27122024-TT-01.qxd 12/27/2024 ISRAEL STRIKES POWER STATIONS IN YEMEN WORLD /thetribunechd 12:20 AM Page 1 13 CHANDIGARH | GURUGRAM | JALANDHAR | BATHINDA | VOL. 144 NO. 358 | 14 PAGES | ~5.00 | REGD. NO. CHD/0006/2024-2026 ESTABLISHED IN 1881  HIMACHAL PRADESH friday | 27 december 2024 /thetribunechd www.tribuneindia.com Manmohan Singh shot to prominence as Finance Minister in Narasimha Rao govt in early 1990s, bringing sweeping reforms AAP WANTS CONG OUSTED FROM INDIA BLOC BACK PAGE Ushered in an era of liberalisation that is widely believed to have changed the course of India’s economic trajectory Known for his simple lifestyle, he served as PMfor two terms in the Congress-led UPA government from 2004 to 2014 In 2008, his govt clinched a landmark nuke energy deal with the US, paving the way for strong ties with Washington ECONOMIST-PM DIES AT92 Aditi Tandon Tribune News Service New Delhi, December 26 Curtains fell on Thursday on the illustrious life and times of Manmohan Singh, India’s 14th Prime Minister and the first from the Sikh community, who put the country on the path to progress by unleashing economic reforms as the Union Finance Minister in 1991. Manmohan Singh (92) breathed his last at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences where he was brought in a critical condition at 8.06 pm. He was declared dead at 9.51 pm. Doctors said he was being treated for age-related medical conditions and had a sudden loss of consciousness at home today. He could not be resuscitated. The government has announced the cancellation of all official events on Friday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair a Cabinet meeting tomorrow morning and pass a condolence resolution to honour the legacy of Manmohan Singh. The former PM, sources said, would be cremated with full state honours. Aptly called “the father of reforms” by the late Pranab Mukherjee, his senior Cabinet colleague and once his competitor for the position of Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh will be remembered most for his role in the 1991 financial liberalisation. It was the time when India was on the verge of default and he showed the courage to take a strong corrective. Backed by then Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao, Manmohan Singh initiated a restructuring process eventually abolishing industrial licensing, opening up the private sector and cutting down on obstacles in the path of foreign investments. As the late President and former Congress veteran, Pranab Mukherjee, recalls of Manmohan Singh in his memoirs of the Congress-led UPA years, “In an instant, the economic landscape was transformed, laying the ground work for an economically sound India in an increasingly global world. It was due to this legacy and indepth experience that Manmohan Singh became the Prime Minister. Notwithstanding the debate regarding his appointment as Prime Minister, there could have been no one more experienced in economic policymaking than Manmohan Singh. A political person, he held national interests above all else....a strong nationalist, a man of courage and conviction, Manmohan Singh was certainly not an accidental Prime Minister. I’m convinced that the future will judge Manmohan Singh in a different light as PV is assessed today.” continued on page 8 ‘History will be kinder to me’ DR MANMOHAN SINGH SEPTEMBER 26,1932 —DECEMBER 26, 2024 New Delhi, December 26 Months before he demitted the PM’s office in 2014, Manmohan Singh had famously asserted that his leadership was not weak and history would be kinder to him than what the media projected at that time. Addressing a press conference here in January 2014, in what was one of his last media interactions, Manmohan had said, “I do not believe that I have been a weak Prime Minister ... I honestly believe that history will be kinder to me than the contemporary media or for that matter the Opposition in Parliament... Given the political compulsions, I have done the best I could do.” “I have done as well as I could do according to the circumstances... It is for history to judge what I have done or what I have not done,” Manmohan, who was the Prime Minister for 10 years till Narendra Modi took charge on May 26, 2014. He was responding to a volley of questions regarding criticism that his leadership was “weak” and he was not decisive on many occasions. Manmohan had also chosen the press conference to launch a blistering attack on 7-DAY MOURNING ANNOUNCED BJP’s then Prime Minister candidate Modi and referred to the 2002 Gujarat riots under the Chief Minister. The BJP at that time had projected Modi as a strong leader while targeting Manmohan over the issue of “weak” leadership in the run-up to the next Lok Sabha polls. “I have full confidence that the next Prime Minister will be from the UPA... It will be disastrous for the country to have Narendra Modi as Prime Minister... I sincerely believe what Narendra Modi is saying is not going to materialise,” he had said. Maintaining that his two terms as PM in UPA I and UPA II displayed the Congress’s ability to run a coalition government and dispelled the perception that his party could not run coalitions, Manmohan said though some compromises were made in the process, they were on “peripheral issues and not on national problems”. “Nobody has asked me to step down because of any inadequacy that characterised my tenure as PM,” was his response when asked about “negative” perceptions within Congress about his leadership. — PTI TRIBUTES POUR IN ❝ His passing is a great loss to all of us. I pay my respectful homage to one of the greatest sons of Bharat and convey my heartfelt condolences to his family, friends and admirers. — Droupadi Murmu, PRESIDENT India mourns the loss of one of its most distinguished leaders — Manmohan Singh. Rising from humble origins, he rose to become a respected economist. — Narendra Modi, PRIME MINISTER A man of action rather than words, his immense contribution to nationbuilding will forever be etched in the annals of history. — M Kharge, CONG CHIEF ARCHITECT OF INDIA’S ECONOMIC REFORMS 1954: Completed Master’s in Economics from Panjab University 1957: Economic Tripos (3-year degree programme) from Cambridge University 1962: DPhil in Economics from Oxford University 1971: Joins as Economic Adviser in Commerce Ministry 1972: Appointed Chief Economic Adviser in Finance Ministry 1980-82: Member, Planning Commission SKMseeksmeeting withPreztodiscuss issuesof farmers Man of exceptional intellect, unparalleled humility NN Vohra Former J&K Governor NEW DELHI: Amid the ongoing farmers' protests and an indefinite hunger strike by farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal, the SKM has written to President Droupadi Murmu seeking an appointment with her to discuss their issues. In a statement on Thursday, the SKM said they wanted to address the situation surrounding Dallewal’s hunger strike and other “pressing issues”. — PTI Snow likely in HP today, weatherdept issuesorangealert SHIMLA: Another spell of snowfall is just round the corner in Himachal Pradesh. The weather department has issued an orange alert for light to moderate snowfall and rainfall, along with a few heavy spells, over many parts of the high and adjoining mid hills from Friday till December 29. Besides, cold to severe cold day conditions will prevail at many places in the state till December 29. INSIDE Influencer Simran found dead in her Gurugram flat GURUGRAM: Simran Singh, a 25-year-old freelance radio jockey and Instagram influencer from Jammu and Kashmir, was found dead in her rented apartment in Sector 47, Gurugram, on Wednesday night. She had around 7 lakh followers on Instagram. Her body was found hanging in her room on Wednesday night, the police said, adding that no suicide note was found from the spot. INSIDE D Late Pranab Mukherjee is seen with then PM Manmohan Singh and former Congress president Sonia Gandhi at 7RCR in New Delhi. FILE R Manmohan Singh’s very sad passing away denotes the end of a truly rare species of political leadership which was marked by exceptional intellectual capability, honesty, transparency and unparalleled humility. A man of few words, he heard everyone, high and low, and tackled the most complex issues by taking his own decisions, which best served the national interests. Years after Dr Singh had returned to India, I had the privilege of having as my tutor a very eminent Economics Professor with whom Dr Manmohan Singh had done his doctoral studies at Oxford University. Dr Little and his good lady never tired of telling everyone that he was the best ever who had studied at that university. He had an equally iconic reputation at Cambridge University. In my career as a civil ser- vant, I had the good fortune of working with Dr Singh when he was the Union Finance Minister during the most difficult period when the country was compelled to mortgage its gold reserves, and I served, successively, as Defence and Home Secretary, and had to be daily at his office door, literally begging for some financial relief for the departments I was serving. Dr Singh will be remembered for his deep commitment to national interests. As the father of India’s economic reforms under then Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao in the early 1990s, Dr Singh’s pursuit in unleashing India’s entrepreneurial spirit as PM—the so-called “animal spirits”—protected India in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis. His outreach to the US, despite opposition in his own party, to sign the civil nuclear deal brought India to international attention as a responsible power. continued on page 8 1982-1985: Governor of the RBI 1985-87: Served as Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission 1987-90: Secretary General of South Commission in Geneva 1990: Appointed Adviser to Prime Minister on Economic Affairs 1991: Appointed Chairman of University Grants Commission 1991: Elected to Rajya Sabha from Assam, re-elected in 1995, 2001, 2007 and 2013 1991-96: Finance Minister under PV Narasimha Rao government 1998-2004: Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha 2004-2014: Prime Minister China to build largest BJP got ~2,600 cr donations in Kohli fined 20% match dam over Brahmaputra, 2023-24, Cong ~281 cr: EC data fee, handed out demerit close to Indian border point for Konstas bump Beijing, December 26 China has approved the construction of the world’s largest dam, stated to be the planet’s biggest infra project costing $137 billion, on the Brahmaputra in Tibet close to the Indian border, raising concerns in riparian states — India and Bangladesh. The Chinese government has approved the construction of a hydropower project in the lower reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo (Yarlung Tsangpo) river, the Tibetan name for the Brahmaputra, according to an official statement quoted by state-run Xinhua news agency on Wednesday. The dam is to be built at a huge gorge in the Himalayan reaches where the Brahmaputra makes a huge U-turn to flow into Arunachal Pradesh and then to Bangladesh. The total investment in the dam could exceed one trillion yuan ($137 billion), which would dwarf any other single infrastructure project on the EARTHQUAKE FEARS ■ The dam site is located along a tectonic plate boundary where earthquakes occur ■ Beijing sought to allay concerns about earthquakes, saying that the project was safe planet, including China’s own Three Gorges Dam, regarded as the largest in the world, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported on Thursday. Concerns arose in India as the dam besides empowering China to control the water flow, the size and scale of it could also enable Beijing to release large amounts of water flooding border areas in times of hostilities. India too is building a dam over the Brahmaputra in Arunachal Pradesh. India and China established the expertlevel mechanism in 2006 to discuss various issues related to trans-border rivers under which China provides India continued on page 8 New Delhi, December 26 The ruling BJP received contributions of over Rs 2,604.74 crore during 2023-24 while the opposition Congress got Rs 281.38 crore in its kitty, according to contribution reports of the two parties put in public domain by the Election Commission (EC). The donations listed in the reports were received till March 31, 2024, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. The BJP had declared donations worth over Rs 740 crore ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, while the Congress had claimed to have received over Rs 146 crore in 2018-19. During 2023-24, while the BJP received over Rs 723 crore worth of donations from Prudent Electoral Trust, it also got over Rs 127 crore from Triumph Electoral Trust and over Rs 17 lakh from Einzigartig Electoral Trust. The Congress got over Rs 150 crore from the Prudent Electoral Trust, which was the sole trust donor to the party. Interestingly, the Con- ~800 CRORE TO SAFFRON PARTY FROM 3 TRUSTS ~723 CR ~127 CR ~17 LAKH from Prudent Electoral Trust from Triumph Electoral Trust from Einzigartig Electoral Trust BIRTHDAY CONTRIBUTIONS FOR CONG ~1.38 lakh the Congress received as multiple donations of under heading ‘Happy birthday to our leader — JKB’ gress received multiple donations of Rs 1.38 lakh, including those from top leaders such as Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, KC Venu- c m y b Among the donors were Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, KC Venugopal and Digvijaya Singh gopal and Digvijaya Singh. Multiple donations were made to the Congress under the heading “Happy birthday to our leader—JKB”. continued on page 8 Melbourne, December 26 Virat Kohli and Australian youngster Sam Konstas were on Thursday involved in a physical altercation because of which the Indian superstar was fined 20 per cent of his match fee and handed a demerit point even though it was played down as an accidental bump by the 19-year-old debutant. The brief showdown took place after the 10th over of the Australian innings on the opening day of the fourth Test here when the players were crossing over. Kohli and Konstas bumped shoulders while moving across the pitch in a faceoff that was initiated by the travelling star. Kohli was eventually charged with breaching Level 1 of the ICC Code of Conduct by on-field umpires Joel Wilson and Michael Gough, third umpire Sharfuddoula Ibne Shahid and fourth umpire Shawn Craig. He accepted the sanctions proposed by match referee BRIEF SHOWDOWN ■ The brief showdown took place after the 10th over of the Australian innings on the opening day of the fourth Test in Melbourne ■ Kohli and Konstas bumped shoulders while moving across the pitch in a faceoff that was initiated by the Indian player Andy Pycroft at the end of the day’s play. “Kohli has been fined 20 per cent of his match fee and awarded one demerit point for breaching Level 1 of the ICC Code of Conduct,” the ICC said in a statement. “No formal hearing was needed continued on page 8