Shiban Khaibri
“The saddest thing about betrayal is that it never comes from your enemies , it comes from friends and loved ones.” In an established system of selectively eulogizing not only during lifetime but even after death, only a few political and social leaders in India after India became independent has been most unfortunate and quite gratuitous . That a freedom fighter of independence movement , a versatile and performing Prime Minister P. V. Narsimha Rao (1991-1996) did not get fair treatment , not even in the least, after his death and even during he was bed ridden in a hospital with heart ailment is deplorable and detestable. That, if analogically the saying to die “unwept and unsung” is used in the said scenario , it will not be any exaggeration. Those who should have given him a reasonable fair treatment, knowingly ignored him and thus trivialised his great contribution and as PM his laudable historic efforts in bringing the country out from the economic morass. Rao was a scholar of high calibre and a hyper-polyglot having knowledge of and speaking seventeen languages including Hindi and had profound knowledge of the great Sanskrit language. He had great interest in literature and computer software and computer programming. He was greatly a reserved politician and by nature, revealing not much of a thing. His roots were deep in the religious and spiritual soil of Bharat. It is fairly said that as a person knowing fairly about the fragrance of the country’s soil, Rao hardly needed to “Discover India” and discover it in distorted manner .
The reasons as to why he was not celebrated at the national level by the Congress Party are many though he was the first South Indian Prime Minister heading a minority government that ran its full term. He became the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh in 1971 and introduced many land reforms and enforced land ceiling Acts effectively. The political party which he worked for his life throughout and stood by its policies including its particular brand of secularism, was Congress. When Congress was split by Smt. Indira Gandhi in 1969, he supported her whole heartedly . He remained Union Minister in both Indira Gandhi’s and Rajiv Gandhi’s Governments holding portfolios like Home, Defence and Foreign Affairs. He is also known for having won his Nandyal Parliamentary seat with a high margin of over five lac votes , the win having been recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records. He respected and accorded due importance to the opposition parties and is accredited to be the first Prime Minister where an opposition Party member was given a cabinet rank post since he appointed Dr. Subramanyam Swami as the Chairman of the Commission on Labour Standards and International Trade. Atal Behari Vajpayee , an opposition leader was sent by him to represent India in a UN meeting at Geneva.
Congress Party to which he remained loyal and spared no effort to strengthen it virtually disowned and deserted him after he demitted his office. There is, however, something connected to him to feel satisfied about to some extent and that is the recent decision of Telangana government to mark Rao’s birth centenary (June 28) through year- long celebrations. Congress party and the Governments led by it did not allow recognition to him at national level but he definitely emerged as a regional iconic figure. However, it becomes the bounden duty, in the spirit of true and impartial journalism, of the journalist community, to keep him and others similarly ignored ‘alive’ through their write -ups and memoirs about him. The established monopolistic structure erected all the decades till 2014 to give importance largely only to the leaders of a single family must be broken on the principle of equity and natural justice. He must get only that much which the highly learned Narsimha Rao deserved as his earned right. Rao took charge of the Prime Minister at a very crucial and sensitive time months after Congress Party leader and former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated , the country was nearly bankrupt . How the country could be brought back from the edge was not an ordinary problem which Narsimha Rao took upon himself and steered the ship safely, braving many a rough storm .
Steering triumphantly during 1991 economic crisis , establishing diplomatic ties with Israel , rekindling India’s nuclear programme which had been kept in deep freezer, curbing insurgency in Punjab, starting India’s Look East foreign Policy which brought India closer to ASEAN, completing the full tenure even heading a minority government, defeating 1994 UNO resolution against India , diplomatic ties with Taiwan , firm policy against terrorism in Kashmir etc , duly entitle him to be considered as one of the best Prime Ministers of India. What Rao will specially be remembered for is his economic policy which brought in economic liberalisation in the country. He introduced slew of measures that opened up for foreign investment, reforming trade regime, reforming capital markets, domestic business freed from conservative regulations , industrial policy reforms etc. The architect of these reforms , the maker of 14 Budgets, ex-Governor of Reserve Bank of India was I. G. Patel who headed The London School of Economics and whom Narsimha Rao wanted as his Finance Minister but he declined, making way for Dr. Manmohan Singh to hold the post. How can the country forget Rao’s economic policy and reforms regime as India’s total foreign investment rose from $130 million in 1991-92 to $5.3 billion in 1994-95.
Despite heading a minority government , he did not let the grace, prestige and demeanour of the office of the Prime Minister get diluted by getting dictates or political cum administrative directions from those whose realm it was not. Not because Narsimha Rao was the Party president himself but he set a precedent of maintaining equidistance between the Party and functioning of the Prime Minister. The ‘Parivar’ , therefore, did not receive very special treatment and filial obedience from him. He had bigger aims before him all in the interests of the country. He injected energy with specific purpose into national security and ballistic missiles programme. That greatly helped and made things easy for 1998 Pokhran nuclear tests. In fact , Rao had planned the tests in 1995 itself but somehow due to American pressure , the intelligence of which got a whiff thereof , the plan was dropped. A shrewd politician , as he was, he is reported to have himself facilitated the information reaching the Americans only to gain time to develop thermonuclear device which was not ready at that time . Former President , top scientist cum teacher APJ Abdul Kalam is on record saying that Narsimha Rao had asked him to get ready for nuclear tests in 1996 itself but it did not materialise due to host of reasons chiefly because of general elections in 1996 itself. However, ingredients of and the ‘recipe’ for the cuisine had all been arranged by Rao and later, the historical nuclear tests were conducted by BJP led Vajpayee government and Vajpayee Ji made no bones about ,”Rao told me saamagri tayyar hai , you can go ahead – the bomb was ready , I only exploded it.” . It is Narsimha Rao who in fact, can be called as the “true father” of India’s nuclear programme. He is also called as the “Father of Indian Economic Reforms.” He attended to the defence requirements of the armed forces to strengthen them . Such an innovative, visionary and performing Prime Minister, however, was ‘rewarded’ by the people by voting him out of power . Sonia Gandhi supporters forced Rao to step down from the post of Congress President replaced by the veteran Sitaram Kesri who too was later unceremoniously removed, making way for Smt. Sonia Gandhi to take over. It is a thing to be believed that Rao in his later years, suffered from financial problems and had to sell his Banjara Hills to clear his debts .
Since Rao’s ”karambhoomi” was Delhi where he remained active in politics for more than three decades , his dead body was not allowed to be cremated in Delhi but only in Hyderabad. Not only that , his body was not even allowed inside AICC building for public to pay homage which this son of India was fully entitled to . The body reached there but the gates were shut and not opened. Strangely, though Manmohan Singh was the Prime Minister, he could “do nothing” about it.
The utter ignominy which such a scholarly and dedicated stalwart Prime Minister was subjected to, is mainly attributed to him not getting reduced to the status of a Nehru -Gandhi loyalist. He was denied even basic human dignity and in death, final act of humiliation was schemed by a vengeful party desperate to erase his name, legacy and tremendous contribution . Alas, even sufficient firewood had not been arranged for his pyre and what followed cannot be mentioned in these lines but that part of the episode shall remain one of the darkest chapters of Indian politics. On the other hand, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and most of his cabinet colleges and BJP leaders etc walked six kilometres in a public procession following Vajpayee Ji’s hearse for his last rites , never done before by any Prime Minister, not to speak of the departed Vajpayee Ji’s stupendous, emotional, highly revered and respectful last rites . That is the ”difference” which matters and captivates the people.
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