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Breaking News—‘Manmohan Singh not architect of India’s reforms’ says author of pathbreaking new book.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is being incorrectly credited as chiefly responsible for the country’s liberalization in 1991, contends a deeply-researched book. Accidental India: A History of the Nation’s Passage through Crisis and Change by Shankkar Aiyar, being released this month in the Indian subcontinent and next year in the west, proves that Singh is not the architect of the reforms that were initiated that year. What is more, he was not Prime Minister Narasimha Rao’s first choice as finance minister; Rao preferred famous economist I. G. Patel.

The reforms were compelled by circumstance and propelled by crisis which forced Rao to act as he did. The failure of India’s licence-permit-quota raj economic model was visible from 1957 onwards. In 1966, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri made the first effort to dismantle it. Thereafter, there were incremental attempts by prime ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. Key figures from other political parties, like Ajit Singh and Yashwant Sinha, also tried to unshackle the economy but political compulsions prevailed. Prime Minister Narasimha Rao, with Finance Minister Manmohan Singh, were forced to accept 25 conditions specified by the IMF and the World Bank before they could move ahead with the 1991 liberalization.

‘Accidental India’, authored by senior journalist-analyst Shankkar Aiyar, examines India’s ascent through seven arresting examples, one for each decade since independence, including Operation Flood (‘accidental milkman’ Verghese Kurien’s last-ever interview was granted to the author of this book) and the passing of the Right to Information Act (currently in the news with political parties vehemently opposing their inclusion under its purview). ‘Accidental India’, published by Aleph Book Company, convincingly argues that the seven turning points in the country’s history were not the result of foresight or careful planning but were rather the accidental consequences of major crises that had to be resolved at any cost.

Accidental India: A History of the Nation’s Passage through Crisis and Change by Shankkar Aiyar; to be published by Aleph Book Company on 23 October 2012.

For further details contact: Ms Hina Mobar [email protected] The Author is available on twitter @ShankkarAiyar and [email protected]