Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Thursday said that former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao was the most misunderstood person in the political history of India and he himself was responsible for it.
Delivering a memorial lecture on ‘P V in Perspective’ at the Centre for Economic and Social Studies (CESS), he said that despite P V holding several key posts during his public life spanning 60 years, not much was known about him to the general public.
He said P V had both good and bad endeavours as a politician and Prime Minister and he must be, also like any other political leader, understood as a common human being.
Jairam Ramesh said that P V had contributed to the country significantly during his tenure as a Prime Minister but he had committed a few mistakes, which haunt him even today. His significant contributions to the country were economic reforms or liberalisation of market, starting political process in Jammu & Kashmir, Nagaland and in Punjab besides formulating a foreign policy with ‘Look East’ component, he said. These policies have been followed by his successor Prime Ministers from I K Gujral, Deve Gowda, Manmohan Singh and even Narendra Modi, he said.
However, Jairam opined that P V’s biggest mistake was December 6, 1992, when Babri Masjid in Ayodhya was demolished and he failed as a Prime Minister. “India could not come out of that catastrophic event even today,” he said.
Similarly, P V embroiled several leaders from different political parties and also his fellow party colleagues in various court cases that alienated him within the party as well, said Jairam Ramesh. Jairam said that he mentioned these historic events in his book on P V and said Indians must learn to evaluate their leaders on true basis rather than portraying them as saints.
He said P V had the remarkable quality of evaluating people and it was he who had appointed Manmohan Singh as Finance Minister in his Cabinet. He appreciated P V’s courage and resolution while running the minority government for five years.
He said, “Narasimha Rao was at his best in political management and I stand testimony to it. He not only managed the Opposition but also handled the forces within the party.” Jairam also complimented P V’s personal capabilities and said that he was the most scholarly, erudite and multilingual personality to enter public life.
Jairam recalled his experiences with P V Narasimha Rao during June, July and August of 1991 and said those three months had made remarkable contributions for the betterment of the country.
Senior journalist A Krishna Rao, who translated Jairam’s book, appreciated the efforts of Jairam for coming up with a book on Narasimha Rao and said P V did not get his due recognition in India’s political history. He said though he brought several reforms in governance, no one remembered him in that capacity.
