Former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh died in New Delhi at the age of 92

前總理曼莫漢·辛格博士在新德里去世，享年 92 歲

India’s 13th prime minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, who passed away on Thursday night after losing consciousness at his home in New Delhi, will be noted as one of the most historically significant people to lead his country. He opened up the economy, gained America’s confidence in India in the post-Cold War 21st century, pushed through a host of social legislation, and laid the groundwork for digitization of the economy.

印度第 13 任總理曼莫漢·辛格博士于周四晚在新德里家中失去意識(shí)后去世，他將被視為印度歷史上最具歷史意義的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人之一。他開放了經(jīng)濟(jì)，在后冷戰(zhàn)的 21 世紀(jì)贏得了美國對印度的信任，推動(dòng)了一系列社會(huì)立法，并為經(jīng)濟(jì)數(shù)字化奠定了基礎(chǔ)。

He did all this while remaining low-profile, so much so that the political opposition, led by his successor, the then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, called him a “weak” prime minister. (It did not help that his former media advisor wrote an account of his first term, 2004-2009, and called him an "accidental prime minister.")

他做這一切的時(shí)候都保持低調(diào)，以至于以他的繼任者、當(dāng)時(shí)的古吉拉特邦首席部長納倫德拉·莫迪為首的政治反對派稱他為“軟弱”的總理。（他的前媒體顧問撰寫了一篇關(guān)于他第一任期（2004-2009 年）的文章，稱他為“意外的總理”，但這也于事無補(bǔ)。）
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To this, at his last press conference in early 2014, he said two things: “History will judge me kinder than the contemporary media,” and “if you mean by strong, someone who commits mass massacre of innocents in the streets of Ahmedabad then that’s not strength”; the latter was a reference to the 2002 Gujarat riots when Modi headed the state.

對此，他在2014年初的最后一次新聞發(fā)布會(huì)上說了兩句話：“歷史對我的評(píng)價(jià)將比當(dāng)代媒體更為仁慈”和“如果你所說的強(qiáng)大，是指在艾哈邁達(dá)巴德街頭對無辜者進(jìn)行大規(guī)模屠殺的人，那么這不是強(qiáng)大”；后者指的是2002年莫迪領(lǐng)導(dǎo)該邦時(shí)發(fā)生的古吉拉特邦騷亂。

Manmohan Singh was certainly India’s most educated leader, even more so than the first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, though Nehru spent time in prison and wrote many popular books. This achievement is all the more admirable given that he was born in a village in what is now Pakistan and had to study under a lamp, a fact that he later attributed his weak eyesight to. His academic journey went via Amritsar and Cambridge, where he studied economics, to Oxford, where he earned a doctorate.

曼莫漢·辛格無疑是印度受教育程度最高的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人，甚至比第一任總理賈瓦哈拉爾·尼赫魯還要高，盡管尼赫魯曾入獄，并寫過許多暢銷書。鑒于他出生在現(xiàn)今巴基斯坦的一個(gè)村莊，不得不在燈下學(xué)習(xí)，這一成就更加令人欽佩，后來他將自己的視力不佳歸咎于此。他的學(xué)術(shù)之旅從阿姆利則開始，然后是劍橋，在那里他學(xué)習(xí)經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)，最后在牛津獲得博士學(xué)位。

He was working for the United Nations when he was called back to India and thus began a series of official appointments, including the chief economic advisor, governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the country’s central bank, and then the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission.
Ironically, while Singh helmed the RBI, Pranab Mukherjee, who served as the 13th president of India from 2012 until 2017, was Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s last finance minister – before her assassination in October 1984.

當(dāng)時(shí)，他正在為聯(lián)合國工作，后來被召回印度，并開始擔(dān)任一系列公職，包括首席經(jīng)濟(jì)顧問、印度中央銀行行長，以及計(jì)劃委員會(huì)副主席。
諷刺的是，辛格執(zhí)掌印度儲(chǔ)備銀行的同時(shí)，2012年至2017年擔(dān)任印度第13任總統(tǒng)的普拉納布·慕克吉是1984年10月英迪拉·甘地遇刺前的最后一任財(cái)政部長。

Thus, for two years, Mukherjee was Singh’s administrative boss; the roles were reversed two decades later when Mukherjee became Singh’s defense minister, and later finance minister.
Another twist of fate came when the former prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi, was assassinated by a Sri Lankan terrorist group, in 1991. Rajiv had publicly referred to the Planning Commission, while Singh headed it (the chairman is an ex-officio post, held by the president of India), as a “bunch of jokers.” Singh nearly quit to return to academic life, but amends were made.

因此，穆克吉在兩年內(nèi)一直是辛格的行政上司；二十年后，穆克吉成為辛格的國防部長，后來又擔(dān)任財(cái)政部長，兩人的角色發(fā)生了逆轉(zhuǎn)。
命運(yùn)的另一個(gè)轉(zhuǎn)折是，前總理拉吉夫·甘地于 1991 年被斯里蘭卡恐怖組織暗殺。拉吉夫曾公開稱，當(dāng)辛格領(lǐng)導(dǎo)計(jì)劃委員會(huì)時(shí)（主席是印度總統(tǒng)的當(dāng)然職位），計(jì)劃委員會(huì)是“一群小丑”。辛格差點(diǎn)辭職重返學(xué)術(shù)界，但最終做出了彌補(bǔ)。

Rajiv had been in the middle of campaigning for the 1991 parliamentary election, and the wave of sympathy generated by his assassination brought the grand old Indian National Congress party, to which both Rajiv Gandhi and Manmohan Singh belonged, back to power (after being in opposition since November 1989).

當(dāng)時(shí)，拉吉夫正在為 1991 年的議會(huì)選舉而努力，他遇刺事件激起了人們的同情，使得印度國大黨（拉吉夫·甘地和曼莫漢·辛格都是該黨的成員）重新掌權(quán)（自 1989 年 11 月以來，該黨一直處于反對派地位）。

PV Narasimha Rao, who had packed his belongings to live in retirement in his native Andhra Pradesh state, was sexted to lead the party. Seeing the world change as the Cold War drew to a close, he felt India needed a new economic direction and tapped the director of the London School of Economics, IG Patel, who was Singh’s predecessor at the RBI. Patel did not want the job.

已經(jīng)收拾好行李，準(zhǔn)備回到家鄉(xiāng)安得拉邦過退休生活的納拉辛哈·拉奧被選為黨魁。他看到冷戰(zhàn)結(jié)束后世界發(fā)生了變化，覺得印度需要新的經(jīng)濟(jì)方向，于是任命了倫敦經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)院院長、印度儲(chǔ)備銀行前任總裁帕特爾。帕特爾不想擔(dān)任這一職務(wù)。

Just three months earlier Singh, in an interview to the Financial Express’s Sanjaya Baru (who later became his media advisor), said that India needed to open its economy, pointing to the success story of South Korea.
Patel recommended him, and Rao appointed him as his finance minister.

就在三個(gè)月前，辛格在接受《金融快報(bào)》記者桑賈亞·巴魯（后來成為他的媒體顧問）采訪時(shí)表示，印度需要開放經(jīng)濟(jì)，并指出了韓國的成功經(jīng)驗(yàn)。
帕特爾推薦了他，拉奧任命他為財(cái)政部長。

India’s finances had been in a precarious state due to large deficits run up by Rajiv Gandhi, who modernized the army with large-scale defense purchases, and who introduced computerization to the country, starting with its sprawling railways network. Due to a balance of payments crisis, Rao’s predecessor as prime minister, Chandra Shekhar, had to mortgage gold to the Bank of England for a World Bank-IMF loan.

印度的財(cái)政狀況一直不穩(wěn)定，因?yàn)槔颉じ实貓?zhí)政期間，印度政府通過大規(guī)模采購國防裝備實(shí)現(xiàn)了軍隊(duì)現(xiàn)代化，并從龐大的鐵路網(wǎng)絡(luò)開始，將計(jì)算機(jī)化引入印度。由于國際收支危機(jī)，拉奧的前任總理錢德拉·謝卡爾不得不將黃金抵押給英格蘭銀行，以獲得世界銀行和 IMF 的貸款。

This added urgency to Singh’s determination to liberalize the economy, which he did by abolishing the “l(fā)icense raj” (a period of significant government intervention in India’s economy, marked by bureaucratic red tape) in his first budget. He also introduced a new industrial policy, simplifying the red tape, and oversaw a 10% duation of the rupee twice in one week. GDP growth soared to 9%, far beyond the traditional 2% “hindu rate of growth,” as economists used to call it.

這更加堅(jiān)定了辛格放開經(jīng)濟(jì)的決心，他在他的首份預(yù)算中廢除了“許可證制度”（政府對印度經(jīng)濟(jì)進(jìn)行大規(guī)模干預(yù)的時(shí)期，官僚主義繁文縟節(jié)就是其標(biāo)志）。他還推出了一項(xiàng)新的工業(yè)政策，簡化了繁文縟節(jié)，并監(jiān)督盧比在一周內(nèi)兩次貶值 10%。國內(nèi)生產(chǎn)總值增長飆升至 9%，遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)超出了經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家過去所說的傳統(tǒng)的 2%“印度式增長率”。

This was enough to cement his place in history, but it did not win him popularity, for the Indian left was still strong despite the collapse of the USSR, and Singh could not even win the only parliamentary election he contested, from the urban south Delhi constituency in 1999.
Subsequently, he remained a Rajya Sabha (Parliament’s upper house) member from Assam, even after he became prime minister in 2004.

這足以鞏固他在歷史上的地位，但并沒有為他贏得人氣，因?yàn)楸M管蘇聯(lián)解體，印度左翼勢力依然強(qiáng)大，辛格甚至沒能贏得他參加的唯一一次議會(huì)選舉，即1999年南德里城市選區(qū)的選舉。
隨后，即使在2004年成為總理之后，他仍然是來自阿薩姆邦的聯(lián)邦院（議會(huì)上院）議員。

When the Congress party-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) unexpectedly won the 2004 parliamentary election, members of the outgoing government led by Atal Behari Vajpayee did not expect to be handing the reins over to Singh. “We thought Sonia Gandhi was going to be the prime minister,” former spy chief AS Dulat said, referring to Rajiv Gandhi’s widow, who was now the Congress party president. When Dulat handed his resignation to the new prime minister, it was returned. “Stay,” Singh said. (He did not.)

當(dāng)國大黨領(lǐng)導(dǎo)的聯(lián)合進(jìn)步聯(lián)盟 (UPA) 意外贏得 2004 年議會(huì)選舉時(shí)，由阿塔爾·比哈里·瓦杰帕伊領(lǐng)導(dǎo)的即將離任的政府成員沒有想到會(huì)把權(quán)力移交給辛格。前情報(bào)局局長 AS 杜拉特表示：“我們原以為索尼婭·甘地會(huì)成為總理?！倍爬刂傅氖抢颉じ实氐倪z孀，她現(xiàn)在是國大黨主席。當(dāng)杜拉特向新總理遞交辭呈時(shí)，他把辭呈退了回去?！傲粝聛?，”辛格說。（但他沒有。）

Singh began work on two fronts: the US and Pakistan. Unfortunately, his national security advisor, JN Dixit, a former foreign secretary and a former ambassador to Pakistan, died after just eight months on the job. He was succeeded by an intelligence chief who managed to help steer a nuclear deal with Washington – despite opposition from the left, which was supporting the UPA government – and accelerated the growing closeness of the two democracies.

辛格開始在兩個(gè)方面開展工作：美國和巴基斯坦。不幸的是，他的國家安全顧問、前外交部長和前駐巴基斯坦大使迪克西特上任僅八個(gè)月后就去世了。他的繼任者是一名情報(bào)局局長，他成功幫助促成了與華盛頓的核協(xié)議——盡管遭到了支持 UPA 政府的左翼人士的反對——并加速了兩個(gè)民主國家日益親密的關(guān)系。

Despite finding a willing partner in Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, with whom a four-point deal on Kashmir was almost finalized in 2006-2007, the forward movement did not materialize. Musharraf was deposed, and a year later, a horrific terrorist attack on Mumbai in November 2008 pushed peace beyond anyone’s political capability.

盡管巴基斯坦總統(tǒng)穆沙拉夫愿意與巴基斯坦合作，并于 2006-2007 年幾乎與巴基斯坦總統(tǒng)達(dá)成了克什米爾四點(diǎn)協(xié)議，但和平進(jìn)程并未取得進(jìn)展。穆沙拉夫被罷免，一年后，2008 年 11 月孟買發(fā)生的恐怖襲擊事件使和平進(jìn)程超出了任何政治能力所能及的范圍。

In the end, Singh faced too much bureaucratic resistance to his peace efforts with Pakistan. (He did try after being re-elected in 2009, with a meeting with Prime Minister Gilani in the Egyptian resort of Sharm-el Shaikh, but it was vetoed by “the party”, i.e., Sonia Gandhi.)

最終，辛格與巴基斯坦的和平努力遭到了太多官僚機(jī)構(gòu)的阻力。（2009 年再次當(dāng)選后，他確實(shí)嘗試過，并在埃及度假勝地沙姆沙伊赫與吉拉尼總理會(huì)面，但遭到“黨派”索尼婭·甘地的否決。）

The UPA’s re-election in 2009 can be attributed to the Singh government’s waiver of 600 billion rupees ($12.66 billion at the prevailing exchange rate) in farm loans. His government also passed legislation on the right to information, right to education, and the welfare Rural Employment Guarantee plan, wherein the unemployed could get 100 days of paid labor. He also established the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which brought about the ‘Aadhar’ revolution, an identification number issued to all Indians that became one of the foundations for the country’s mammoth digital payment system that is being hailed by leaders and economists worldwide.

2009 年 UPA 再次當(dāng)選，要?dú)w功于辛格政府免除了 6000 億盧比（按現(xiàn)行匯率計(jì)算為 126.6 億美元）的農(nóng)業(yè)貸款。他的政府還通過了有關(guān)知情權(quán)、受教育權(quán)和農(nóng)村就業(yè)保障福利計(jì)劃的立法，失業(yè)者可以獲得 100 天的有償勞動(dòng)。他還成立了印度唯一身份識(shí)別局 (UIDAI)，并帶來了“Aadhar”革命，即向所有印度人發(fā)放身份識(shí)別號(hào)碼，成為該國龐大的數(shù)字支付系統(tǒng)的基礎(chǔ)之一，受到全球領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人和經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家的稱贊。

However, fatigue with Singh began to set in, possibly because of the failure of his Pakistan initiative, and possibly because Rahul Gandhi, the scion of the Gandhi family and de-facto Congress party leader, became active through clumsy actions such as publicly shredding a proposed anti-corruption bill.

然而，印度民眾對辛格感到厭倦，這可能是因?yàn)樗陌突固褂?jì)劃失敗，也可能是因?yàn)楦实丶易搴笠帷簏h事實(shí)上的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人拉胡爾·甘地采取了一些笨拙的行動(dòng)，比如公開撕毀一項(xiàng)擬議的反腐敗法案，從而變得活躍起來。

Above all, Singh was the epitome of a quiet and dignified man. US presidents George W Bush and Barack Obama referred to him as scholarly, humble and decent. Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called him “incorruptible” and credited him with helping to steer the world through the 2008 economic crisis. Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed the late prime minister’s “significant personal contribution” to bilateral ties. He also called him “an outstanding statesman.”

最重要的是，辛格是一位沉穩(wěn)而有尊嚴(yán)的人。美國總統(tǒng)喬治·W·布什和巴拉克·奧巴馬都稱贊他博學(xué)、謙遜、正派。英國前首相戈登·布朗稱他“廉潔”，并稱贊他幫助世界度過了 2008 年經(jīng)濟(jì)危機(jī)。俄羅斯總統(tǒng)弗拉基米爾·普京稱贊已故總理對雙邊關(guān)系做出了“重大個(gè)人貢獻(xiàn)”。他還稱他為“杰出的政治家”。

Manmohan Singh patiently answered even the silliest questions from journalists. He did not write a memoir. He kept quiet when his successor lampooned him Parliament – as he was seated – as if he were wearing a raincoat that shielded his spotless clothes from the corruption in his party. He took his parliamentary duty seriously, even showing up in his wheelchair to vote on a bill on the Delhi government, in August 2023, despite it being a losing cause.

曼莫漢·辛格耐心地回答了記者提出的哪怕是最愚蠢的問題。他沒有寫回憶錄。當(dāng)他的繼任者諷刺他在議會(huì)中的表現(xiàn)時(shí)，他保持沉默——當(dāng)時(shí)他就坐在那里——就好像他穿著雨衣，可以保護(hù)他一塵不染的衣服免受黨內(nèi)腐敗的影響。他認(rèn)真對待自己的議會(huì)職責(zé)，甚至在 2023 年 8 月坐著輪椅出席對德里政府的一項(xiàng)法案的投票，盡管這是一項(xiàng)注定要失敗的事業(yè)。

A few months later, his tenure in the Rajya Sabha came to an end, and a few months after that, so did his rich and fulfilling life.

幾個(gè)月后，他在聯(lián)邦院的任期就結(jié)束了，再過幾個(gè)月，他豐富而充實(shí)的生命也結(jié)束了。