The Congress party on his birth anniversary tweeted: “We pay our tributes to former Prime Minister, Shri P V Narasimha Rao. He was a visionary leader who oversaw major economic transformations in the Indian economy and the dismantling of the License Raj. His contributions to the nation will always be remembered.”
We pay our tributes to former Prime Minister, Shri P V Narasimha Rao. He was a visionary leader who oversaw major economic transformations in the Indian economy and the dismantling of the License Raj. His contributions to the nation will always be remembered. pic.twitter.com/7cwEcvgnpB
— Congress (@INCIndia) June 28, 2021
Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid his tributes, shared an old video of his last year’s speech tweeting: “Tributes to former PM Shri PV Narasimha Rao Ji on his 100th birth anniversary. India remembers his extensive contributions to national development. He was blessed with remarkable knowledge and intellect.”
Sharing what I had spoken about him during #MannKiBaat in June last year
Tributes to former PM Shri PV Narasimha Rao Ji on his 100th birth anniversary. India remembers his extensive contributions to national development. He was blessed with remarkable knowledge and intellect.
Sharing what I had spoken about him during #MannKiBaat in June last year. pic.twitter.com/tRRgXH74Se
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 28, 2021
Pamulaparthi Venkata Narasimha Rao ((28 June 1921 – 23 December 2004) was an Indian lawyer and politician who served as the 9th Prime Minister of India from 1991 to 1996. His rule was politically important in that he was the second holder of this office from a non-Hindi-speaking region and the first from South India. He led an outstanding administration, overseeing a major economic transformation led by Finance Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh.
Narasimha Rao was personally responsible for the dismantling of the Licence Raj, as this came under the purview of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, changing the socialist policies of Rajiv Gandhi’s government. He is often referred to as the “Father of Indian Economic Reforms”.
Future prime ministers Atal Bihari Vajpayee continued the economic reform policies pioneered by Rao’s government. He employed Dr. Manmohan Singh as his Finance Minister to begin a popular economic transition. Dr. Manmohan Singh launched India’s globalization angle of the reforms that implemented the International Monetary Fund (IMF) policies to rescue the almost bankrupt nation from economic collapse.
His knowledge of Sanskrit was vast and he had a calm temperament. The 11th President of India APJ Abdul Kalam described Rao as a “patriotic statesman who believed that the nation is bigger than the political system”. Kalam acknowledged that Rao in fact asked him to get ready for nuclear tests in 1996 but they were not carried out as the government at center got changed due to the 1996 general election. The tests were later conducted by Vajpayee-led NDA government. In fact, Narasimha Rao briefed Vajpayee on the nuclear
He made a model shift from the industrializing, mixed economic model of Jawaharlal Nehru to a market-driven one, his years as Prime Minister also saw the emergence of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a major right-wing party, as an alternative to the Indian National Congress which had been governing India for most of its post-independence history.
Rao’s term also saw the destruction of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh when BJP’s Kalyan Singh was Chief Minister, which triggered one of the worst Hindu-Muslim riots in the country since its independence.
Rao died in 2004 of a heart attack in New Delhi. He was cremated in Hyderabad. He spoke 17 languages.
