Talk:Manmohan Singh

References added

References have been added in areas talked about.

Rampant POV

Is this an encyclopedia or a job advert. Phrases like "most highly respected", great, highly respectable etc are typed with impunity. This is an encyclopedia not a propaganda machinery. Also, there are so many unnecessary stories cleverly planted in his biography which have nothing to do with him. I have cleaned up the article and made the language free from weasel words. Please respect the sanctity of the article and discuss it on talk page before adding anything. He hasnt even completed his term and already it has been declared that he is great and respected. Also, why mention him alone as the architect of economic liberlisation when there were many key people involved including Chidambaram and maybe several others. POVremover 00:24, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Bit dated perhaps?

This article is pretty short for a man of Singhs caliber. Also, I think, it lacks in current events. The nuclear deal signed between India and USA is pretty historic by any rational. Manmohan Singh has had an important role to play in this as the current prime minister. It would be worthwhile if someone with better knowledge on the topic could mention about this in the article.

opposition leader sonia gandhi??

this is taken from the beggining of the article and I am not quite sure what it means.....Sonia Gandhi is the president of the party in power, I will assume this was a mistake and correct it. If somehow it refers to something else, pls let me know.

I guess it was supposed to mean that he was her advisor when she was the leader of the opposition, anyway is is quite confusing and so I think my edit should stay. Abhishekbh 08:09, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

Thirteenth Prime Minister

As clearly mentioned in the article that Dr. Singh is the sucessor to Mr Vajpayee. The link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atal_Behari_Vajpayee decribes Mr Vajpayee as the 10th PM of India. I m not sure about this, but would like someone who knows about this to review the articles, so as to rectify the errors if any. Thanks.

As detailed on Prime Minister of India, Mr. Vajpayee served two terms. When he took office for the first time, he was the 10th prime minister of India. There were two other prime ministers (as well as Mr. Vajpayee's second term) before Mr. Singh became the 13th prime minister. The previously mentioned article has a nice tablhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Manmohan_Singh&action=edite. User:Gaurav

First Sikh Prime Minister

I'm sure I'm not alone in having assumed that the two previous PMs called "Singh" were Sikhs, too. Could someone knowledgable add an explanation, either on this page or the other Singhs'? Tnx, –Hajor

VP was not: [1]; CC I can't find anything on. Markalexander100 04:24, 22 May 2004 (UTC)

Thanks for your search efforts. Wikipedia (I should have looked) has, of course, an article on Singh, which offers the following explanation: "While all male Sikhs are Singhs, not all Singhs are Sikh. It was a name in use before the Sikhs and signified someone of high caste. Therefore you often get Hindu Singhs who are not Sikhs." So, another preconception bites the dust. –Hajor 15:20, 22 May 2004 (UTC)

In the case of Hindus, Singh perhaps has to do with the Sanskrit word for lion. The Hindu warrior caste believed themselves to be just like a lion in valour on the battlefield. In the neighbouring country of Nepal, the surname Singh is adopted by the landed gentry, just like Tagore in India.

Another interesting Singh is in the noun Singapore. I have always believed that Singapore is formed by the Sanskrit words for lion(Singh) and city(pur). So, Singapore is a city of lions. - User:Kanden 23:42, 25 October 2005 (UTC)

regarded

Why was the word "regarded" bolded? Quadell (talk) 18:33, May 24, 2004 (UTC)

In Gurumukhi ?

Why Manmohan's name in Gurumukhi ? Should PV Narasimha Rao's name written in Telugu and Devegowda's in Kannada ? - Kesava 07:08, 11 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Quite possibly? 62.252.224.12 16:16, 8 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Yeah. That would fit very much for a multilingual country like India. -- Sundar 05:34, Dec 9, 2004 (UTC)

Definitely. We should encourage people who can write in those languages to add such names as appropriate. QuartierLatin1968

Lok Sabha

The article notes his defeat at South Delhi in 1999. Where is his current constituency? Adam 09:39, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)

He's not a member of Lok Sabha, but is a member of Rajya Sabha from Assam according to this. The notion of a constituency is not associated with a Rajya Sabha member as he and others represent a state and not a single constituency. -- Sundar (talk · contribs) 05:04, Apr 25, 2005 (UTC)

Is there no requirement that the PM be a member of the Lok Sabha? Is he the first PM not to be a member? Adam 06:25, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)

The only requirement is that the PM should be a member of either of the houses of Indian Parliament. If s/he is not a member s/he must get elected within six months of appointment as PM or a minister in the cabinet. I think he's not the first Indian PM who is not a member of the Lok Sabha. -- Sundar (talk · contribs) 06:38, Apr 25, 2005 (UTC)

Thanks. This should be noted in the article. Adam 06:45, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Please explain yourself

To the user who keeps reverting my valid comments, using multiple sockpuppets, please note that the wikipdeia personal attack policy is directed at other users and not persons on whom the article is based. Please explain to me:

1. Why I shouldn't reinsert my comments here
2. Since you keep reverting me, why I shouldn't return the favor and do some liberal reverting of my own on your contributions?
3. Why I shouldn't add the following entry in this article:

==Leaked CIA Report==

According to a classified report by the CIA that was recently leaked to the Washington Post, Dr. Singh underwent a nervous breakdown at age 35, when during a routine medical check up, it was revealed that his longtime partner and wife, Lady Devi, was in fact, a man. Dr. Singh claimed that he always pumped Devi with the lights off and so he never actually saw her naked. But to his credit, even after this revelation that his wife is a man, Dr. Singh forgave her, or rather him, and continues to live with her/him happily even after many many years. Since this report has become public knowledge, Dr. Singh has become an extremely popular figure among the gay/lesbian communities of India, which constitute a substantial portion of the population.

If you are speechless, I will proceed to reinsert my comments here. Awaiting your reply, The Village Idiot 20:31, 28 July 2005 (UTC)

I think you imagine pretty good. Keep it up. --IncMan 13:56, 30 July 2005 (UTC)

First off, Manmohan Singh is not popular amongst the gay/lesbian community in India. I doubt if any politician is, except maybe Omar Abdullah, Rahul Gandhi or Shabnam mausi (none of who are gay, btw). I don't know where you got that rubbish from. Secondly, his wife's name is Gurcharan Kaur not Lady Devi. --Notquiteauden 21:28, 1 August 2005 (UTC)

Third, it's a faux pas for you to write about 'her'. --someone else 00:45, 19 October 2005 (UTC)

Urdu

Why cant we keep his name in Urdu on the main page? He was after all educated in Urdu, and it is an India language. --Notquiteauden 21:30, 1 August 2005 (UTC)

Urdu is an Indian language and (with due respect to Urdu) so are hundreds of others. But, I didn't know that his complete early education was in Urdu. If this was true, we can mention it somewhere in the article. But, I would personally like to have only Gurmukhi script (since it's his mother tongue since his mother tongue Punjabi is commonly written using that script) and not even Hindi Devanagari as otherwise it doesn't look good to read with too much non-English text in the English wikipedia. -- Sundar ^{\talk \contribs} 04:06, August 2, 2005 (UTC)

Gurmukhi is not a language. It is a script used to write a language. Many people confuse Punjabi and Gurmukhi. They are two different things. Punjabi can be written in any script. 65.26.247.222 (talk · contribs) August 16, 2005.

Yes you're right. I'm sorry. I now correct it to Gurmukhi script. -- Sundar ^{\talk \contribs} 08:14, August 17, 2005 (UTC)

The blue turbaned bandit strikes again - this time at this own people

The sikhs of the world had high hopes for the Indian prime minster, a fellow sikh. But now he has stabbed them in the back as well, just like he stabbed Pakistan in the back when he went sailing to the US. I'm referring to the report just released by his government which says that NO ONE is going to be persecuted for the 3000 sikhs who were mercilessly robbed of their most precious possession, their lives, after the ensuing riots that followed the extermination of that fat ass cow called Indira Ghandi, who was sent packing the hell out of this planet by the self-sacrificing act of a courageous and bold sikh, who was her bodyguard and who struck her down. I wonder what other ugly surprises this guy has up his sleeve for anyone who makes the deadly (sometimes fatal), mistake of trusting him. The Village Idiot 00:01, 9 August 2005 (UTC)

obvious POV, what are you getting at? sganjam 06:55, 7 February 2006 (UTC)

Please do not feed the trolls. -- Sundar ^{\talk \contribs} 07:09, 7 February 2006 (UTC)

POV

As an American university student stereotype, I know next to nothing about Dr. Singh or his career. But the article seems needlessly one-sided. It implies, for example, that Singh singlehandedly saved the economy. THis almost never is the case. And I can think of very few people who deserve a statement as broad as "held in high esteem, and regard, all over the country and the world." The Village Idiot's comments do not belong in the article, but they imply that some people find things about Singh to criticize. These need to be mentioned in the article. Fishal 04:37, 17 August 2005 (UTC)

I totally agree. RexNL 02:41, 10 October 2005 (UTC)

I'm also an American, but I know a lot about Singh (on account of my parents' being from India). You are right about the lack of a NPOV. I went through the article and made it sound more like what Singh actually did, and I removed the NPOV sign. However, you should read a bit about Singh elsewhere, like on the BBC. While he didn't do everything, he did engineer the economic liberalization package that was the first step toward a series of future liberalizations. (Sort of like Deng Xiao Ping). After Sonia Gandhi decided not to take the PMship, the markets in Bombay plummetted, but they rose sharply a few days later when she announced that Singh would become PM instead of her. Read what I wrote and see if it's okay.

1.Manmohan Singh wasnt a neo-lib in the first place.Let me quote P. Sainath,

After all, the South Commission report was signed by Manmohan Singh 90 days before the liberalization process, can he really have changed his views that much in that time?

So it is quite obvious that the reforms where IMF initiated,and Singh just implemented them. This may or may not be true...Or may or may not be good or bad,but it is a valid criticism.

2.About the thing about stock markets,do you think that the sharp rise of the market is necessarily an indication of national welfare and a vindication of Dr.Singh,at least considering the conditions existing in India?The "sharp rise" invited criticisms,which said that the marketvalahs expected too much favours from Dr.Singh,unlike Sonia Gandhi. A neo-lib might take pride in these feets,but one should not forget that there are other political ideologies and knowledgible people existing in this world!

3.The BJP often says that Dr.Singh is the weakest prime minister India has ever had.That too should count as a criticism.

I for one,consider Dr.Singh as a great personality,but an encyclopedia should have a place for criticisms as well.--Sahodaran 05:29, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

Oh, so "Village Idiot" is a user name, and I thought Fishal was being rude. I too, do not agree with the point of view that Manmohan Singh engineered India's Economic reforms. I am of the view that he merely implemented them. I was a kid back then but I remember a cartoon depicting Rao and Singh with two bags filled with some papers and cash coming out from IMF building. Their arms were twisted like wires. In the caption Rao was saying to Singh, "If someone asks, tell them our arms were not twisted, we twisted them ourselves." Liberalization had not even started back then. What the cartoon depicted was that Rao and Singh after some arm twisting have agreed to implement some of IMF and World Bank's policies in return for loans. At that point what Rao and Singh had agreed to do was not very popular in India, but they were without choice.

Sahodaran, I am not sure what are you trying to say in point 2? Point 3, BJP accusing Singh of being weakest PM, how does that count as criticism. BJP has an axe to grind, opposition can say whatever they want, but unless it is based on facts it does not even merit a mention in this sense "BJP criticizes him of being a week PM". You do not have to find criticism for the sake of it.

foreign minister

K. Natwar Singh is no longer External Affairs Minister, right? But who is his replacement, or is the position still vacant? In any case, the cabinet list is outdated. – ugen64 20:34, 8 November 2005 (UTC)

He has been divested of his charge and Manmohan Singh temporarily holds his portfolio. Note that Natwar Singh is still a cabinet minister without a portfolio. -- Sundar ^{\talk \contribs} 03:38, 9 November 2005 (UTC)

Yeah, I know he's minister without portfolio, but I was hesitant to change the cabinet chart without figuring out what was going on with the external affairs ministry. :) – ugen64 01:12, 10 November 2005 (UTC)

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Hindi Name

Why is the surname सिंह (sinh) instead of सिंघ (singh)? Sukh | ਸੁਖ | Talk 18:58, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

That'd be 'sĩh', actually. And, since that's how the Hindi article has it, I'd assume that's the Hindi for it. The alternative you give would have a hard g at the end. Which isn't how it's pronounced, AFAIK. BovineBeast

The 'n' was just a quick way of transliterating nasals :D Well you see, the problem is that the Gurmukhi has an aspirate 'g'(ਘ) where as the Devanagari has simply 'h'. Although I've had limited exposure to Hindi news reports, I'm pretty certain they say 'Singh'. I don't know Devanagari very well, so it may just be a misunderstanding on my part. If anyone can clarify, it's appreciated. Sukh | ਸੁਖ | Talk 01:31, 21 January 2006 (UTC)

While Hindi is spoken as it is written, over the years some pronunciation has got corrupted, without people noticing it. What is written in English as Singh is incorectly pronounced as सिंघ (singh) instead of सिंह (sinha). Just do a search on those words and you will notice the prevelance of सिंह over सिंघ .

Comments about the article

-He was born on... in.. and is a member of the left-of-centre Indian National Congress party.

left-of-centre!! What does this mean and why should it be in the same sentence with date of birth? Congress is not a left wing party; it is liberal but not leftist. In the true sense it is not even liberal, but I am comparing here.

-Singh is also known as a low-key politician, enjoying an image as "squeaky clean."

Should be ...enjoying a "squeaky clean" image. Since Squeaky clean sounds rather unpolished and un-encyclopedic is should not be used. In fact, should be ... "Mamohan Singh is held in high esteem all over the country owing to the fact that is not seen as a politician, but rather a technocrat." Remove the next to next sentence.

-Singh is widely regarded as the architect of India's original economic reform programme which was enacted in 1991 under Rao's administration. He was mentored by earlier PM Rao.

Earlier PM Rao? Unless there are two Raos in these sentences there is no need for earlier Rao. And what did Rao mentor Mamohan Singh in?

-Rao's government was defeated in the next election because Rao and other top ministers were widely seen as corrupt. Singh, however, was able to escape with minimal harm to his reputation as a reformer.

Singh escaped with minimal damage? This implies his image was tarnished too, even if slightly. When in fact Singh was in no way party to the scams under Rao's government. Some of the well known scams were - Fertilizer scam (involved fertilizer minist and Rao's Son I believe), Jain Hawala Diary (almost every politician including Advani and Vajpayee, but not Manmohan), St Kitts case (A case from the time when Singh was not even in Congress, Rao, Rajiv Gandhi, Chandraswamy), Paybacks to JMM to vote against no-confidence motion (JMM leaders and Rao)

-Opposition and 2004 Election Singh stayed with the Congress Party despite continuous marginalization and defeats in the elections of 1996, 1998 and 1999. He did not join the rebels in a major split which occurred in 1999, when many major Congress leaders objected to Sonia Gandhi's rise as Congress President and Leader of the Opposition.

The word 'Opposition' in the heading should be used in Sonia's article not in Manmohan Singh's.

Anyway, Manmohan Singh's loyalty towards Congress does not need a mention. The article itself says he is a "low key politician." Singh, did not have big political ambitions and did not involve himself in power play.

After Congress' defeat in 1996 there were two splits in Congress. The first one due to the fact that after Rao there were several Big shots who wanted to take the helm of Congress - Madhav Rao Scindia, Arjun Singh, Narayan Dut Tiwari (etc.) left congress to form their own parties when Sitaram Kesari became president of Congress. Manmohan Singh was not a big shot and outside Congress he had no identity (especially with the masses) he did not have any political ambitions either; there is no reason why he should have left Congress. Anyway all those politicians came back with Sonia.

The second split took place when Sonia Gandhi agreed to take part in the affairs of Congress. When she became president of Congress (if I remember correctly) three politicians left, PK Sangma, Sharad Pawar and another guy. They objected to Sonia's foreign origin issue. In reality Sharad Pawar left because he did not see a future for himself in Congress party under Sonia, and floated his own regional party in Maharashtra, where he had his own image. Sangma wanted to find favour with BJP. This was no even a split, since only one leader of any value (Pawar) left. Pawat has had no problem in making alliance with Congress since then. Manmohan Singh did not have to go out of his way to stay with Congress. While most Congress big shots were marginalized, Singh in fact enjoyed a certain respect in Congress in spite of having a horrible record in elections.

-But Singh continued to stay on as a leader within the party, most notably helping to revamp the party's platform and organization.

Is there a source for this info? It is widely known that Singh was Sonia Gandhi's most trusted Congress lieutenant, but was he directly involved in a revamp of Congress? I doubt. A case could even be made for Jairam Ramesh's work for revamp, who like Mamohan Singh is a favourite of Gandhi, even Salman Khurshid was given a go at it.

-The Congress alliance won a surprisingly high number of seats in the Parliamentary elections of 2004, owing largely to a nationwide disenchantment of millions of poorer citizens with the BJP's focus on the surging middle-class, and also its dismal record in handling religious tensions.

Yes the Congress win was a surprise but most speculations about the reason are passed as facts, and while they are speculations they are wrong. The fact is Congress won because it used to go for elections alone but this was the first time that it made pre-poll alliances. That is why Congress won more seats. The poor are not jealous of the middle class, the middle class fuels the economy and provides employment for the poor. Religious tension did not contribute much either, the Muslim vote for BJP was just as strong as in previous elections.

-Although most expected him to head the Finance Ministry himself, he entrusted the job to P. Chidambaram.

Who expected Mamohan Singh to be FM? P. Chidambram is widely considered to be a better Finance Minister than Manmohan Singh. Singh, in spite of being pro free economics is a tad bit leftist. P Chidambram was in deed expected to be the Finance Minister.

Leftist policies, POV

which included the reduction of several redundant socialist policies

sounds a little subjective to me...

sganjam 06:54, 7 February 2006 (UTC)

Cabinet

Is this section really required in an article about Manhmohan Singh? Sukh | ਸੁਖ | Talk 10:34, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

Let's just have it in a separate list and link it from ==See also==. -- Sundar ^{\talk \contribs} 10:39, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

Naming convention

I'm not up on what Western media call him... but if he's a Sikh, shouldn't he be referred to as Manmohan rather than Singh? My understanding is that among Sikhs, "Singh" is a title rather than a name. The Sikh cricketers on India's national team are all referred to by their given names — for example, Harbhajan Singh is known as "Harbhajan" instead of "Singh". I'm open to enlightenment on this issue. — Dale Arnett 16:45, 28 April 2006 (UTC)

What do you mean by title? All Sikh males have Singh has a middle name and Females have Kaur as a middle name. So they just reffer to him with this middle name aswell, I really don't see anything wrong with that. You don't have to earn the title by doing anything, you just need to be Sikh.