Left parties mourn passing of former PM Manmohan Singh

New Delhi: Left-wing parties on Thursday night expressed their condolences over the passing of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, remembering him as a leader with a strong dedication to secularism.

"We express our sorrow at the death of Former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh. He was a leader with a strong commitment to secularism, democracy and the pluralist ethos of India," Communist Party of India (Marxist) said in a post on X. "We express our deep condolences to his wife Smt. Gursharan Kaur, his daughters and family," the Left party said.

Meanwhile, Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya reflected on Singh’s comment that "history would be kinder" to him. "He was grilled for scams that would never be proved, for his reticence that'd be held against him as a sign of weakness. But today India will perhaps agree to his 2014 remark: 'history will be kinder to me than the contemporary media'," Bhattacharya said in a post on X.

Singh, who played a pivotal role in shaping India’s economic reforms and was known for his ability to build consensus in the often turbulent political arena, passed away on Thursday night at the age of 92. The All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi, where Singh had been admitted in a critical condition around 8:30 pm, confirmed his death.

Just months before stepping down as Prime Minister in 2014, Singh had famously stated that his leadership was not weak and that history would ultimately be more favorable to him than the media had portrayed. Addressing a press conference here in January 2014, in what was one of his last media interactions, Singh had said, "I do not believe that I have been a weak Prime Minister ... I honestly believe that history will be kinder to me than the contemporary media or for that matter the Opposition in Parliament... Given the political compulsions, I have done the best I could do."

Agency