India Announces State Funeral for Former PM Manmohan Singh
AFP/APP
New Delhi: India announced seven days of state mourning on Friday following the death of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, a key architect of the country’s economic liberalisation in the early 1990s.
Singh, who served as Prime Minister from 2004 to 2014, passed away at the age of 92 on Thursday evening at a hospital in New Delhi. He will be accorded a state funeral.
The Indian government stated on Friday that seven days of state mourning would be observed across the country “as a mark of respect for the departed dignitary.” The mourning period will run until January 1.
“It has also been decided that the state funeral will be accorded to late Dr. Manmohan Singh,” the statement read, noting that the national flag would fly at half-mast on official buildings nationwide.
India’s cricket team, playing against Australia in the fourth Test match in Melbourne, wore black armbands on Friday to pay tribute to Singh.
While the official date for the state funeral has not yet been announced, a senior Congress party member suggested it would take place on Saturday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “India mourns the loss of one of its most distinguished leaders,” while national newspapers praised Singh’s legacy.
“The man who liberated India’s dreams,” read The Times of India’s front page headline.
“He opened India to the world,” declared The Indian Express.
The former premier was an understated technocrat celebrated for overseeing an economic boom in Asia’s fourth-largest economy during his first term.
However, Singh’s second term was marred by significant corruption scandals, slowing economic growth, and high inflation.
His unpopularity in his later years, coupled with lacklustre leadership by Rahul Gandhi—the Congress party’s current opposition leader in the lower house—paved the way for Narendra Modi’s landslide victory in 2014.
Born in 1932 in the mud-house village of Gah, now part of Pakistan, Singh pursued economics to combat poverty in his vast nation. Before assuming the nation’s highest office, he had never held an elected position.
Singh earned scholarships to attend Cambridge, where he earned a first-class degree in economics, and Oxford, where he completed his doctorate.
He held various senior civil service roles, served as governor of the Reserve Bank of India, and worked with international organizations like the United Nations.
In 1991, then-Congress Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao appointed Singh to steer India out of its worst financial crisis in modern history.
Singh guided the economy through a period of nine percent growth during his first term, lending India the international clout it long sought. He also finalized a landmark nuclear deal with the United States, asserting that it would meet India’s growing energy needs.
