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‘A man with uncommon wisdom’: When Barack Obama praised Manmohan Singh
Former prime minister Manmohan Singh, who passed away on Thursday, was praised on several occasions by ex-US President Barack Obama.
Former prime minister Manmohan Singh, who passed away on Thursday, was praised on several occasions by ex-US President Barack Obama. While Singh governed India from May 2004 to May 2014, Obama was America's leader from January 2009 to January 2017.
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In his 2020 memoir “A Promised Land,” Barack Obama described Manmohan Singh as a “man with uncommon wisdom.” He also praised the latter for being the “chief architect of India's economic transformation.”
“Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seemed like a fitting emblem of this progress: a member of the tiny, often persecuted Sikh religious minority who’d risen to the highest office in the land, and a self-effacing technocrat who’d won people’s trust not by appealing to their passions but by bringing about higher living standards and maintaining a well-earned reputation for not being corrupt,” the book read.
In 2010, ahead of state visit to India, Obama called Singh his “friend” and “one of the most extraordinary leaders I have met.”
At the 2009 London G20 Summit, Obama said, “Much of growth and rise of India can be attributed to Manmohan Singh. I hope by the time the summit of over, I can call him a friend.”
At the official G20 dinner, only Obama and Singh invited to speak.
Meanwhile, on another occasion, Obama named Singh among five world leaders he calls “friend.”
“I mean, I think if you ask them, Angela Merkel (Germany) or Prime Minister (Manmohan) Singh or President Lee (South Korea) or Prime Minister Erdogan (Turkey) or David Cameron (UK) would say we have a lot of trust and confidence in the President (Obama). The friendships and bonds of trust I've been able to forge... is precisely a big part of what has allowed us to execute effective diplomacy,” Obama told the Time magazine.
