Everyone is heaping praise on Dr Manmohan Singh as a soft-spoken and mild-mannered technocrat-turned-politician who unleashed far-reaching
reforms in the country but what is rarely talked about is how the former prime minister acted tough and asserted himself in national interest when the situation demanded.

In June 2009, soon after the UPA’s victory in the Lok Sabha elections, Singh went to Yekaterinburg in Russia on his first visit abroad during his second term to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit.

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On the margins of the summit, he also had a bilateral meeting with Asif Ali Zardari, who was then also the president of Pakistan. The Pakistani leader must have expected a cordial meeting with an Indian leader, known for his mannerism and cordial nature. However, Zardari was taken aback and fumbled for words when Singh bluntly told him, ”I am happy to meet you, but my mandate is to tell you that the territory of Pakistan must not be used for terrorism against India.”

The meeting between them had taken place a few months after the November 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.

The Indo-US nuclear deal was the crowning glory of Singh’s leadership. During his first term, the former PM got absolutely convinced that the deal was in India’s best interests.

Singh, who was running a coalition UPA government, faced stiff opposition to the pact from the Left parties, which were supporting his coalition UPA government. However, Singh refused to budge on his stand and said he was prepared to sacrifice his government but not the deal.

With support from then President APJ Abdul Kalam, Singh was able to convince some of the UPA allies who dropped their opposition to the nuclear deal. But the Left parties kept opposing it and withdrew support to the government. The Samajwadi Party came to the rescue of the UPA government and it won the trust vote in the Lok Sabha.

Singh’s performance in the first term resulted in a convincing win for the UPA in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, thus earning him the label of ”Singh is King”.

This reporter, who extensively travelled with Singh on his overseas visits, also saw the soft side of the renowned economist.

On September 26, 2004, Singh was returning from New York after a week-long trip for the UN General Assembly. The Air India special aircraft was decorated with balloons and flowers and a cake was also placed on a table in the journalists’ enclosure.

The journalists were told that the PM would come and cut the cake since it was his birthday. However, suddenly the Air India staff started the preparations for cutting the cake themselves. The media personnel were taken aback when they learnt the PM is not coming. They were told that the PM had told the Air India staff to cut the cake and offer it to everyone on board. Some of the vocal women journalists were so agitated that they started wondering why the PM can’t personally come. ”We are not interested in the cake…how can he behave like this,” one woman journalist shouted.

This was all conveyed to Singh immediately. As soon as he heard all this, Singh rushed to the media enclosure and was quite apologetic. He said he never celebrates his birthday since he doesn’t know the date when he was born in a poor family at Gah village (now in Pakistan). His parents also hardly remembered his date of birth. Whatever date they gave for his admission in a school eventually became his date of birth.

He said when he boarded the plane, he was told that Air India has arranged a cake-cutting ceremony and he told them that he doesn’t celebrate his birthday and asked them to cut it themselves and serve it to everyone. He said he is sorry if he has hurt anyone.