Manmohan Singh passes away: 10 lesser-known facts about the former PM

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh passed away on December 26 in New Delhi. Singh was 92.

Singh was Prime Minister of the Congress-led UPA government for two terms between 2004 and 2014. He spent five years between 1991 and 1996 as India's finance minister under Prime Minister Narasimha Rao's government.

Singh never won Lok Sabha elections. He was nominated to the Rajya Sabha for the first time by the Congress party in October 1991, four months after he became the Union Finance Minister. Singh represented Assam for five terms in the Rajya Sabha and shifted to Rajasthan in 2019, his last term ending in April this year.

Here are 10 facts that you may not know about the former prime minister:

1-Two governors of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) went on to become Finance Ministers – one was Manmohan Singh, and the other was CD Deshmukh.

2-Four Finance Ministers went on to become Prime Ministers–Morarji Desai, Charan Singh, VP Singh and Manmohan Singh.

3-Four top bureaucrats became Finance Ministers–HM Patel, CD Deshmukh, Yashwant Sinha and Manmohan Singh.

4- While Manmohan Singh could speak Hindi fluently, his speeches were written in Urdu due to his proficiency in the language.

5- Singh's childhood home in Gah (undivided Punjab) lacked electricity, piped water, and schools, requiring him to walk miles to study under a kerosene lamp light.

Finance Minister of Year

6- At 14, his family migrated to Amritsar after partition and started from scratch.

7- Singh was named "Finance Minister of the Year" in 1993 by Euromoney and Asiamoney.

8- Singh was the first non-Hindu to become Prime Minister of India in 2004.

9- In 1962, when India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, offered Manmohan Singh a position in the government, Singh declined the offer, citing his commitment to teaching at his college in Amritsar.

10- Singh had a habit of tuning into the BBC every morning. This routine played a crucial role during the 2004 tsunami crisis, as he was able to respond promptly and effectively.