Today I wanted to share an insight into a book titled "1991 How P V Narasimha Rao Made History" by Sanjay Baru. Sanjay Baru was a Media Advisor to Manmohan Singh, an Editor of many economic daily newspapers, taught in University of Hyderabad and author of many books, including "The Accidental Prime Minister: The Making and Unmaking of Manmohan Singh.

 Sanjay Baru mentions that his acquaintance PV Narasimha Rao began when his father B P R Vithal was a collector Karimnagar and PV represented Manthani, a part of Karimnagar district at that time. 

June 21st 1991, was a momentous day for India's political history. It was on this day that Narasimha Rao was sworn in as first non-Nehru Gandhi family, Prime Minister. In 2017 India is the fastest growing Economy but let us remember that half of India's current population, however was not even born in 1991 and would scarcely know of an India where the consumer choice was dictated by the state. It was a time when parents booked scooters at the birth of a girl, for dowry, cars, was limited to black Ambassador, or White Padmini, or Red Maruthi800. A time when people waited for years to get telephone connection, where travellers were left stranded between delayed flight and cancelled flight.  All this was dismantled with the stroke of a pen dismantling the licence-permit Raj, opening up the Indian economy from 21 June 1991.
Before PV four senior political leaders tried leading non-congress governments, Morarji Desai, Charan Singh, V P Singh, and Chandrasekhar and all of them failed. Most of them were in office for less than a year, but PV however demonstrated his political acumen within a year.
Sanjay mentions in this book that in that one year 1991, he offered quiet, sober and competent leadership to the nation. From Vanaprastha he was on the verge of taking up sanyasa and to Head the  Courtallam Peetham as pontiff. He was called upon to be a Karmayogi. The author observes that for the leaderships PV provided during that fateful year PV deserved BHARAT RATNA.
   Coming back to this subject, if I have understood it properly, I feel, this is more about the stupidity of Rajiv, than the greatness of PV, and I have also read that this book coupled with ""Half-Lion""of Vinay Sitapathy, end up forming two halves of PV story .But all said and done, it is an excellent book which describes 1991 political and economic situation in India, and how PV handled it. A good introduction to1991 crisis that changed India for ever. We find good internal information of politics and economics, but somewhere in the middle I found some repitations ,and then it ends abruptly too. Overall it is worth a read to gain understanding of what actually transpired in1991. How an almost a retired politician changed the economic direction of this country.
Before concluding I would Iike to make a personal  note with regards to Bharat Ratna for PV. After Congress leaderships  abandoned him, most party members kept a safe distance from him. Now that a fair amount of time has elapsed since Rao passed away, many party leaders are talking admiringly about him, and the bold steps he took to usher in economic reforms. It was also reported that a close confidant of Gandhi family, a former Minister, suggested to Manmohan Singh then PM to award Bharat Ratna to PV but obviously his proposal didn't draw any response. Today we are reaping benefits of his acts so I think its  high time his contributions are recognized by Indian Government too. Jai Hind!

Today I wanted to pay homage to the two stalwarts who are not with us anymore. One is Vidyasagar Rao a great expert on Irrigation matters as far as Telangana is concerned, while the other one a great film  star Vinod Khanna. Coincidentally both of them were victims of dangerous disease Cancer. 
Vidyasagar Rao a renowned expert and Adviser to TS passed away last Saturday while undergoing treatment for metastatic bladder cancer. He was considered to be an authority on irrigation matters. During Telangana movement, he was of great help to KCR as he had tremendous knowledge and awareness on all the Irrigation projects. And made his best efforts and stood behind KCR who has been striving to irrigate One Crore acres. He could show as to how injustice has been done to Telangana in irrigation sector with "NEELLU-NIJALU" program. CM KCR was  in tears (which we have all seen on TV) when he went to call on the family of late Vidyasagar Rao.
 Coming to veteran Bollywood actor Vinod Khanna, died of Advanced bladder Carcinoma. He was an excellent actor who could perform all kinds of roles. Some of he memorable films include Parvarish, Amar Akbar Anthony, Mera Goan Mera Desh and Kurbani etc.  I personally us liked his role in Amar Akbar Anthony and Muquaddar Ka Sikandar. Vinod Khanna could carve his own niche even in films he starred alongside stalwart like Amitabh. I hope his films will be remembered by not just by the older generations but among the younger generations too. 

I just finished reading Mrs Margaret Alva's autobiography "Courage and Commitment" . As one of the youngest MPs at the age of 32, and a Minister of State in Rajiv's Cabinet at 42 years. Margaret Alva is among India's longest serving parliamentarians. After reading the book I realised that Alva has been associated with Indian parliament for more than half a century.  It is a well written  honest autobiography, while the author seems to be no-nonsense, straight forward politician who really wants to do good to the people. You would realise ,after reading it that she had come up hard way and has the distinction of working very closely with at least two Prime Ministers, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. The ringside view of the experiences is the highlight of this book. In fact she has worked with four Prime Ministers, the other two are Late Narasimha Rao and also Manmohan Singh. You will see her honest accounting, wins and losses, humiliations being in and out of congress etc. But at many places you will find that she describes about various conferences she has attended and places she visited, which were little bit boring and drab but overall this book is very interesting.  I would recommend that one should read it to know many internal issues one would face at that level. One would see that over the years she was a witness to several events that have played an important part in politics - the Emergency, Mrs Gandhi's Chikmangalur election, Narasimha Rao's liberalisation, Sonia's entry into politics including Manmohan Singh 's tenure as PM of India for two terms. 

While reading the book you will notice few very interesting  things, Mrs Alva had highest regard for Indira and Rajiv . With regards to Narasimha Rao she says that despite heading minority's govt., that is rattled with scams, and scheming leaders, PV was the first non-Nehru-Gandhi PM who had lasted for a full term. But Congress sidelined him and humiliated him but she says she learnt many lessons from him and she had great respect and admiration for his leadership.  And further she says she is sure history will judge him. She is very honest in telling that though she had helped him through emergencies, and managed members in both houses during most tumultuous sessions, he didn't reward her for work reason as he felt that she was a Sonia loyalist. Therefore the Courage and Commitment is story of a simple life made remarkable .