Remembering 'Mohna': When Ex-PM Manmohan Singh Met His Childhood Friend From Pakistan
Date
12/27/2024 8:19:09 AM
(MENAFN- Live Mint) Former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh died at the age of 92 years at Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences after he lost all his consciousness.
Following his demise, several stories of him meeting international delegates , facing economic challenges, dealing with recession as Reserve bank of India's governor and his relations with opposition parties have come on various news platforms in detail.
But on a personal front, the former PM's life is still creating enthusiasm among his admirers. One of the most popular story that resurfaced includes him meeting his childhood friend Raja Mohammad Ali, a resident of Pakistan in 2008.
Dr Singh was born on 26 September 1932 in a small village Gah – situated in the Punjab region of undivided India, is now part of Pakistan. Following the partition in 1947, Dr Singh's family migrated to India and left behind their native home and friends.
When Dr Singh assumed the office of Prime Minister of India in 2004, this news reached his village in Pakistan and a desire to reconnect with his old friend Ali regenerated.
Before the partition, the two were very good friends, and Ali called Dr Singh 'Mohna'. They were so close because they also studied together in the same primary school.
Emotional reunion:
For an emotional reunion with Dr Singh , Ali arrived in Delhi in May 2008 and the two shared a heartwarming embrace, followed by symbolic gifts.
According to a report by NDTV, Ali brought soil and water from Gah, a photograph of the village and a 100-year-old shawl for Dr Singh. He also brought two embroidered salwar kameez suits to his wife Gursharan Kaur. Dr Singh gave Ali presented Ali with a turban, a shawl and a Titan watch set in return.
But two years after the meeting, Ali died at the age of 78 in Pakistan's Chakwal district in 2010.
According to the details, the former PM Dr Manmohan Singh was India's first Sikh prime minister who served wo terms from 2004 to 2014 as the head of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government.
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