Time & Perspective Quote by Manmohan Singh

“Protectionism is a very real danger” is the kind of calm warning that only lands because it refuses to perform panic. Manmohan Singh speaks like a technocrat who’s seen markets seize up and knows the most seductive policy move in a downturn is also the most contagious. The intent is twofold: to inoculate domestic politics against the crowd-pleasing impulse to “protect our own,” and to signal to other governments that India is staking out the responsible, system-preserving position.

The subtext is aimed squarely at the political theater of recession. Singh concedes the emotional logic of protectionism - “understandable” - which disarms critics who might paint free trade advocates as aloof. Then he pivots to “the lessons of history,” invoking the Great Depression-era tariff spiral without needing to name Smoot-Hawley. That historical shorthand does rhetorical work: it turns a policy argument into a moral memory, framing protectionism not as a tactical choice but as a repeatable failure with a known ending.

Context matters. Coming from a prime minister and former economist associated with India’s liberalization, this is also self-definition: India as a participant in global governance, not a resentful outsider. The “downward spiral” line is deliberately collective. It rejects the comforting fantasy that a country can wall itself off from global pain and instead portrays retaliation as a chain reaction. Singh’s warning isn’t lyrical; it’s engineered. The power is in the controlled voice insisting that what feels politically safe in the short term is economically incendiary at scale.