Vir Das hails Manmohan Singh’s ‘ability to take a joke’ in unusual tribute | Today News

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was kind, humble, distinguished and wise – as his colleagues and opponents described him. But Emmy Award winner Vir Das has a slightly different memory of the legend. He remembered Singh as a politician who could take a joke and “make a joke about” himself. 

That’s a “mark of a truly great, secure, and humble leader,” Das said.

Comedian and actor Vir Das recalled making jokes about Manmohan Singh on prime-time bulletins for a mainstream news channel. “I remember being in my 20s and doing jokes about him on prime time bulletins…with our team having been made fully aware his office was watching and we’re okay with it,” Das posted on X.

“He was the most powerful man in the country, and we were making jokes about him five nights a week on a mainstream news channel that wasn’t even that great because we were utterly immature,” Das said in a long post.

He said this “wasn’t even on a comedy show but as a part of a 9pm news bulletin that every businessperson in the country watched.” He noted “how far fetched that seems today”, in a dig at the incumbent PM Narendra Modi-led government.

Vir Das then went on to say that the mark of a truly great, secure, and humble leader, “to my profession”, is the ability to take a joke.

“Great leaders understand that’s part of the job, that powerful politicians and jest have always been historically intertwined for centuries, and that taking humour within grace makes them so much greater,” Vir Das said.

“A politician who can take a joke is truly powerful, and a politician who can make a joke about themselves is admirable, and invincible. In that respect, he stood tall above any Indian leader in my lifespan,” Vir Das said about late Manmohan Singh.

Manmohan Singh, the architect of India’s economic reforms, died at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences on Thursday night. He was 92. He is survived by his wife Gursharan Kaur, a history professor, and three daughters. Leaders in India and across the world expressed deep grief over Singh’s passing, highlighting his contributions and warm relations with their nations.

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