Key Points
Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the first PM outside the Nehru-Gandhi family to complete a full term in office, will finish a remarkable political innings in the Rajya Sabha spanning 33 years on Wednesday.e)..
The architect of Indias economic liberalisation and the force behind the 2008 Indo-US nuclear agreement, Singh headed a government that transformed the social welfare framework with a bouquet of rights-based legislation and ushered in a slew of reforms including Direct Benefit Transfer and launched Aadhaar..
When the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government was formed, defence minister Pranab Mukherjee had to force Singh to stop addressing him as sir -- an old habit since Singh was the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor when Mukherjee was the Union finance minister..
And when late Sushma Swaraj resorted to an Urdu shayari to question the PM, Singhan ardent fan of poet Iqbalfloored everyone saying: Maana ki teri deed ke kabil nahi hoon main, tu mera shauq dekh mera intizaar dekh (Agreed I am not worthy of your sight, behold my zeal and see how I wait)..
The Congress chief argued that the work initiated by Singhs government to ensure direct transfer of benefits to individual beneficiaries by creating zero balance accounts and unique identification of the beneficiary through Aadhaar was hijacked by the succeeding government without giving Singh any credit..
