It has been a year since one of the tallest figures in the history of Indian polity, Dr Manmohan Singh, passed away. But, there are no or hardly any signs in New Delhi today of remembering him in any manner befitting his stature as not only a public figure, who ruled India for ten years, but also as a world-renowned economist, intellectual and scholar.
This is quite unlike the way his other departed predecessors, read former prime ministers, are customarily offered respect on their death and birth anniversaries year after year. Tributes are usually paid at the memorials built in their honour on the banks of the river Yamuna.
It also holds true for Chaudhary Charan Singh and Atal Behari Vajpayee, whose birth anniversaries are observed on December 23 and 25 at Kisan Ghat and Sadaiv Atal memorials, respectively. These memorials are built alongside the Yamuna in New Delhi. However, unlike both these stalwarts, Manmohan Singh was in the saddle as Prime Minister for much longer.
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Stark contrast
Dr Singh passed away on December 26, 2024, in Delhi. Yet, no memorial has been established near Rajghat, where his mortal remains were consigned to flames two days after his death, with full state honours.
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This remains the case despite the government having announced its intention to build a suitable memorial to commemorate Dr Singh. After public demand, Singh’s family members were even contacted by officials to approve a location for this memorial near the riverbank. What happened later remains unknown, and there has been silence, or rather, indifference over it.
Congress’s silence
Initially, Dr Singh’s party, Congress, had demanded that a fitting memorial be built to honour his significant contributions in both public life and academics. However, after March, when officials met with Singh’s wife to discuss the matter, the party strangely fell silent on the issue.
It is worth noting that Singh received his education and training at both Cambridge and Oxford.
When asked about any plans for observing the first death anniversary of Manmohan Singh, a Congress spokesperson, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said on Wednesday (December 24) that he was unaware of any such plans but would find out.
Congress general secretary Bhanwar Jitendra Singh, who is also the All India Congress Committee (AICC) observer for Assam, a state from where Dr Singh served as a Rajya Sabha member until April 2024, told The Federal on Wednesday that the party had earlier raised the issue with the government and would pursue it more vigorously to ensure that the promise made by officials regarding the memorial is fulfilled soon.
Also Read: Bengaluru University renamed in honour of former PM Manmohan Singh
The delay in building a memorial to honour the last Congress Prime Minister, however, stands in sharp contrast to the action taken earlier this year by the Congress government in Karnataka, which renamed Bengaluru City University in his honour.
The university is now called Dr Manmohan Singh Bengaluru City University.
BJP’s selective celebrations
The Union government shunning Manmohan Singh seems peculiar, considering the current BJP establishment’s enthusiasm for marking numerous anniversaries with great pride and fanfare.
Vajpayee’s birth anniversary on December 25 saw a series of government-supported programmes across the country. Recently, Parliament also held a long discussion to mark the 150th anniversary of the composition of Vande Mataram by renowned Bengali author Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay.
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The just-concluded Winter Session of Parliament also witnessed the renaming of the rural job guarantee scheme introduced in 2005 by Manmohan Singh’s government.
Ironically, Singh, who is indeed the architect of several welfare programmes, is now being sidelined as his legacy is blurred and repackaged to fit the current political narrative, which is very different from his.
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