New Delhi. After the death of Manmohan Singh, the two-time Prime Minister of the country, political parties and politicians are remembering him in their own way. Almost everyone agrees on one thing that in 1991, Manmohan Singh gave a new direction to the sinking economy of the country and for this he will always be remembered. The former Prime Minister was basically an economist and a simple man who had no pretense at all.

He entered politics in 1991 when he became the Finance Minister in the PV Narasimha Rao government. Then he was elected as a Rajya Sabha member from Assam and remained a Rajya Sabha member for 33 consecutive years. Till a few months before his death, he was a Rajya Sabha member from Rajasthan. After becoming the Finance Minister, he adopted the path of liberalization and marketization to bring the country's economy back on track and for this he will always be remembered.

This is how Manmohan became PM

The biggest question is that how did an economist who had neither any mass base nor any special experience of politics become the PM of the country? Actually it was the year 2004, Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister and the slogan of India Shining was coined, he was advised that the slogan is working and elections should be held a little before time.

It is said that late Pramod Mahajan was its biggest advocate. On 13 May 2004, the results of the general elections were coming and the NDA was leading and lagging behind. When the final results came, the NDA lost and the UPA unexpectedly won the game. After this, the biggest question before the Congress was who would become the PM. Sonia Gandhi had been in politics for only six years. This election had brought the Congress out of its bad state, so there was pressure from the workers on Sonia Gandhi to become the PM.

A week later, Sonia Gandhi announced her decision

When Sonia Gandhi took over the reins of the Congress, the issue of her foreign origin was raised and Sharad Pawar, Tariq Anwar and PA Sangma broke away and formed the NCP. Now it was the turn of the BJP. The BJP and NDA, which had already lost the elections, raised the issue of Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin. There was opposition to making Sonia Gandhi the PM.

Uma Bharti and Sushma Swaraj took charge of the protest as women leaders and announced to shave their heads if this happened. The deliberations continued for almost a week and on 18 May 2004 Sonia Gandhi came in front of everyone and said bluntly that she has decided not to become the PM. On hearing this, the patience of the leaders and workers started failing. It was even said that she cannot betray the workers. Protests also started happening outside 10 Janpath.

Rahul had given an ultimatum to his mother Sonia

Former foreign minister Natwar Singh has written in his autobiography One Life Is Not Enough that he reached 10 Janpath at 2 pm on 17 May 2004. Sonia Gandhi was sitting on the sofa in the room and was looking restless. Manmohan Singh and Priyanka Gandhi were already present there, then Rahul Gandhi came there and told Sonia Gandhi that you do not want to become the Prime Minister. My father was murdered. Grandmother was murdered. You will also be killed in six months. After this, there was silence there.

No one was saying anything, not only this, Rahul Gandhi gave Sonia Gandhi 24 hours to think and said that he would go to any extent to stop her from becoming the PM. After this, Sonia Gandhi came under a lot of pressure and there were tears in her eyes. Priyanka could only say that Rahul can do anything.
 

Mention of pressure on children in many books

Senior journalist and columnist Neerja Chaudhary has also confirmed this claim in her book How Prime Ministers Decide. She says that apart from Natwar Singh, VP Singh had also told her that Sonia Gandhi's children do not want her to accept the post of Prime Minister, they are scared. Neerja Chaudhary has also mentioned the words of Somnath Chatterjee.

Somnath Chatterjee also confirmed VP Singh's statement and said that we had accepted him as PM, but his children did not want him to become PM. Similarly, senior journalist Santosh Bhartiya has also mentioned this in his book VP Singh, Chandrashekhar, Sonia Gandhi Aur Main.

Pranab had said that Sonia will not make me PM

In the chapter titled “The PM India Never Had” in her book, Pranab Mukherjee's daughter Sharmishtha says that after Sonia Gandhi withdrew from the race for the post of PM, the names of Dr. Manmohan Singh and Pranab Mukherjee were being discussed as strong contenders. I could not meet Baba (Pranab Mukherjee) for a few days, he was very busy but I spoke to him on the phone. I asked him if he was going to become the Prime Minister. His straight answer was, 'No, she will not make me the Prime Minister'. Manmohan Singh will be the Prime Minister.

However, Pranab Mukherjee was senior to Manmohan Singh. Former US President Barack Obama writes in A Promised Land that he was not a contender for the post of PM from the party. This post was given to him by the then Congress President Sonia Gandhi. Many political analysts believe that they chose the elderly Sikh because he had no political base.

Manmohan Singh accidental PM

There is no doubt that Pranab Mukherjee was the strongest contender for the post of PM but Sonia Gandhi was not giving him preference. He was very experienced but the Gandhi family was not sure about how much he would listen to Sonia Gandhi. Manmohan Singh did not have any political support base and was humble by nature, so this thing went in his favor and he took oath as the Prime Minister on 22 May 2004. After completing his first term, he became PM for the second time in 2009 and thus remained the Prime Minister of the country for full 10 years.