Sonia Gandhi
Former president of the Congress party, Sonia Gandhi on Monday praised former prime minister Manmohan Singh and said under his tenure “India recorded its highest economic growth rate ever”.
“Dr. Manmohan Singh’s demeanour is such that it appears he was born wise. In his decade long Prime Ministerial tenure, India recorded its highest economic growth rate ever. He became PM when country was on edge. Within months, his policies had a profound calming effect,” ANI quoted her as saying during Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development event.
In an indirect attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, she said, “There are those who work and there are those who take credit. Try to be in the first group. Indira ji was told by his grandfather.”
"The foundations of Dr Manmohan Singh's later success was laid during Indiraji's years,” she added.
“Over his (Dr. Manmohan Singh) tenure, he earned for India enhanced respect across the globe not by seeking credit or kudos, but by allowing his work to speak for itself,” she further said.
Delhi-based environment think-tank Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) was honoured with the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development this year for its work in environmental education and protection.
According to the Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust on Monday, the CSE has been awarded the prize for its steadyfast advocacy of measures to combat environmental deterioration and for its success in influencing public policies and programmes that have benefitted social and economic development in India.
The international jury, chaired by former president Pranab Mukherjee, decided to give the award to CSE also for keeping the issue of environmental sustainability at the forefront of national attention and public policy, a statement from the trust said.
The award is accorded annually by the Trust to individuals or organisations in recognition of creative efforts toward promoting international peace, development and a new international economic order, ensuring that scientific discoveries are used for the larger good of humanity, and enlarging the scope of freedom.
The CSE said the past recipients of this award include Mikhail Gorbachev, general secretary of the Communist Party of the (then) Soviet Union (1987), Gro Harlem Brundtland, prime minister of Norway (1988), the UNICEF (1989), Jimmy Carter, former president of the US (1997), UN and its secretary-general Kofi Annan (2003), Angela Merkel, chancellor of Germany (2013).
Last year's prize was given to former prime minister Manmohan Singh.
(with inputs from agencies)
