NDA speeds up Narasimha Rao memorial

NEW DELHI: This is one Congress stalwart that the BJP likes no end. And it wants to immortalize him with a memorial in the national capital. Sources said work on erecting a plaque in the memory of former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao at Ekta Sthal Samadhi Complex is on at breakneck speed.

TOI has learnt that government was very keen that the memorial be made ready for inauguration on June 28, the birth anniversary of the former Congress PM. Even urban development minister M Venkaiah Naidu had visited the site on Monday to take stock of the situation. Sources said Central Public Works Department (CPWD) officials have told the minister that the site may not be ready by that time and the entire project is scheduled for completion by July end.

As per the plan, a plaque mentioning some details of Rao's life will be installed on a raised platform. Naidu has reportedly asked the engineers to see if at least the work for completing the platform can be completed by June 28. "We have no information of whether some event will be organized at the site on former PM's birth anniversary," an official said.

The Modi government's effort to commemorate Rao is being seen as an attempt to over-write the Nehru-Gandhi legacy of the Congress and to celebrate his reformist credentials. The NDA government had taken a decision to erect the memorial soon after coming to power immediately drawing comparisons on how his own party leadership had ensured that Rao's last rites were not performed in Delhi.

Political observers of that era had written how Rao's body was not allowed within the All India Congress Committee headquarters when he passed away despite the fact that he was a Congressman and a former PM. His body was flown to his home state Andhra Pradesh for the last rites.

Urban development minister Naidu had earlier said that the NDA government would honour all former PMs who have been sidelined by Congress, by having memorials of such leaders. He had also said that Rao had done a great work as the chief architect of India's economic reforms.