Chandigarh, December 27, 2024 (Punjab Khabarnama Bureau): Hailed as the architect of India’s economic reforms, former prime minister Manmohan Singh, in one his last interviews, had said in 2019 that the country’s economy was “over-regulated”, the government exerted control and interferences were aplenty with even regulators having “morphed into controllers”.
Speaking to PTI in an exclusive interview on May 5, 2019, days before his successor Narendra Modi returned as prime minister for a second consecutive term, Singh cited the-then economic growth figures to suggest an impending slowdown.
He had also rued the “growing interference” of courts in economic policies and said the Congress would have handled the economy differently.
Singh, who served as prime minister for two terms from 2004 to 2014, has been credited with spearheading India’s economic reform process.
He had alleged that the lack of any vision or understanding of the country’s dynamics of economy by the Narendra Modi-led government led to “disruptive” decisions such as demonetisation, which he had earlier dubbed as “organised loot and legalised plunder”.
Singh had also said that people were “fed up” with the daily rhetoric and cosmetic change by the current dispensation and there was an undercurrent against this “illusion and boastful self aggrandisement”.
Summary: In his last interview, Manmohan Singh expressed concerns about India’s economic slowdown, urging reforms to address unemployment, inflation, and stimulate growth for long-term stability.