We have written a couple of times in this blog about the wise former Prime Minister of India, PV Narasimha Rao about his contributions to this rebuilding of India in the early '90s after trying circumstances under which he became the Prime minister of this great nation. For some reason we rarely know about him mainly guess because of the limited coverage on him in the mainstream media. The writer too discovered his impeccable contributions to nation-building as recently as 2019. We will write in more detail when the times again about this wise man.
We are giving a reference to his joint dialogue with former president of the US, Bill Clinton in 1994 at the white house. Kindly help to plug in the headphones if interested to go through this video, the first 15 minutes is what covers the topic.
Today people speak about how New India has emerged and all the rest of it. But when he became the PM, under trying economic, domestic and international political conditions, he managed to lay a road on which his successors could walk in the years ahead till today. There was no clear path when he became the PM, as he had to have fresh and strong ties with the US which consolidated its position then as the single power of the world after the cold war. At the same time, India had to ensure that it didn't break away its ties with other close friends like Russia which was on the opposite side of the spectrum. Narasimha Rao managed to both successfully with ease, which was his craft. Also, he had laid the foundation for India's foreign policy named 'Look East' with the East Asian countries like Singapore, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, especially with Singapore and South Korea which emerged as stronger economies. The founding father of Singapore Lee Khan Yew held Mr Rao in very high regard. The bilateral relationships then built had ensured more people to people connect between India and Singapore in the years that were to come. Mr Narasimha Rao also had to establish and strengthen the relationships with some of the European countries like France and Germany. Before his Indian PM's visit to foreign countries was mainly for political reasons. But after the economic reforms, he turned the trend by turning those visits for attracting investments into India, also he took leading business people with him on certain official trips which were first of their kind. He was India's first travelling salesman PM. At the end of his term, India had risen to the occasion and started to emerge as an economic powerhouse from a position of nowhere when he became the PM in 1991. Despite all this, it is interesting to note that he is that much known to the common public as much hr should have been. Strangely in 2016, when the writer had a trip to Hyderabad and was waiting for the scheduled bus for his home town, starring at the bypass road connecting, the airport at Shamsabad which was named PV Narasimha Rao Expressway, later to note that it was the only public monument named after him in this country at that point, at least now we have seen some memorials and some steps during his centenary completion this year.
And most importantly he had tremendous intellect at the same time who can speak 18 different languages including 8 foreign languages frequently and 2 programming languages in 1990 itself, yet so wise, which is a rare gift.
His tremendous insights in possibly his last interview in 2004.
It is a feeling of gratefulness to share with the readers about this wise man. It is a feeling of great satisfaction to be born in this wise land when this wise man was the Prime Minister.
Comments
Post a Comment