PV Narasimha Rao returns to limelight under NDA regime

NEW DELHI: PV Narasimha Rao, Prime Minister of India during 1991-1996, is seeing a revival of sorts in India’s public discourse, after hardly finding any mention during 10 years of UPA rule.

On the 93rd birth anniversary of the late Narasimha Rao on Saturday, Telangana CM K Chandrashekhar Rao called for a Bharat Ratna to be awarded to the former PM and said the new state will carve out a district to be named after him. Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu too talked of a fitting memorial for the only Telugu to have become the PM. If that wasn’t enough, ex-President A P J Abdul Kalam tweeted, “It is Shri PV Narasimha Rao Ji’s birth anniversary today…one of the best PMs India ever had... My respect to the leader.”

Sanjaya Baru, ex-media advisor to former PM Manmohan Singh, said this surfeit of acclaim for Narasimha Rao is not just an attempt to cock a snook at the Congress, but it is also an imperative for regional forces in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

Baru’s book — The Accidental Prime Minister — had revealed the animosity between Rao and the Congress high command even at the time of his death and was quoted extensively in election meetings in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh by not just KCR and Naidu, but also Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a sign of Congress high handedness.

“Given that the issue was raised during the campaign, there has to be a follow up,” said Baru. “Rao was the first PM from that region and though he opposed Telangana, his humiliation at the hands of Congress was considered a cause to be redressed by these parties,” he added. Baru said he had suggested to Singh that both Rao and ex-PM AB Vajpayee be accorded the Bharat Ratna.

“The PM heard me out but remained silent,” he said. While streets in Delhi bear the names of those who had been ministers in Rao’s government, like Rajesh Pilot and Madhav Rao Scindia, there was no memorial to Rao, Baru said.

BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said Rao’s sudden emergence as a cause celebre in the NDA regime despite being a PM from the Congress ranks was due to his humiliation by Congress. “It is well known that his body was not allowed within the AICC when he passed on, despite the fact that he was a Congressman and a former prime minister,” he said.

“While not going overboard, the NDA government will probably have a more realistic assessment of his legacy,” Naqvi added. Rao has often been compared to former American president Richard Nixon, who demitted office in a stench of the Watergate scandal but effected the all-important détente with China. Rao’s hand wringing while the Babri Masjid came down on his watch has always been weighed against his economic reforms. Will there be a true assessment now?