CHANDIGARH: Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s great-nephew Randeep Singh Kohli, who runs a hardware business in Punjab, got married in February this year. But Manmohan Singh was not able to attend the wedding since he was not keeping well. But the soft-spoken former PM did not fail to congratulate his great-nephew over phone, Randeep recalls proudly.”Prior to Covid-19, he (Manmohan Singh) came to Amritsar and met the whole family at the circuit house. Whenever he was in Amritsar we used to meet him. In 2016 when my father Mandeep Singh Kohli died he came to our house to pay his last respects,” Randeep recalled.Presently Randeep is in Delhi, along with other family members, to attend the cremation to be held on Saturday.”His (Manmohan Singh’s) sisters living in Kolkata are also in the national capital now. One of his daughters will land tonight from the US. But the thing is that we feel empty here since he is no more. It will take a lot of time for us to come over this loss,” Randeep Singh noted.Punjab held a special place in the heart of Manmohan Singh. Punjab was his first love, Amritsar, in particular from where he completed his schooling and graduation. He then did his post-graduation in Economics from Panjab University in Chandigarh and thereafter went on to pursue his advanced studies.After he left Panjab University, Singh returned to the campus thrice in 1983, 2009 and 2018. During the first two visits, he was awarded honorary degrees. In April 2018 Singh came to the campus again and delivered the first Prof SB Ragnekar Lecture, organised by his department.Recalling that Singh was a man of few words, Prof Upinder Sawhney, former chairperson of the Economic Department at Panjab University, explained that he had invited Singh to speak at the department in 2018, and the former PM obliged under the condition that he would address only the students.”When I was a student had a desire to meet him as an associate professor, I first met him in 1999 at a conference and then wanted to invite him to the department for a lecture. When I met him again he asked about the university and the honors school. I again kept on requesting him to come and he finally agreed, then I was on cloud nine. He came and addressed the students for an hour as he gave a lecture at the first SB Rangnekar Memorial Lecture. As the topic was ‘The Seventieth Anniversary of our Independence — Strengthening the roots of our Democracy’, the students were delighted by his presence. After the lecture, he interacted with the faculty.
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