Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Admitted To AIIMS In Delhi

New Delhi: Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was admitted to Delhi's AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences) on Sunday night over chest problems. The veteran Congress leader was taken to the cardio-thoracic ward of the hospital at 8.45 pm and is under observation by doctors.

The 87-year-old two-time Prime Minister has been admitted to a normal hospital room and not to the ICU (Intensive Care Unit).

Further details are awaited.

Manmohan Singh underwent heart-bypass surgery at AIIMS in 2009, in which five grafts - channels to bypass blocked arteries - were implanted in a surgery that too over 10 hours.

Earlier this week Manmohan Singh, alongside Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and chief ministers of party-ruled states, questioned the centre over its decision-making during the coronavirus lockdown.

The former prime minister, who spoke after Mrs Gandhi, said: "We need to know, as Soniaji said, what will happen after lockdown 3.0." Chief Ministers, the former PM said, needed to deliberate and ask what the strategy of the government of India was to get the country out of the lockdown.

India went into a nationwide lockdown on March 25 to slow the spread of coronavirus. Since then, the shutdown has been extended twice, on April 14 and May 4. The third phase will end on May 17, but restrictions have been eased in the areas less affected by the virus.

Last month Manmohan Singh, this time alongside Rahul Gandhi and former Union Minister P Chidambaram, was among a group of leaders who criticised the government over freezing of hikes in Dearness Allowance for thousands of government employees amid the coronavirus crisis.

"I sincerely believe it is not necessary at this stage to impose hardships on government servants and also on the armed forces people," the soft-spoken Manmohan Singh said, adding, "We should be on the side of people whose Dearness Allowances are being cut".

In March, Manmohan Singh expressed concern over a "very grim and morose current situation". In an article published in The Hindu newspaper, he called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to "convince the nation, not merely through words but by deeds, that he is cognisant of the danger we face and reassure the nation that he can help us tide over this as smoothly as we can".

(Inputs and image from ndtv.com)