Singh sworn in as Indian PM

Manmohan Singh, the Oxford-educated economist who crafted India’s economic liberalisation policies, was sworn in as prime minister today, placing the Congress party back in control of the nation after eight years on the sidelines.

Singh, India’s first prime minister to come from the country’s Sikh minority, was sworn in by President APJ Abdul Kalam, whose family is from India’s large Muslim minority.

The Congress party, whose leader, Italian-born Sonia Gandhi, declined the top post, will lead a minority coalition after it ousted Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s Hindu-nationalist government in elections held over three weeks in April and May.

After several days of bargaining with coalition partners over key ministerial posts, Singh, 71, took the oath of office, dressed in a light blue Sikh turban and white, high-neck cotton tunic.

Kalam also swore in 28 members of Singh’s Cabinet and another 40 ministers of state and junior ministers who will form his government in a ceremony at the imposing pink sandstone presidential palace in the heart of New Delhi.

The group included seven women and Bollywood star Sunil Dutt.

“The Cabinet is a reflection of India’s diversity and richness,” Singh said afterward.

He acknowledged there were “difficulties in finalising the Cabinet” and said portfolios would be announced tomorrow.

Gandhi, who attended the ceremony, told reporters, “The government will be stable. We’ll be working on that.”

It was widely reported that Singh himself might take on a dual role as both prime minister and finance minister, a position he held in the early 1990s under a previous Congress-led government.

Singh and Gandhi had been meeting with leaders of different political parties to haggle over the number of spots each party would receive in the Cabinet.

He is expected to assign key ministries such as foreign affairs, defence and security to members of his own party, but leave several high-profile economic ministries like petroleum, communications and rural development for allies, a Congress party official said.

Singh spent years in government posts and in the International Monetary Fund before becoming finance minister under a Congress government in 1991.

Because Congress failed to gain an outright majority in the 545-seat Parliament, it will be forced to rely on two powerful communist parties for support from outside the coalition.

That prospect spooked investors, causing them to send the Bombay Stock Exchange to an all-time low on fears the communists would slow economic reforms.

However, the markets have since stabilised, with Singh assuring investors that India would remain pro-growth.