Dr Manmohan Singh: A story from humble beginnings

Dr Manmohan Singh: A story from humble beginnings
Amritsar | May 21, 2004 6:24:03 PM IST

The country's 14th prime minister Manmohan Singh, a man of high moral standing and accomplishment, is also the first Sikh to have reached the country's top legislative position. In this comes the reinforcement of a genuine will to put an end to tensions of the 1980s. ANI tried to visit Singh's roots, which speak of a basic simplicity and a rise from the masses. Humble beginnings. The people celebrating Dr Manmohan Singh as prime minister, feel and know that he is one of them.

At the dawn of Independent India in 1947, Manmohan Singh, aged 13, displaced by the partition, came to live with his parents in Amritsar from Gah, now in Pakistan, where he was born.

The house is today much more than it was in his time. Memories of the locals, his neigbours, friends, many of whom live here even now, reflect a man risen from the grassroots, his success built on dedication and merit overcoming odds.

Says Ramesh Kumar, an old resident of the locality, "We are so proud, so happy, that our old friend, someone who has grown up with us is today the country's prime minister. He'll do some good work, negate all the bad things done by politicians in the past. He's a very decent, very balanced person we can identify with. Only someone who has felt poverty first hand knows what it is like."

Rajwinder (64), an old family friend who lives in the same area even today, said: "In the early days, his family faced great problems due to poverty. His father had a petty job, and on days it was so bad, there wasn't even bread in the house to eat. He used to go to school barefeet. They didn't have electricity in the house, so he studied under a street lamp. Very often his family had to go to bed hungry for want of money."

Destiny had big things in store. Congress President Sonia Gandhi's decision to withdraw from the prime-ministership and nominate her most trusted lieutenant alters so many equations, notable among them putting an end to long-standing tensions between the Congress party and the Sikhs. Manmohan Singh's becoming prime minister sets at rest any allegations of bias against the community, and furthers a mending after the tensions of Operation Bluestar to evict terrorists at the Golden Temple, and the assassination of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

Manjit Singh Calcutta, General Secretary of the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC), says, "There had been great tension between the Sikhs and Congress since 1984 with Bluestar and the killing of Indira Gandhi. This will bridge the gap."

"Sardar Manmohan Singh, having become prime minister will come to Amritsar, and I believe he will proclaim at the Akal Takht that the tensions and enmity between the Congress party and Sikhs should now be forgotten. A Sikh becoming prime minister with the Congress party's support sends a very positive message," says Bhai Manjit Singh, vice-president of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).

Gah, a small hamlet in Pakistan, too the residents remember Manmohan as a young lad of a studious nature, eager to learn more and more. He migrated away from here at the partition of the country in 1947, when this area came under Pakistan. (ANI)