is now Pakistan and was then British-ruled India, Singh studied economics to find a way to eradicate poverty in the vast nation.

He won scholarships to attend both Cambridge, where he obtained a first in economics, and Oxford, where he completed his doctorate.

Singh worked in a string of senior civil service posts, served as a central bank governor and also held various jobs with global agencies including the United Nations.

He was tapped in 1991 by then Congress prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao to serve as finance minister and reel India back from the worst financial crisis in its modern history.

Though he had never held an elected post, he was declared the National Congress’s candidate for the highest office in 2004.

In his first term, Singh steered the economy through a period of nine per cent growth, lending India the international clout it had long sought.

He also sealed a landmark nuclear deal with the United States that he said would help India meet its growing energy needs.

President Murmu said Singh would “always be remembered for his service to the nation, his unblemished political life and his utmost humility”.

AFP