PV Narsimha Rao - The Man Who Faced The Wrath Of INC

Meet, PV Narsimha Rao, whose all contributions were either accredited to Rajiv Gandhi or Manmohan Singh intentionally by Indian National Congress.

PV Narasimha Rao was the first and only right-winger prime minister from the Congress clan.

PV Narasimha Rao was well versed in subjects related to economics, law, history, politics and arts. He could speak 17 languages including Urdu, Marathi, Kannada, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Sanskrit and Oriya with a fluency akin to a native speaker. His mother tongue was Telugu. In addition to eight Indian languages, he spoke English, French, Arabic, Spanish, German, Greek, Latin and Persian.

He encouraged foreign direct investment by increasing the maximum limit on the share of foreign capital in joint ventures from 40 to 51% with 100% foreign equity permitted in priority sectors. And due to such other reforms, foreign investment in India grew from the infinitesimal US $132 million in 1991–92 to $5.3 billion in 1995–96.

He handled Punjab militancy very well and it vanished during his period. Conducted surgical strikes on Kashmiri militant camps in POK and reduced Kashmiri Militancy and terrorism. Had he been given one more term he would have totally brought Kashmir to normality, as he did with Punjab.

He was someone who had great respect for the armed forces of the nation as well. He was the first Congress Prime Minister to increase military spending. He was the first person in Indian Polity to shake hands with Israel and openly call it, an ally.

He rejected the candidature of Sonia Gandhi as the Congress President with this golden quote of his “Congress Party should be treated like a train where the compartments have to be attached to an engine belonging to the Nehru-Gandhi family or were there other alternatives?”

When he died, there were no arrangements made to receive the body and place it atop a platform for public darshan. No flowers were provided by the congress government. There was no shamiana, there were no carpets. There was no one to control the mourning crowds. The congress president came for a couple of minutes and vanished.

In a speech to mark the 125th anniversary of the Congress, the party president Sonia Gandhi praised the contributions of all Congress prime ministers except PV Narasimha Rao.

Contrary to the popular perception, P V Narasimha Rao was elected as the Prime Minister by Congress MPs in 1991 and was not nominated to the post by the higher command.

And thus, the Congress's top brass has made every possible effort to make sure that this man goes down in history as a nobody.