Hundreds of eulogies and obituaries have been written and will be written about Dr Manmohan Singh, India's 13th prime minister who died December 26 in New Delhi at the age of 92, but to me he was a dear friend whose company I really enjoyed and he mine. Though there was a difference of about 20 years in our age, we interacted as friends. I met him many times and we used to discuss many issues facing the country.

The first time I met Dr. Manmohan Singh was in 2000 when he had come to Pune to accept the Annasaheb Chirmule Award.  The award was established by United Western Bank Ltd.  Its then Chairman  P. N. Joshi, a very dear friend of mine, invited me to attend the dinner hosted in honor of Dr. Singh.

There were about 10-15 people including Prithviraj Chavan (who later on became the Chief Minister of Maharashtra).  I had a short chat with Dr. Manmohan Singh and told him about the problem we were having in saving our Institute lands from being acquired for dam oustees under the land acquisition act. This acquisition was initiated by a local minister who was inimical to us, and this was his ploy to acquire our fertile Institute land.    

Dr. Singh told me to write a note on this problem and give it to him.  I wrote a one-page handwritten note and handed it to him the next day during the Chirmule Award ceremony.

After reaching Delhi, Dr. Singh very graciously wrote a long letter to Vilasrao Deshmukh, the then Chief Minister of Maharashtra, and requested him that the land of NARI should be saved from acquisition since it is a charitable institute working for the common good. Though Deshmukh promptly replied but the problem was not solved, and we finally had to fight our own battles and were able to save our institute land from being acquired.  

The second time I met Dr. Manmohan Singh was in Mumbai in November 2001 when he gave me the Jamanlal Bajaj Award for Science and Technology. He liked my acceptance speech and wanted me to join him and the Congress Party.  We had a lengthy talk after the awards function, and he was insistent that I come and meet him in Delhi.

That opportunity came in December 2002 when our Institute was given the FICCI Platinum Jubilee Award by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Dr. Manmohan Singh gave me an appointment to meet him at his office in the Parliament House Annexe.

He was very cordial in his meeting and told me that he wants to set up a Knowledge Commission with Sam Pitroda as its chairman and wanted me to be a part of it. I told him I will be more than happy to be associated with him in whatever capacity he wants me to be.  Looking back I was surprised that he probably felt that Congress would come back to power and hence he was making the plans for different commissions.

After that meeting, we kept in touch, and he used to regularly reply to my letters and articles that I sent to him.  We also talked many times on the phone.

After he became the Prime Minister in 2004, I tried two times to meet him, but somehow his bureaucracy did not allow access. His former secretaries, who were friendly to me before, were changed after he ascended the PM post. Since I never wanted any political posts or favors from him so I did not persist in trying to contact him.

Meetings out of power

In 2015 after the defeat of Congress (UPA) I decided to meet him. I was given a half-hour appointment to meet him at his house which stretched to almost 1 hour 15 minutes. I have always found that most politicians, when out of power, have enough time and inclination to meet. In our meetings I would jokingly tell him about this, and he had a great laugh.

Initially, Dr. Singh was a little reticent – I was meeting him after almost 12 years - but very soon he became very warm and friendly, and I got the feeling that had I not left the meeting (I had lunch appointment somewhere else) it would have lasted longer. His wife Gursharan Kaur also joined us for a short time.

Since that meeting in 2015 I met him many times and made it a point to meet him whenever I was in Delhi. In fact his staff told me that he does not give many appointments but whenever I wanted to meet him, I was always welcome. Dr. Singh told me that he enjoyed my company and said he looked forward to meeting me. All our meetings were one to one and  I found him to be sharp with an excellent memory.  Because of his diabetes and heart problems he told me that he felt weak, but I felt our discussions invigorated him.

He repeatedly told me that he was really sorry that his bureaucracy did not allow me to meet him when he was PM. I told him that I was not looking for favors or positions, etc. and just wanted to meet him to discuss various issues facing the country and learn about his experiences.  He was touched by it. I also presented him with my books and he said that he will read them.

Accidental Prime Minister

He told me that he was not the first choice for PM. It was fate that put him there. It was always Pranab Mukherjee, Sharad Pawar, Arjun Singh, etc who were in contention for the top job and they resented his ascendency. I asked him how he managed such crafty people, and with a smile he said he knew ways to placate them and smoothen their ruffled feathers.  He also said he was fully aware of the corruption of some of his colleagues, but his hands were tied.

I got the impression that in his second term as prime minister he was supposed to have vacated his chair. Since he did not do so, it resulted in making his life hell by powers that be. It is widely felt that his first term were golden years and the second term (2009-14) was a failure.

We did discuss some of the problems that he faced in the last year of his premiership. He told me that he had agreed to the Lokpal bill but Anna Hazare and others hurled abuses at him saying that he was corrupt and had taken money, etc. He said he was not allowed to function.  I got the feeling that partly because of that he lost the will to govern which led to chaos in the last stages of his second term. It remains a mystery on why he did not resign rather than cling to power.

He also told me that the highest office is a very lonely place and he had the greatest regret that he could not get good people to join and help him. 

A man of innate decency

He was gracious to a fault. Any time I went to see him he would always come to the car portico to leave me despite his health problems. A couple of times I had to hold him since he was unsteady on his feet but always displayed that gracious old-world charm. In my last meeting in March 2024 he was too weak to walk. So he told his wife to leave me till the portico. 

He was curious to know what the youngsters think about the country. I would tell him about my interactions and lectures in IITs and various colleges. Once he asked me what I see as the future of India.  I told him that we should have a new paradigm of development based on the combination of spirituality and technology – a theme that I have been writing about for almost 20 years.  He liked it very much and said that it should be propagated.

In my many discussions with him we discussed where the country was going.  He felt sad about the present situation and said that this is not the India he recognizes.  He said that India is a pluralistic society and the leader has to respect the diversity of opinion, divisive politics will not work, and will be harmful for the country.

Though the opposition said really nasty things about him, he remained a gentleman to a fault. In my many meetings with him the never uttered any harsh word against any leader. Since we were only two of us together, that said a lot about the innate decency of the man. I wish the younger generation of leaders would learn from him. 

Did not wish to write autobiography

He once narrated some incidents of his life specially his US stay and how he worked for three years in the United Nations in New York after teaching at Punjab University and then decided to leave and come back to India. U Thant, the then UN secretary general, was not happy and told him that he was being foolish but then the rest is history. Dr. Singh told me that in three years at the UN he got two promotions and possibly they were thinking of making him under secretary general, but he felt that he belonged in India.

 I told him about my similar experience in the US with University of Florida and USAID and told him that I came back but am nobody, whereas he became the prime minister.  He smiled at that and said that I have lived a noble life.  Maybe it was a political statement, but I got the feeling that he had read my book on my US experience.

He told me many times that he wanted me to meet Rahul Gandhi and will tell him to use my services. But somehow, I was not very inclined to do so. 

We then discussed the Congress party. I told him to help revive the Congress since the country needed a viable opposition and the Indian National Congress, the great party to which my father also belonged, can only provide such an opposition. I also told him that till the Congress was in the hands of a coterie it will never become a great party.  He did not take any offense at this remark and was quite philosophical about it. 

He said that young people have a different vision of the party.  They came to see him only for brief meetings and think that he is irrelevant. It is really sad that very few people took advantage of his vast knowledge and experience. In fact I went to him to specifically discuss these issues, and I benefited from it.

So many times during our meetings I requested him to write his memoirs since his long experience will be useful to inspire the youngsters and future generations. He said it will not be possible since he will only write the truth and it will hurt a lot of living people. I then suggested that he should write on issues that need to be tackled rather than the personalities. In one of the meetings I got a feeling that he would write his autobiography. But alas it never happened. So all that fund of experience and knowledge is lost.

Most impressed by Obama

We also discussed quite a few times about Gandhi.  He had read most of my articles on Gandhiji and was curious about some of Gandhi’s experiments on food and sustainable living. Many times we discussed my spiritual writings, and he echoed my idea that India will benefit from a combination of spirituality and technology.

In one of my meetings I asked him a point-blank question:  who was the person who impressed him most since he had met the who’s who of the world.  He thought for a moment and answered Barack Obama.   After a moment he said that he also liked George W Bush and told me that President Bush had made a portrait of him  after his retirement.  I requested him to show me that portrait, as I thought he must have put it away in some box in his house.  Later on he told me that it was in the George Bush Presidential Library in the U.S. 

I was surprised that he talked about Obama and not anyone else. In retrospect that was a mutual regard and affection that both Obama and Dr. Singh had for each other since in Obama's latest book he speaks highly of Dr. Singh.

How Aadhaar came in existence

Anytime I went to Delhi I made it a point to see Dr. Singh.  In one such visit I met my friend Narayan Murthy, founder of Infosys, and my contemporary at IIT Kanpur.  I told Dr. Singh about my meeting Murthy. He told me that Murthy is in trouble but did not elaborate. 

On the issue of Infosys he narrated to me how he got Nandan Nilekani, another of Infosys founders, to run Aadhaar. Dr. Singh wanted to give a cabinet position to Nilekani after reading his autobiography. He asked him what he wanted to do.  Nilekani wanted to be the education minister.

Dr. Singh told me that as a regular minister Nilekani would have failed since seasoned politicians would have made things difficult for him. So he asked Nilekani what else he wanted to do. And so the idea of Aadhaar - the Unique Identity Number for every Indian - was born. 

Our last meeting

He was delighted when I got the Padma Shri and told me that he was looking forward to meeting me after the awards ceremony. I was not well during that time and felt that I may give my bug to him so did not go to see him. I called him and told him about it. He was very touched by that sentiment. I again met him in November 2023 and presented my latest book “Exploring the Mind of God”.

The last time I met him was in March 2024 and was with him and his wife for nearly 1.5 hours. He did not look well at all. He was in a wheelchair. His face was puffed up and his cheeks had dark pigmentation.  He lamented that he could not walk and could hardly speak. Also that he could not read. I suggested to his wife that he should be given audio books.

Yet he was as sharp as ever. He inquired about the Institute and said that he does not recognize the present India. He took tea with me but could not drink it.  His hands shook a lot when he held the cup. In all of my previous meeting’s he always drank a cup of tea. Just before leaving I asked him if he had a dream?  He simply said yes and then added that they are not pleasant ones.

It was really sad to see him in such a state.  And my gut feeling was that this was going to be our last meeting. And when I heard the sad news of his passing away all the happy memories of my interactions with him came flooding back. 

I feel that if anybody deserves Bharat Ratna it should be Dr. Manmohan Singh.  He and P V Narasimha Rao, the former prime minister who brought him into politics, ushered in new India.  Rao got the Bharat Ratna last year.  I do hope Prime Minister Narendra Modi is magnanimous enough to give it to Dr. Singh.

Lots of people have written about Dr. Manmohan Singh in a not so flattering way about his politics and his tenure of prime ministership. However, in my many meetings with him I found Dr. Singh to be a very nice, humble, and a decent human being. There was an element of spirituality in him, and it is this quality that attracted me to him. I enjoyed his company and he of mine. People said he was a man of few words but with me he was open and talked at length about contemporary issues or responded to questions that I asked. I feel truly blessed in knowing such a noble soul.  

(The writer, an IIT and US-educated Indian engineer,  a 2022 Padma Shri award winner, is the Director, Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute, Phaltan, Maharashtra. He can be reached at anilrajvanshi50@gmail.com.  His podcasts can be accessed at  https://anilrajvanshi50.podbean.com and his books at https://nariphaltan.org/publications/akrbooks.html)