While the Indian National Congress chose to largely ignore the birth centenary celebrations of former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao, PM Narendra Modi, the Telangana government and several other individuals and institutions paid handsome tributes to the man who ensured a spectacular turnaround for India’s economy and adopted tough measures to safeguard the country’s unity and integrity.
Narasimha Rao became prime minister in June 1991, when the country was passing through several crises. His predecessor government had pledged gold to a foreign bank to raise $200 million to tide over a foreign exchange crisis and the economic outlook looked grim.
Rao realised that unless the socialist policies pursued by the Nehru-Gandhis for decades were discarded and the Indian market was opened up to foreign direct investment, there was little hope of economic recovery. He chose Dr Manmohan Singh, a political novice, as his finance minister and provided him the necessary cover to shield him from attacks from socialists, Marxists and Congressmen loyal to the family. Rao took all the flak and allowed Singh to do his job. Such was Rao’s resolve that when he died in 2004, the country’s forex reserves had crossed $140 billion.
Another monster at the door was the rise of secessionist forces in Punjab, leading to large-scale killings and terrorist activities in that state and in the nation’s capital. Just as he backed Singh in regard to economic reform, he backed the Punjab chief minister and the top cop K P S Gill to end militancy in that state, undeterred by the whiners in the party and outside. The militants were wiped out and the country’s unity and integrity remained intact.
These were two problems that Rao inherited, apart from several others, that seemed particularly insurmountable. The mood in the country was one of gloom and doom. Rao’s ascendancy to the office of prime minister had happened unexpectedly, following the tragic assassination of Rajiv Gandhi on 21 May 1991 in the midst of a Lok Sabha election after the premature end of the Chandra Shekhar government. The Congress party had not given him a ticket to contest that election and Rao was all set to pack his bags and return to Hyderabad. In the second week of May 1991 when this writer visited him, the packers were already at work. Asked what his plans were, he said he would get down to doing what had been on his “to do” list for a long time, including the writing of a political novel. He was however wondering as to how he would find the place to accommodate his books when he returned to his initial karmabhoomi.
But everything changed dramatically for Rao and the Congress on the night of May 21 when the news of the assassination trickled in. Party leaders beseeched him to stay back in his Motilal Nehru Marg residence and a majority of them decided to back him after Sonia Gandhi declined to accept the presidency of the party. Sharad Pawar was the other contender, but the leaders supported Rao. After the results came in and the Congress party ended up with 232 seats, falling short of 50 seats for a majority, Rao used all his diplomatic skills to get several other parties to pledge support and formed the government. He took oath as prime minister exactly a month after Rajiv’s assassination.
Rao, through his Chanakya Neeti, steered the country from this phase of hopelessness to hope. That is why this writer has, on an earlier occasion, described him as the Prophet
of Boom!
The unwillingness of the Nehru-Gandhis to accord Rao his rightful place among the country’s great prime ministers has made the Congress look like an ungrateful party. On the other hand, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, who grew up politically in a non-Congress environment, described Rao as “an astute administrator, statesman, visionary and the undisputed torchbearer of economic reforms in India”. Narendra Modi, who is the leader of the BJP, has shown much more grace by acknowledging Rao’s “extensive contributions to national development”. Similarly, the Telangana government’s decision to launch a year-long centenary celebration last year that culminated in a grand event on 28 June 2021 is worthy of commendation.
By wholeheartedly acknowledging the contribution of Rao, the vice president, the prime minister and the chief minister of Telangana have fully exposed the small-mindedness of the Nehru-Gandhis. More importantly, they have shown that while that family is ungrateful, the nation is not.
P V Subhas, grandson of Rao, has demanded an apology from the Congress for not conducting the former PM’s centenary at the national and international level and limiting it to Telangana. The Congress party’s decision to confine the event to Telangana was to ensure continuing insult to one of India’s greatest prime ministers. It was in line with the manoeuvres pertaining to his last rites when he passed away in 2004. The family ensured that the gates of the party headquarters were locked when the cortege carrying Rao’s body came there. It also insisted that his cremation be held not in Delhi but in Hyderabad, in the hope that this would diminish his stature. But that ploy has clearly failed.
Those who wonder why the Congress party is slowly withering away and becoming a caricature of itself can find answers in the contempt that the Nehru-Gandhis, who virtually own and control the party, have shown towards stalwarts like Rao. Will this ever change? Unlikely, so long as the family runs it, the party will remain a mom and son show.
A Surya Prakash
Former Chairman, Prasar Bharati and Scholar, Democracy Studies
(suryamedia@gmail.com)