New Delhi, Dec 30 (PTI) Former Deputy Chairman of the erstwhile Planning Commission and eminent economist Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Monday recalled his long association with Manmohan Singh, saying he welcomed criticism and took on board different options on economic issues.
Ahluwalia credited him with setting the course for India’s economy by introducing economic reforms.
Speaking with PTI Videos, Ahluwalia said, “I think one of the things that we can learn from Dr. Manmohan Singh is that the economic policy is a complicated issue and it’s good to get all kinds of views on the table. It’s not a simple matter of just deciding something and then if you can just implement it things will get done”.
Ahluwalia recalled that former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan, who was then associated with IMF had made critical remarks about Manmohan Singh’s work, and Singh later appointed him as the Chief Economic Advisor.
“So to bring in someone who has been so critical into the ministry is an indication that one should accept criticism because criticism actually helps you and if you don’t have critics then you don’t really know what’s going wrong and he was very good at that,” Ahluwalia said.
“In technical matters, I don’t know any other politicians, anywhere in the world who had his economic skill and technical credentials. But even on economic matters, he was always very keen to hear different views…,” the former Planning Commission chief said.
Reflecting on his focus towards poverty reduction in the country Ahluwalia said Singh echoed the idea of inclusive growth and never believed economy as the measure of success being an economist himself.
“If you take the ten years of Dr. Manmohan Singh’s prime ministership together, the average growth rate of the economy was higher than at any time in the previous ten-year period.
He was very concerned about poverty reduction. He never believed that the measure of success is economic growth and “we were all told that we must make sure that growth is inclusive…”, Ahluwalia said.
“His personal legacy is one of dedication, a very low profile, scrupulously honest, I mean not a shade of any wrongdoings associated with either him or anyone close to him. That’s a very important fact,” he further stressed.
“He without doubt was the architect of the economic reforms of 1991 when he was made the Finance Minister by Mr. Narsimha Rao and those reforms changed the course of economic policy from what we had been doing for several years. And I think overtime it wasn’t just what happened in 1991 but it started series of structural reforms in many areas which were continued by subsequent governments…,” he said.
Ahluwalia said, “I think everybody recognises that these reforms have changed the course of the economy and its performance. If today we are viewed as one of the fastest growing large economies in the world that is because of the economic reforms of 1991 and continued support for them afterwards..
Singh passed away on Thursday night at Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences due to age-related medical complications. He was 92. PTI KKS ANZ KKS ANZ MR
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