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!
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!
