P.V.Narasimha Rao

Pamulaparti Venkata Narasimha Rao is one of the great Prime Minsters we had. He was the first Prime Minister of India from South. Many people does not know that he was a very good Prime Minister, because, Congress never gave recognition to him.

In 1991, P.V.Narasimha Rao retired from politics. Due to the death of Rajiv Gandhi, Congress became the single largest party in the parliament in 1991 General Elections. But, it did not have majority. Congress selected P.V.N.Rao as the Prime Minister, eventhough he did not contest in the General Elections. In his cabinet, he took two people who were not MPs (one was Manmohan Singh), and he himself was not an MP. To make him MP, Gangula Prathapa Reddy (MP of Nandyal) resigned to his MP position. Then, P.V.N.Rao contested from Nandyal. Because, he was the first Prime Minister of India from Andhra Pradesh, and then Leader of Telugu Desam (Chief Opposition Party) N.T.Rama Rao did not want to create any obstacle in his way, and did not put any contestant against him. By that, he won the election with a majority of more than 500,000, which is a world record.

In 1990, India almost became bankrupt. The financial situation was worst. After he became the PM, he liberalized the Indian Economy. He brought the country to a stable state from almost bankrupt state. Eventhough credit goes to Manmohan singh, but, still his contribution is also very significant. At that time also, Sonia Gandhi tried to control him, but he carefully avoided her. He had kept complete authority over the loyalties of Gandhi family like Arjun Singh. Because of his authority over them, N.D.Tiwari, and G.K.Moopanar started their own parties, and Arjun Singh joined N.D.Tiwari. Because of his leadership and authority over everyone in the Cabinet, and Party, he could do whatever is good for the country. Whatever Manmohan Singh did as Finance Minister, he could not do the same as Prime Minister. Manmohan Singh was always controlled by people like Sonia Gandhi, and Arjun Singh. By that, one can clearly understand the leadership of P.V.Narasimha Rao.

According to Vajpayee, when he became the PM in 1996 P.V.N.Rao handed him a piece of paper which simply stated 'Bomb is ready. You can go ahead.' (referring to a nuclear device) and asked that it should not be made public. Vajpayee revealed this only after the death of P.V.Narasimha Rao.

L.K.Advani said in his book My Country My Life, "P.V.Narasimha Rao is the best Prime Minister after Lal Bahadur Sastry". L.K.Advani was the leader of Chief Opposition when P.V.N.Rao was Prime Minister. Still, he praised him, and wrote so many pages positively about P.V.N.Rao in his book. I am not aware of any other Chief Opposition leader, who praised the leader of the Government at that time. It shows the greatness of P.V.Narasimha Rao as well as the honesty of L.K.Advani.

Unfortunately, Congress did not give any recognition to him even in Andhra Pradesh. Other than naming one highway in Hyderabad, there is nothing that it did for P.V.N.Rao. The publicity, importance, and recognition given by L.K.Advani, Abdul Kalam, and N.T.Rama Rao is much more than the same given by Congress when he was not in power (i.e., 1996 - till now). When most of the states naming their airports in the name of the great personalities of their state, the present Congress government removed N.T.R.'s name for the Domestic Airport. If Telugu Desam party comes to power again, they will try to undo whatever is done by Congress in the case of N.T.Rama Rao. Congress is not naming anything in the name of P.V.Narasimha Rao, and not allowing Telugu Desam Party to name anything in his name, by making them busy in undoing all the things that they did in the case of N.T.R. If Andhra Pradesh Congress does not give recognition to the first Prime Minister from AP, then who is going to tell about him to everyone and to future generation?