Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi: As Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Brazil to attend the 17th BRICS Summit, the Congress party on Sunday took the opportunity to highlight the foundational contributions of former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh to the economic bloc. Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh issued a statement tracing the history of the grouping and credited Dr. Singh with proposing the idea of the BRICS Development Bank.
A History Lesson from Jairam Ramesh
In a post on X, Ramesh took a sarcastic jibe at the Prime Minister, calling him the “Super Premium Frequent Flier Prime Minister,” before detailing the origins of BRICS. He recalled that the idea of a trilateral forum (RIC) was first floated by Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov in 1998, followed by the coining of the “BRIC” acronym by Goldman Sachs in 2001. Ramesh noted that the first-ever BRIC summit was held in Russia in 2009, which Dr. Manmohan Singh attended, and that the bloc expanded to include South Africa in 2010.
Crediting Manmohan Singh for New Development Bank
The Congress leader’s main assertion was that it was Dr. Manmohan Singh who proposed the establishment of a BRICS Development Bank during the 2012 summit hosted in New Delhi. Ramesh pointed out that this vision was realized three years later with the launch of the New Development Bank (NDB) in Shanghai, with eminent Indian banker K.V. Kamath as its first President. He added that India has since borrowed approximately USD 8 billion from the NDB for various infrastructure projects. The comments are seen as an attempt to ensure the UPA government’s contributions are remembered as the BRICS group continues to expand, with Indonesia being the latest country to be inducted this year.
