Actor-comedian Vir Das, in his tribute to Dr Manmohan Singh, remembered joking about him on national television when he was the Prime Minister. Revealing that the former PM was fully aware of the jokes and was “okay with it”, Mr Das said Dr Singh had a sense of humour.
“Dr Manmohan Singh said that history would remember him kindly. I’m happy to see that’s the case on social media today. He had a sense of humour. Personally, I remember being in my 20s and doing jokes about him on prime-time bulletins with our team having been made fully aware his office was watching and were okay with it,” Mr Das wrote in a post on Instagram.
During the start of his career, Mr Das had anchored a comedy prime-time show on a news channel.
According to Mr Das, the jokes made on Dr Singh were “not even that great” because they were “utterly immature” during that time.
“He was the most powerful man in the country and we were doing jokes about him five nights a week on a mainstream news channel, that weren’t even that great because we were utterly immature. Mind you, this wasn’t even on a comedy show but as a part of a 9 pm news bulletin that every businessperson in the country watched. Think about how far-fetched that seems today,” he said.
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Mr Das, who recently hosted the International Emmys, said that the mark of a “truly great, secure, and humble leader” is the ability to take a joke.
“Great leaders understand that’s part of the job, that powerful politicians and jest have always been historically intertwined, and that taking humour within grace makes them so much greater. In that respect, he stood tall above any Indian leader in my lifespan. Rest in peace, Sir,” he said.
Former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh died of age-related medical complications at the age of 92 on Thursday night. He had been in poor health for the last few months.
Known as the ‘architect of India’s economic reforms’, Dr Singh was the PM for two terms in the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government from 2004 to 2014. Born in 1932, Dr Singh studied at the University of Cambridge in the UK where he earned a First Class Honours degree in Economics in 1957. He also had a degree in Economics from Nuffield College at Oxford University.
Dr Singh became a member of the Rajya Sabha in 1991 and was the Leader of the Opposition between 1998 and 2004. He had led the Indian Delegations to the Commonwealth Heads of government meeting in Cyprus in 1993 and the World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna in 1993.
Dr Singh was awarded India’s second-highest civilian honour, the Padma Vibhushan, in 1987.
