Mr.PV Narasimha Rao, the name many people might have heard as one of the former prime ministers of this country but not much about him and his tenure, we were also of the same pattern till 3 years back. We have recorded a few times here about him, but with all gratefulness, we must record some of the key points when we remember him, especially the 90's and 2k kids must be much grateful to him, for the sophistication we have today. Now, let us see some of the key areas.
In May 1991, even PV Narasimha Rao might not have thought he would be the next Prime Minister of the country, due to some unforeseen incidents he became the PM, interestingly he had undergone a major bypass surgery in early 1991 months before he became the PM.
When he became the Prime Minister of India, there was literally nothing, neither the political capital nor the economic capital, there were foreign reserves only for a few weeks, to pay for example fertilizers, crude, and so on. The cold war had ended and India's leaning wall then the Soviet Union had collapsed and hence the United States was the sole superpower then, the crude oil prices were at a high due to the Gulf war and also there was political instability, he became the Prime Minister as the remaining seats were predominantly from the South and the Congress managed to win most of them due to a sympathy wave, yet he was heading a coalition Government and 2 coalitions had collapsed in the past year. Interestingly after he left office in 1996, serving as PM for 5 years, 3 more coalitions had collapsed within 3 years, which also tells us about this man's political acumen.
Economic reforms:
This was the background when he become the Prime Minister. Not many would have succeeded as much he did, India is lucky enough to survive through many storms through great people at critical moments. The day before he was to be sworn in as the Prime Minister in June 1991, he was briefed about the economic situation of the country by the Cabinet Secretary, Mr.Naresh Chandra who also was overlooking India's nuclear capabilities. In that briefing which might have lasted for 30 minutes, Naresh Chandra was able to convince Mr.Rao of the economic condition and plans to mitigate the crisis. Then Narasimha Rao decided to have a Finance Minister who would have acceptance in India as well as abroad to carry out the reforms, his first choice was Dr.IG Patel, but since he declined, Mr.Rao went to Dr.Manmohan Singh and convinced him to be the Finance Minister of the country. And then the economic reforms of liberalization are well known to the public. The uniqueness is maintaining continuity in some areas and bringing about vast changes, Mr.Rao mentioned the reforms with a human face in many of his speeches, so that no public sector employee is impacted. In the last two years (1995,1996) of Mr.Rao's tenure, India's GDP growth touched 8% which was the first high and after that as well 7.5% to 8% was our average growth till 2018.
Some of the key changes during Narasimha Rao's tenure which some of the 90's kids might not be aware of, before that there will be a queue to get a bike which they might need to wait for days and weeks and also there were only a few bikes or car models, only one television channel was available and today there are more than 700 channels. We can go into some more areas on the economic reforms, but that is very much known now.
Foreign Policy:
Carving out India's political capital from nowhere is certainty Narasimha Rao's touch. India's foreign policy has pretty much remained on the same fundamentals which Narasimha Rao established. His ability to build new and stronger friendships with the west especially the US and Israel, and also maintain the older strong friendships with Russia and Palestine, is certainly the old fox's art. Also, he was the first Prime Minister to visit East Asian countries like Singapore and South Korea by formulating the 'Look East' foreign policy, which is very much carried out still. Also, another key feat during his tenure was sending the then opposition leader Mr.Vajpayee to lead the representation from India on Kashmir.
Nuclear Prowess:
Many would identify India's nuclear capabilities with Mr.Vajapyee's tenure, but in fact, the capabilities were established and formulated in Mr.Rao's tenure, and it was ready to be tested in 1996, but the statesman he was Mr.Rao didn't test foreseeing the political instability that might come after the elections, many others would have tested and used it for electoral gains. Aptly, after his death in December 2004, Mr.Vajpayee himself called Mr.Narasimha Rao as the father of nuclear India. Mr.Rao had put the nation before himself.
There were many welfare schemes as well, one such was expanding the midday meal scheme to the national level. Still people may argue that the liberalisation was against the soul of India, but one feels there were not much options left, as China who started the economic liberalisation in 1978, 13 years before India is standing with a GDP of 18 trillion dollar, India with a 3 trillion dollar economy currently which is still six times to go, if not for the liberalisation India's position would have been interesting.
The world has evolved more with multiple polarities, not like a Unipolar world as in 1991, so today's approach might need to be different in the new world order.
As Vinay Sitapati in his Biography on Mr.Narasimha Rao, 'Half Lion', recounts, the fact that how Narasimha Rao managed to do so much with so little, is the story of a true underdog.
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