Should it be a cold, forlorn stone at Rajghat or an intellectually thriving Economic Research Center
An academic, intellectual, humble, gentle, sensitive person. An embodiment of the story of rise of India from its impoverished dusty village streets, the story of human tragedy of partition, the story of grit and hard work, the story of valuing education above food and comforts, the story of undefeatable DNA of this ancient civilization. A feel-good socialist, fumbling through a state-controlled economy, courageous enough to dismantle what he had supported and believed in. A man of great contradictions- weak-kneed enough to cling to power and strong enough to fight for the nation’s future, honest to a fault and faulty enough to be blind to the most corrupt government in history of Independent India. Dr. Manmohan Singh, history will judge you with affection and respect.
Tributes have been pouring in and so have the vultures of Lutyens snatching the morsels of flesh even when the family is grieving. A shy, gentle, lanky, Professor who couldn’t get his DDA apartment back from his devious tenant, is hostage to a fight for a prime plot of land to ensconce him under a cold stone forever. Will it be his tombstone or will it be one more slab laid on the grave of society’s conscience and commonsense.
He must get a monument on the street of monuments; that is the fight tearing apart those who tore him apart when he was alive. How can he be denied this real estate as the first Sikh Prime Minister of India? How can one deny a tombstone to the first “accidental Hindu” Prime Minister, first woman Prime Minister, first farmer Prime Minister, first Chitraguptavanshi Kayastha Prime Minister, first Telugu-bidda Prime Minister, first Prime Minister from Purvanchal and a Jannayak, second son of the fifth Prime Minister of India dying in a plane crash, third Prime Minister of the first dynasty of independent India, the stop-gap Punjabi Prime Minister, first refugee of India’s partition Prime Minister, first Thakur Prime Minister, first Gujarati Ayurved-loving Prime Minister. The list of manufactured grievances and fault-lines is endless. The line between the sublime and the ridiculous in Indian politics is like the ammonia foam on the waters of Yamuna- snow white, teddy-bearish-wooly from a distance, a poison chalice on touch.
I met the genial Professor only once, at a wedding in Delhi, where my host, an equally genial Professor dragged both of us into a corner and told us to talk about power sector reforms in India. He was the ex-Finance Minister of India and I, a cocky mid-level World Bank expert in power sector reforms. We both soon escaped the difficult conversation since the recital of Guru Granth Sahib had started. I found him more inspiring and charming than his appearance in the media. Little did I know at that time he would become the Prime Minister. When he did, I was so proud of him and my country that someone from such humble beginnings, so honest, and an educationist could become the Prime Minister. After six years of his tenure, I was so angry with his tolerance of corruption that I stopped talking about him to my friends. Even then, I still believed in his personal financial integrity and his good intentions.
A remarkable life of personal, professional, and public service achievements, the country should cherish its legacy. He kept calm and carried on in the vicious cacophony of Delhi Darbar. What will be a befitting way for the posterity to remember this genial saint-philosopher-soldier. Given a choice, on his last journey he would have taken his books with him. Should this legacy be a cold, lifeless stone, adorned occasionally by forlorn flowers, which will be forgotten sooner than the mortar gets dry. Should he not be remembered for the essence of what he was- an intellectual in pursuit of happiness of others through knowledge?
Imagine, setting up a library in one of the Universities he loved, an economic research center that will bear his name forever, UGC scholarships in his name for doing research in economics and politics? Imagine setting up the first Prime Ministerial Library in his much-loved Panjab University in Chandigarh, where students will encounter his shy smile and deeply curious eyes walking through the corridors of the library, research on his papers, read through the books he thumbed through in his pensive moments, and be inspired. This entity may be a part of the Prime Ministerial Library system or a standalone Trust with a member of Dr. Singh's family a leading Trustee. Leave the putrefying politics of death, and colonial mindset of Raj at the Rajghat. Let the conscience of India not be walled alive in tombstones but kept thriving in the minds of the young. A befitting tribute to this philosopher-king will be a living, thriving monument of intellectual pursuits and not a cold, forgotten stone in the bazar of samadhis. Let the family decide the best way to preserve his legacy.
Mohinder Gulati is a retired Advisor of the World Bank and can be reached at mgulatiwb@gmail.com
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