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When Manmohan Singh thought announcement of him becoming Cabinet minister in Rao government was a joke

Manmohan Singh dies: The ex-PM political journey of over three decades saw his meteoric rise from a post-partition humble background to the country's highest office.

Manmohan Singh
Manmohan Singh Image Source : AP
New DelhiPublished: , Updated:

Manmohan SIngh passes away: Manmohan Singh, the architect of India's economic reforms, died on Thursday at the age of 92 at AIIMs, Delhi. While Singh will be remembered for his historic 1991 reforms, which rescued India from near bankruptcy, he will also be known for redefining India's trajectory as a rising global power. UPDATES

However, not many know that the former finance minister in the then PV Narasimha Rao government at the Centre had initially thought that the announcement of his becoming the Cabinet minister was a joke. It was only after an angry phone call from Rao himself that Singh took over the finance ministry. It was after that the former Prime Minister began work to pull the country out of economic atrophy. Ironically, the then PM Rao had made it clear that if the policies worked, it would be the government's success and it those failed, Manmohan Singh will have to take the fall.

Manmohan Singh had to literally face a trial-by-fire to ensure widespread acceptance of his path-breaking Union Budget of 1991 that saw the nation rise from its darkest financial crises. Singh, the newly-appointed finance minister in the P V Narasimha Rao-led government, did it with great elan — from facing journalists at a post-budget press conference and irate Congress leaders at the parliamentary party meeting who were unable to digest the wide-ranging reforms. Singh's historic reforms in 1991 not only rescued India from near bankruptcy but also redefined its trajectory as a rising global power.

How Manmohan defended the landmark 1991 Union Budget

Singh made an unscheduled appearance at the press conference on July 25, 1991, a day after the presentation of the Union Budget "to ensure that the message of his budget did not get distorted by less-than-enthusiastic officials", a Congress leader writes in his book 'To the Brink and Back: India's 1991 Story' that recounts the fast-paced changes that took place after Rao became the prime minister in June 1991. "The finance minister explained his budget -- calling it 'a budget with a human face'. He painstakingly defended the proposals to increase fertiliser, petrol and LPG prices," the Congress leader recounts in the book published in 2015. 

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