HYDERABAD: In the last four years, while the country has strengthened its relationship with countries like Israel, Japan, and more recently China, it is well known that our ties with our neighbours have hit a record low. The Nepal blockade in 2015, the National Citizens Register of Assam which would drive out “illegal Bangladeshis” and also the Rohingya issue have not sat down well with either Nepal or Bangladesh respectively.
“How would late Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao deal with the current situation if he was in power now?” asked senior journalist Shekhar Gupta rhetorically in a room full of admirers of the late PM at the annual PV Memorial Lecture held in the city on Sunday.
“Narasimha Rao would have handled that more artfully. His big strength was that he had the humility to take a setback and that he knew his weaknesses”“However he would work on his own strength — which was knowledge, patience, demeanour of humility. He was also unconventional,” Gupta said, adding that Rao would have taken into cognisance India’s current strength, in the same way he had observed India’s weaknesses in 1990, and would have devised a policy that is different from that of “alpha male and He-Man” Modi’s. The lecture in which Gupta presided over as the Chief Guest and attended by Justice B Sudershan Reddy and Pothuri Venkateswara Rao, threw light, not only on the drawbacks and achievements of Narasimha Rao’s tenure as the Prime Minister, but also on his character. Gupta characterised the Vangara-born late PM as “soft but vindictive”.
Recounting the Babri Masjid demolition which happened during the late PM’s tenure, Narasimha Rao had reportedly told Gupta, that he regretted trusting BJP senior leader L K Advani. Advani had reportedly promised Rao that there would just be a procession and not demolition. “He always thought that Advani had let him down. He had always promised that nothing would happen and that’s why he had allowed the procession,” Gupta said.
Gupta opined that Narasimha Rao held a grudge against Advani because of that and the subsequent hawala campaign against the senior BJP leader was allegedly orchestrated by Narasimha Rao.
Tributes paid to Narasimha Rao on his death anniversary
Warangal: Rich tributes were paid to former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao on his 14th death anniversary at a programme organised at Laknepalli village in Narsampet mandal of Warangal rural district, his native, on Sunday. Taking part in the programme, Narsampet MLA Peddi Sudharshan Reddy,
stated that as Prime Minister PV ushered economic reforms and laid foundations for a strong and vibrant economy. “He rose from sarpanch to become a Prime Minister and brought laurels to the country,”
he said.