NEW DEL­HI–Prime Min­is­ter Man­mo­han Singh fought for his rep­u­ta­tion as the ar­chi­tect of In­dia's eco­nom­ic re­forms on Fri­day, in­sist­ing that the cur­rent growth and cur­ren­cy crunch was no re­peat of the 1991 bal­ance of pay­ments cri­sis that made him a house­hold name.An econ­o­mist by train­ing, Singh's long po­lit­i­cal ca­reer has been book-end­ed by crises.

As fi­nance min­is­ter 22 years ago, he deft­ly ush­ered in re­forms of a state-shack­led econ­o­my that helped launch years of rapid growth, earn­ing him­self a place in his­to­ry as the man be­hind In­dia's emer­gence as a new eco­nom­ic pow­er.

Now 80 years old and head­ing in­to his last months as prime min­is­ter be­fore elec­tions, the growth bub­ble has burst. The lat­est GDP fig­ures yes­ter­day showed an econ­o­my grow­ing at just 4.4 per cent, the weak­est pace since the glob­al fi­nan­cial cri­sis and a far cry from am­bi­tions for growth of eight to nine per cent.The coun­try is sad­dled with hefty fis­cal and cur­rent ac­count deficits, and the ru­pee has fall­en like a stone in re­cent weeks to suc­ces­sive record lows.

But Singh, strug­gling to make his thin voice heard above the din of bel­low­ing law­mak­ers in par­lia­ment, said 2013 was not 1991: the ex­change rate is now mar­ket set, and In­dia has enough for­eign ex­change re­serves to cov­er sev­en months of im­ports com­pared with just three weeks back then."There is no rea­son for any­body to be­lieve that we are go­ing down the hill and that 1991 is on the hori­zon," he said, in his first sub­stan­tial com­ments since the ru­pee suf­fered its steep­est-ever month­ly fall in Au­gust.

In­dia's cur­ren­cy predica­ment is part­ly due to an emerg­ing-mar­ket sell­off trig­gered by the US Fed­er­al Re­serve's plans to rein in its eco­nom­ic stim­u­lus.How­ev­er, it has been com­pound­ed by what Singh ad­mit­ted was "a cri­sis of con­fi­dence" in a coun­try where wel­fare pro­grams and sub­si­dies for the poor re­main pri­or­i­ties for his Con­gress par­ty, es­pe­cial­ly as it heads in­to a dif­fi­cult elec­tion that is due by next May.

Singh sparred with op­po­nents in par­lia­ment who said his lega­cy was at risk if he did not get a grip on the econ­o­my. Op­po­si­tion leader Arun Jait­ley said his track record as prime min­is­ter was one of pop­ulist poli­cies, not re­form.Singh blamed the main op­po­si­tion par­ty's in­tran­si­gence for In­dia's slow progress on a sec­ond round of deep eco­nom­ic re­form, and said his rep­u­ta­tion was in­tact on the world stage.

"There is a col­lec­tive re­spon­si­bil­i­ty we owe to our coun­try to send out a mes­sage to in­vestors both do­mes­tic and for­eign that In­dia re­mains a vi­able, bank­able, cred­it-wor­thy propo­si­tion," he said."What­ev­er some mem­bers of the house may say about me as the prime min­is­ter, I com­mand a cer­tain sta­tus, cer­tain pres­tige and a cer­tain re­spect in the Group of 20."

Par­al­lels

On­ly the most pes­simistic in­vestors be­lieve In­dia is on the verge of a cri­sis as se­vere as 1991, when the cen­tral bank was forced to pawn 67 tonnes of gold in Eu­rope to pay the bills, but the par­al­lels are un­avoid­able.San­jaya Baru, a for­mer me­dia ad­vi­sor to Singh, said there was lit­tle the prime min­is­ter could do ahead of the elec­tion to change in­vestor sen­ti­ment about In­dia.

"In '91 the dif­fer­ence was all the pol­i­cy ac­tion was tak­en in the be­gin­ning of the new term. Every­body knew these guys were go­ing to be in of­fice for a rea­son­able pe­ri­od. I don't think the mood of in­vestors will change un­til there is an elec­tion...They just feel that this gov­ern­ment is in the shad­ow of an elec­tion, and that shad­ow has to pass."

Reuters