TRIBUTE TO DR. MANMOHAN SINGH

Deeply Mourn the demise of our former Prime Minister Prof. Manmohan Singh – A Reputed Academic and a very Distinguished Politician

It is with profound grief I pay my respectful Homage to one of the distinguished leaders of our Nation!  Irrespective of my differences with Dr. Manmohan Singh in terms of some of the policies that he prescribed during his Prime Ministership, I held him in very high esteem and will continue to do so.  Those of us who studied in JNU in the mid 2000 will never forget Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to the University on 14 November 2005 to unveil the statue of former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and a group of students disrupting his speech with black flags waving & sloganeering to express dissent.  Prof. Manmohan Singh was the second Prime Minister to visit JNU after Indira Gandhi. I was a PhD student in JNU between 2003 and 2007 and I am proud to be an alumnus of JNU where Dr. Manmohan Singh was an Honorary Professor.  I was very much present in the audience during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s speech on 14 November 2005 and witnessed closely the ‘black flag waving and sloganeering’ of some of my contemporaries. The days before the Prime Minister’s visit, various student political outfits including the JNU Students Union (JNUSU) on campus seriously debated and discussed the question whether to welcome the Prime Minister or oppose him because the large section of the students on campus were unhappy with his Government’s economic policies which most of us believed would reinforce economic inequalities in the country.  Initially, most of the student political outfits agreed to protest.  However, just a few days before the PM’s visit, except a couple of outfits, all other outfits including JNUSU decided not to protest against the PM.  We were all under the impression that the protest will be limited to putting up posters and black flags all over the campus. But what surprised us on that day was that the moment the Prime Minister rose to speak, some of my fellow students suddenly got up, took out the black flags hidden in their dress and started waving and sloganeering. The Prime Minister was taken aback, paused his speech for a few minutes and appealed to the protesting students to maintain calm. The other dignitaries like the then Union External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh who were present on the dais also made an attempt to pacify the protesting students.  Their appeal did not stop the sloganeering students; hence the Prime Minister decided to continue with his speech. But the sloganeering continued till the end of his speech. This event turned out to be the big national and international news of the day.  After the event, JNU teaching fraternity became gravely concerned because protesting against the Prime Minister would obviously lead to punitive action by the University administration that may jeopardize the students’ career and life.  Some of the teachers who were students in JNU during emergency in India faced punitive actions for rising their voice against emergency and the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.  In one of the following days of 14 November 2005 event, I had a meeting with my PhD supervisor to discuss my work. At that time, my PhD supervisor was a Member of the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector (NCEUS), and he would often meet the Prime Minister officially to discuss the Commission’s work. Sensing my political activism on campus, in the course of our discussion, my supervisor suddenly asked me, “Selvam, did you also protest against the Prime Minister on that day?” I replied, “No Sir, I did not; I was present there listening to the Prime Minister but did not protest”. Now, as the teachers feared, the University administration swiftly issued show cause notices to those students who protested.  Nonetheless, to our utter disbelief, the day after the protest, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called up the then Vice-Chancellor Prof. B B Bhattacharya and advised him to be lenient with the students and not to take any action against those who protested as protesting was their democratic right.  That was Prime Minister Manmohan Singh!  I was deeply moved by his gracious act which indeed exhibited the compassionate teacher in the Prime Minister and his profound belief in democratic values. His commitment to democratic values, personal integrity, humility, scholarship, and academic honesty are something that I have always admired! He maintained the dignity of the office of the Prime Minister of our country. The historical acts like Right to Information Act (RTI), Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), and the National Food Security Act (NSFA) that were passed in Parliament during his tenure were truly watershed moments! His departure is an irreparable loss to our Nation, and he will be missed forever!

In solidarity with our Nation mourning the demise of one of the greatest and distinguished leaders of our times…

Goodbye Prof. Singh.  Rest in Peace! 🌹🙏😢

With deep Condolences and Respectful Homage!

Selvam

Friday, 27 December 2024