A national loss: CM Naidu pays rich tribute to Manmohan Singh

New Delhi: Paying his homage to former prime minister Manmohan Singh, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said the country had lost an ‘extra-ordinary’ person who had contributed a lot for the nation building.

Addressing the media here on Friday, Naidu said Manmohan Singh had started his career as an academician and held several highly important posts like Economic Advisor to the Government of India, Finance Secretary, Economic Advisor, Reserve Bank of India Governor, Deputy Chairman, Planning Board, and UGC Chairman, etc.

Naidu said Singh was an expert on public policies. He was invited to join the government as Finance Minister by the then PM P V Narasimha Rao and that is how Manmohan Singh had turned into a politician. He said first Dr Singh did not believe the message he got from PV’s aide but later he got the message that he should get dressed up and attend the oath-taking ceremony as Finance Minister. The Chief Minister said that as Finance Minister, Singh had brought several reforms which had helped in the economic growth of the country.

He is the architect of NREGA, and other public policies like Right to Information Act, Right to Education Act, etc. Aadhaar card which had now become the most important unique ID was his brainchild, Naidu said.

In his death, the country had lost a great person, but his ideology and reforms will be there forever, Naidu added.

Union Ministers K Rammohan Naidu and Pemmasani Chandrasekhar, MPs Kesineni Sivanath and others accompanied the Chief Minister.

Former Chief Minister and YSRCP president YS Jagan Mohan Reddy in a message expressed grief over the demise of Dr Manmohan Singh and conveyed his condolences to the bereaved family.