While debate on the Union government’s austerity measures goes on, relatives of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh in the city say the PM has always lived a simple life, with a dislike for extravagance. Be it clothes, food, or travelling, Singh has always preached and practised austerity, they say.

His younger brother Surjit Singh Kohli, a cloth merchant, says when the PM was the finance minister, he used to take an auto-rickshaw from railway station to reach home during his visits to the city. “Even in Delhi he used to go shopping in his old Maruti and we have hardly seen him buying luxury items,” says Kohli, adding that they were not surprised when the PM advocated for austerity in the government.

“When he was teaching at the Panjab University in Chandigarh in early 1970s, he used to commute by bi-cycle and purchased an old scooter later in life after much coaxing from us,” he says.

We are businessmen, says Kohli, and sometimes do flaunt wealth but the PM never forgets his humble background that our father had set up a dry fruit shop after our family was uprooted from Pakistan during Partition.

“He tells his wife, Gursharan Kaur, about the need to cut expenditure and adopt simplicity. They hardly have luxury items including flashy TV sets, cars, DVDs or expensive furniture at home,” Kohli says.

“My brother has asked me several times why do I need expensive items I have at my home,” he adds. “He is a devout Sikh, listens and recites hymns from Gurbani daily, and always prefers simple food including dal, rice and chappatis and sometimes south Indian delicacies,” says PM’s another brother Davinder Singh Kohli.

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