Remembering P.V.Narasimha Rao:Modern India’s Chanakya

Born on 28th June,1921 in present day Warangal,Telangana,PV Narasimha Rao grew up under the Nizam rule and completed an LLB in the prestigious Osmania University. During the 1940s, when freedom struggle in the State of Hyderabad was at its peaks, Rao trained himself as a guerrilla fighter to revolt against the Nizams.Even on the day India was celebrating independence,here in Hyderabad, people were dying and PV was stranded in a forest trying to evade bullets from the Nizam’s army.

A member of the congress party,He  was a polyglot.He could speak 17 languages fluently.He held several ministerial positions in AP Govt. also serving as the CM from 1971-73.Rao is well remembered for his land reforms and strict implementation of land ceiling acts. But due to the Jai Andhra Mulki agitation that time, Rao, hailing from Telangana was pulled down as the CM.Indira Gandhi invited him to serve at the centre. He was elected to Lok Sabha in 1977. He handled diverse portfolios in the cabinets of both Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi.He became a prominent and effective member.

In the early 90s when he was planning to retire from politics forever,came a great comeback. 21st May 1991 Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated. By June,India was seen globally as a bottomless pit for foreign aid. It had exhausted an IMF loan taken six months earlier and so was desperate. To add to it ,the Soviet Union collapsed the same year and India being a socialist economy was severely affected. Nehru’s economic model which was oriented towards Licence Raj, red tape & bureaucracy leading to large scale corruption had resulted in 2-3% annual growth and the subsequent implementation of such model by Indira Gandhi had led the nation into darkness and economic standstil.  

That year’s elections Congress was the single largest party mainly because of the sympathy factor.But there were internal disturbances and groups formed within it,causing ruckus.In order to evade all this Sonia called upon PV to become the PM. In the by-elections,he won the Nandyal seat by more than 5 lakh votes which was entered in Guinness Book of World Record,owing to NT Ramarao’s withdrawal of his party candidate from that region since there was nothing more happy for him than seeing a Telugu man become the PM. 

When PV became the PM, India was in a pathetic condition where it could sustain only for 15 days after which it had to declare bankruptcy. The most important master stroke was to appoint Manmohan Singh as finance minister. Rao wanted a non-political reformer at the centre of decision-making, who could be backed or dumped as required. He presented Singh as the spearhead of reform while ultimately, it was his vision that Singh executed. 

He immediately set about implementing progressive reforms. He aimed at reducing the fiscal deficit, privatization of the public sector and increasing investment in infrastructure.Firstly he dismantled License Raj which paved the way for India to be an active participant in globalization. During his first month in office, the rupee was devalued. There followed the MRTP clearance. At one stroke, the biggest hurdles to industrial expansion disappeared. But doesn’t all this come under the credit of Industrial Minister? Yes ...it was Narasimha Rao himself! He held the industry portfolio too. In the public mind, Manmohan Singh was seen as the liberalizer, while Rao stayed in the background.He invited foreign investors to The country which helped in India recovering from its financial fall.He started the NSE in Bombay,which is now India’s largest Stock exchange. India was moving smoothly on the wave of globalisation.

If Nehru had a temper, Rao had a temperament. The 1998 Pokhran Nuclear test is his vision which couldn’t be executed then due to the change of Govt. Atal Bhihari Vajpayee executed it later.

But as the saying goes,the more good you do,the more hatred you get..many leaders were jealous of his fame and greatness and poisoned Sonia Gandhi that he’s going completely against the Nehru-Gandhi ideology and is destroying the legacy. Moreover a bribery scam,no confidence motion,Babri Masjid Riots and St.Kitts forgery case and many more during his tenure were instrumental in bringing him down in the eyes of everybody mainly Sonia.PV,busy in his economic reforms had no time to to answer his party people. Congress lost brutally in 1996 elections and PV had to step down as PM.After Sonia became the party president in 1998,she didn’t even give a party ticket to Rao. Such a great personality was brought to such a state by his own party members.All his court cases and allegations haunted him till the last moment when he was declared innocent finally in 2003 just a year before his death.

Rao died of a heart attack on Dec 23, 2004.The Congress had gone so much against him that the ex-PM’s body wasn’t even allowed into the AICC office,Delhi leave alone receiving honours. Arrangements were made to carry his body to Hyderabad where his family arranged the body in Jubilee Hills hall.Several dignitaries from across the nation paid their last respects to him.

If Mahatma Gandhi can be called the architect of India of 20th century, P. V. Narasimha Rao can be called the architect of Modern India of the 21st century He will be remembered as the “Father of Indian Economic reforms”. Sadly due to the dirty politics being played,this great man hasn’t been given the Bharat Ratna yet. Nobody would have imagined that, 20 years later, India would be called an emerging superpower, backed by the US to join the UN Security Council, and poised to overtake China as the world’s fastest growing economy...all thanks to that Visionary!