Chandigarh, Dec 27 (PTI) Panjab University Friday organised a condolence meeting to pay homage to former prime minister and distinguished alumnus Dr Manmohan Singh.
The gathering was attended by Vice Chancellor Prof Renu Vig, Registrar Y P Verma and faculty and other staff.
During the meeting, tributes were paid to Singh, as attendees reflected on his contributions to the nation and his association with the university.
Another condolence meeting was also organised jointly by the Department of Economics and the Panjab University Alumni Association.
Manmohan Singh did his Master’s in Economics in 1954 from the university and came first in his class. He was a Senior Lecturer (1957-1959), Reader in Economics (1959-1963) and Professor of Economics (1963-1965) at PU. A Chair was established after him in the department.
Smita Sharma, Associate Professor and chairperson of the Economics Department at PU, remembered him as the architect of economic reforms in the country.
Sharma, who also studied at PU, showed the media the room where Singh used to sit with other faculty.
She said her teacher Prof V K Gupta was Manmohan Singh’s student at the university.
“Dr Singh is our university’s most distinguished alumnus,” she said. Former Union Minister and Congress’ sitting MP from Chandigarh, Manish Tewari said his association with Manmohan Singh goes back to the time when his parents and the ex-PM were neighbours in Panjab University here.
“He knew me almost from the day I opened my eyes in this world,” Tewari said.
“How strange are the ways of God. I was supposed to call on him tomorrow (Saturday) in the morning,” Tewari posted on X, “Soft Spoken, Erudite, intelligent but firm he was an inspiration for millions of young people for whom he opened up the doors of opportunity with the Economic liberalisation in 1991,” he said.
Tewari said through all these years he shared a personal relationship with him and also served as the Union Minister of Information & Broadcasting in his government.
“I recall anchoring his Mega Press Conference on 3rd January 2014 where he gave an exhaustive overview of his 10 years as Prime Minister,” said Tewari.
Former Union Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal said Singh used to have a free discussion with his cabinet colleagues and used to encourage junior colleagues a lot.
Bansal, a Congress leader and former MP from Chandigarh, recalled former US President Barack Obama once saying: “If there were to be five leaders like Dr Manmohan Singh in the world, it would be a different world.” Bansal said the nation will always be indebted to Singh for turning around the economy.
“I had the privilege to work in his councils of ministers. A great administrator, he was a superb human being with unparalleled humility,” he said.
Former Punjab deputy chief minister and Congress leader O P Soni also paid tributes to Manmohan Singh.
“I had met him three to four months ago at his Delhi home. He had so much love for Amritsar and Punjab. When he was PM, we got so much work done for Amritsar, its industry,” Soni said.
When asked if Amritsar is also known for its rich food, did Singh, who spent his childhood days in the holy city, have any preference for any local dish, Soni said, “he always preferred to have simple food. However, he used to love Sarson Ka Saag.” Soni, who lives in the central part of Amritsar, said, “when my father passed away in 2015, he visited my house to offer condolence”.
Manmohan Singh, the architect of India’s economic reforms, passed away on Thursday night at Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). He was 92.
The Congress leader, who steered the country for 10 years from 2004-2014 and helped set up the country’s economic framework as finance minister before that, was a renowned name in the global financial and economic sectors. PTI SUN VN VN
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