As we were publishing and installing our 2-camera unit for interview, Dr. Singh, after greeting us with a smile, began to up and down his Cavorns Office. His impatience was clear. Then suddenly he started ringing. Yes, top and bottom of the room, swifter steps, sharp whistles, up and down, up and down. I used to nap on our cameraman to record that unusual spectacle. And he did it. Dr. Singh was not whistling a popular melody, at least I could not identify it. Just with a sharp, gate-on-world whistle with its sharp strides. I am sure that the remarkable piece of video footage is lying somewhere in a collection, but it is so clearly prepared in my mind. Anyway, we were finally ready to roll, and Dr. Saheb explained in detail about the economic tsunami that he had triggered. After that interview, it became a ritual where I will talk to him after every budget speech.
Cut by May 2004. India was around the neck of a general election, widely seen as a shoe, which was seen as a shoe for Prime Minister Vajpayee. Dr. Singh, then the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, agreed to interview Sit-in-in-Guarden in the morning at his Tughlaq Road residence.
This almost derailed from his huge prestigious wife, which Dr. There was a cross with Singh for “Over Achoring”, while he was a bit below the season. But he trusted, sending a delicious cup of tea and biscuits, as we install under the shade of a huge tree. Dr. Singh pulled out, shook my hand (his handshake was a wing touch for such a firm reformer), and we started the interview, both assured that Dr. Singh will continue his term in the opposition.
Imagine me – and I am sure when the Congress faced an overwhelming defeat on the BJP with a shock to form the government. And when a big shock was given by Sonia Gandhi, who Dr. I was happy when I nominated Saheb at 13th at 13th. Because my regular conversation with him became a seriously “viral event” in those pre -social media time. The clips were played and repeated from that interview and were playing for about a week, as CNBC-TV18 (then our channel) celebrated his “lucky scoop” with the new Prime Minister!
I can be in the minority of one, but I believe that Dr. Manmohan Singh had a seminal, transformative 10 -year term. Unlike half-ripped comments (currently so fashionable), his term was extremely successful.
They were the major times that I wrote my first book on an enthusiastic impulse: Superpower? Amazing race between China’s Hare and India’s turtle. When Dr. When Singh agreed to meet me, I was happy. I proudly took a copy for the race course road and presented it (I have a picture to prove it!). “Oh Mr. Bahl, I did not know that you are a China expert?”. “No sir, not an expert. But I was always eager to know how China engineed its economic miracle. And ever since I considered the reforms you had landed here, I felt that it is necessary that I should teach myself what China did, so I can compare two stories. In this way, I stumbled some amateur, spontaneous work on it ”.
“Oh no, I’m sure your study is very important. I promise to read it ”. I am sure he never got time, but he was always very kind to me.
