‘1991 was a landmark year for India’ : Dr Sanjaya Baru

Goa Khabar : Dr Sanjaya Baru, veteran journalist and media advisor to former prime minister, Dr Manmohan Singh said 1991 was a landmark year in the history of India. Baru was speaking at the “Patrakar” event at the International Centre Goa (ICG) on Thursday evening.

Rohit Bansal, group head of communications, Reliance Industries was the other participant in the discussion moderated by Pushkar, director, ICG.
Baru who was an active journalist in the 1990-91 period recalled the many events that shook the nation including the falling Indian rupee, India’s balance payment crisis, the assassination of former PM Rajiv Gandhi and the fall of the Soviet Union.

Highlighting the drastic changes initiated by the political team of prime minister Narasimha Rao and finance minister Dr Manmohan Singh in the Indian economy and industry, Baru complimented Rao’s astute leadership and Singh’s knowledge of economics. “Prime minister Narasimha Rao was arguably the wisest prime minister, India has seen. He even guided Dr Manmohan Singh with his first budget speech as finance minister,” Baru said.
Baru was of the opinion that the revolutionary changes made to the Indian economy by the Rao- Singh combine set the tone for India being recognized as an emerging economic power in later years.

Speaking of Dr Manmohan Singh’s acumen as an economist, Baru said, “During the international financial crisis of 2008, the Indian prime minister was invited to three, consecutive, G20 prime ministerial summits and ended up playing the role of the teacher in the room.”

Baru highlighted the importance he assigned to the regional language media, when he was media advisor to prime minister Manmohan Singh. “I always earmarked a 30-minute media conference every time Dr Singh visited any part of the country. This way, journalists across India became
acquainted with the prime minister. We also invited regional language journalists to travel with the prime minister on international tours,” Baru said.

Baru also cited the open environment that prevailed in the prime minister’s office during Dr Singh’s tenure. “I remember allowing the editor of a RSS mouthpiece to interview the prime minister. We were open to criticism,” Baru said.