 "Manmohan's daughter 'sad' that the work he did wasn't appreciated")
Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's family was "deeply upset" by the trenchant criticism he faced during his tenure as PM, said his daughter and biographer Daman Singh.
"He worked selflessly. It was sad that the work he did wasn't appreciated," said Singh, in an interview to Karan Thapar on Headlines Today. While usually Manmohan was unperturbed by such attacks, it was his wife Gursharan Kaur who used to be most upset, the daughter said. However, when senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani described him as the "weakest prime minister ever", he was very hurt.
Strictly Personal, the biography written by Daman that deals with the period prior to 2004 when Manmohan became PM, gives a peak into his life.
Daman revealed that her father shared a good rapport with former PM Narasimha Rao, someone with whom Sonia had strained relations. Full of praise for Rao's support for her father, Singh quoted Manmohan as saying, "Without his (Rao's) support, I could do nothing (as finance minister). When the time came for difficult things to be done, he stood by me. I found him a very warm person. I could converse with him freely, frankly. He was a father figure."
Singh's decade as PM was the most "difficult" period for Kaur and didn't like to view her husband as a politician. "She liked to see him as a scholar, a professor." His family didn't like to see him as a politician going around asking for votes, Daman said.
Reacting to the comments made in recent books by Singh's former media adviser Sanjaya Baru and another by Natwar Singh, his daughter said her father too should be writing his autobiography. "After all, everybody is writing books these days."
She described Manmohan's defeat in the 1999 Lok Sabha elections, as the "first time he had failed. He was used to coming first in everything and he was badly shaken up."
Asked whether he had contemplated resigning anytime during his ten years as PM, Daman said, "If as finance minister, he would go around with his resignation letter in his pocket, why should it be otherwise when he was PM."
Revealing how Manmohan was seared first by the Partition and then his family was directly impacted by the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, she said the apology he gave in 2005 was one of his most difficult speeches and "one of his most moving speeches ever and he spoke extempore".
Daman indicated that the former PM could be in the process of writing his own memoirs.
"He worked selflessly. It was sad that the work he did wasn't appreciated," said Singh, in an interview to Karan Thapar on Headlines Today. While usually Manmohan was unperturbed by such attacks, it was his wife Gursharan Kaur who used to be most upset, the daughter said. However, when senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani described him as the "weakest prime minister ever", he was very hurt.
Strictly Personal, the biography written by Daman that deals with the period prior to 2004 when Manmohan became PM, gives a peak into his life.
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Refusing to comment on her father's political relationship with Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, Daman recalls that she had met the Congress president only once when her father was recovering from a bypass surgery in 2009.
Daman revealed that her father shared a good rapport with former PM Narasimha Rao, someone with whom Sonia had strained relations. Full of praise for Rao's support for her father, Singh quoted Manmohan as saying, "Without his (Rao's) support, I could do nothing (as finance minister). When the time came for difficult things to be done, he stood by me. I found him a very warm person. I could converse with him freely, frankly. He was a father figure."
Singh's decade as PM was the most "difficult" period for Kaur and didn't like to view her husband as a politician. "She liked to see him as a scholar, a professor." His family didn't like to see him as a politician going around asking for votes, Daman said.
Reacting to the comments made in recent books by Singh's former media adviser Sanjaya Baru and another by Natwar Singh, his daughter said her father too should be writing his autobiography. "After all, everybody is writing books these days."
She described Manmohan's defeat in the 1999 Lok Sabha elections, as the "first time he had failed. He was used to coming first in everything and he was badly shaken up."
Asked whether he had contemplated resigning anytime during his ten years as PM, Daman said, "If as finance minister, he would go around with his resignation letter in his pocket, why should it be otherwise when he was PM."
Revealing how Manmohan was seared first by the Partition and then his family was directly impacted by the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, she said the apology he gave in 2005 was one of his most difficult speeches and "one of his most moving speeches ever and he spoke extempore".
Daman indicated that the former PM could be in the process of writing his own memoirs.