New Delhi, Dec. 27 -- Dr. Manmohan Singh - India's 13th prime minister who died December 26 at the age of 92 - never really had a voice that could be called firm and vigorous. It always had a slight tremor to it which gave the impression of an unsure man. He was anything but that as became so quickly evident on July 24, 1991 when he made his first annual budget speech as the country's finance minister.

I was in the press gallery of India's parliament watching and reporting the speech for the New York-based weekly newspaper India Abroad and its international wire IANS. Barely three or so months before, as the government of then Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar struggled for its political survival I had reported a debilitating crisis of Indi...