My father, Brij Mohan Munjal, and Dr Manmohan Singh shared similar roots in undivided Punjab; they would sometimes reminisce and swap stories about those days when they met. I remember my father always came back from his meetings with Dr Singh enlightened, inspired, and impressed at the humility of this amazingly erudite, successful leader. My father also recalled with fondness the time in 2005 when he received the Padma Bhushan: Dr Singh publicly articulated his contribution to Indian industry and graciously met members of the entire large Munjal family.
On a personal level, I am grateful to Dr Singh on many counts. When I finished chronicling The Making of Hero, I approached him to write the foreword; he penned a heartwarming and insightful tribute, which I was later told he personally corrected a few times before sending the final version, which is in the book. I then visited Dr Singh a second time with a request for him to launch the book; he readily agreed again with a nod and a quiet smile, and he graced the occasion despite not being in the best state of health. He launched the book along with Sangeeta Jaitley, wife of the late Arun Jaitley, who had written the second foreword, making the book unique.
Dr Singh was quite concerned about the quality and reach of education. I remember once when Sunil Mittal, Analjit Singh and I were waiting outside the Prime Minister’s office for a meeting, and we were approached first by his Principal Secretary, Mr Kuti Nair, and then by Dr Singh to do something significant in Punjab for higher education; this led to the birth of the Mohali Campus of the ISB.
I got to see him closely as part of many meetings across different fora; I observed his warm nature and genuine keenness to help every section of society. There were discussions to develop the non-farm rural economy and to bring holistic economic growth through the Rural Business Hubs (RBH) initiative. There were multiple macro and micro-economic discussions on the Prime Minister’s Council for Trade and Industry. There were some innovative conversations in the PM’s Council for J&K where we discussed economic progress and ways to divert attention away from stone-pelting and terrorism. We also heard his mandate for improving and stabilising the overall situation in various fields when I was on the Narasimhan Committee on financial sector reforms and the Kelkar Committee on taxation reforms.
When Pawan (Kant Munjal) and I went to meet him to share our plans to acquire Honda’s stake in the JV company and wind up the collaboration, he was very understanding. He said that not only should we welcome business from overseas into India, but we must also equally encourage more and more Indian companies to become global leaders.
It is said that we can see truly afar only when we stand on the shoulders of giants. Thirty-four years ago, on the able shoulders of Dr Singh, an entire nation stood and got a chance to see its destiny—a destiny that we continue to craft today.
Humanity has lost the gentlest of souls, the Sikh community, one of their tallest leaders, India, a visionary son, and companies like ours, a thrust force to lift off in the difficult early 1990s. We will remember Dr Singh with great awe, considerable approbation, deep fondness, and, most of all, immense gratitude.
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