Former Indian Police Service officer Arun Asim, who once served as the chief Special Protection Group (SPG) deployed during Manmohan Singh’s prime ministerial tenure, remembered the veteran leader’s affinity for his Maruti 800.
Now an MLA from Uttar Pradesh’s Kannauj Sadar, Mr Asim remembered Dr Singh a day after he died at AIIMS Delhi at the age of 92. Highlighting the late leader’s simplicity, he said Dr Singh said had only one car of his own – a Maruti 800. “It used to be parked behind the shiny, black BMW parked at the prime ministerial residence. He would repeatedly tell me, ‘this is my car’,” he recalled.
Mr Arun, who was the head of the SPG Close Protection Team for Dr Singh between 2004 and 2007, said the former prime minister remained true to his middle class roots and valued the Maruti 800 over the state-of-the-art BMW, “as if to remind himself that his job was to worry about the common man”.
While Mr Asim would explain to him that the BMW was not for his luxury but for his security, he recalled Dr Singh as saying, “The car worth crores belongs to the PM, my car is this Maruti.”
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Known for his calm demeanor, humility, intellect and commitment to the common man, Dr Singh served as a finance minister and became synonymous with the 1991 economic reforms.
As a mark of respect to Dr Singh, the Congress convention in Karnataka’s Belagavi, held to commemorate the centenary of the lone convention held in the town by Mahatma Gandhi on December 26 and 27 in 1924, was cancelled. Congress leaders started leaving for Delhi to pay tributes at his residence.
The last rites of Dr Singh will be held on Saturday, though an official announcement is expected on Friday. “The last rites of former PM Dr Manmohan Singh will be held the day after tomorrow. We will announce officially…” Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal told reporters in Delhi late Thursday night.
