Remembering PV Narasimha Rao, the man who revived India's economy
New Delhi, Jun 27: PV Narasimha Rao, known as the architect of modern India, successfully steered the country during difficult times by introducing economic reforms.
The country witnessed progress and a qualitative change due to the economic reforms program and in foreign policy, internal security, and others during Narasimha Rao's tenure.
On his birth anniversary, let us remember the man, who had the courage to undertake bold reforms that forever changed the course of India's economy.
P.V. Narasimha Rao who was born on 28 June 1921 was an Indian lawyer and politician who served as the 9th Prime Minister of India from 1991 to 1996. He is known as the "Father of Indian Economic Reforms".
His administration was successful in overseeing a major economic transformation and several home incidents affecting national security of India.
He
employed
Manmohan
Singh
as
his
Finance
Minister
to
embark
on
historic
economic
transition.
With
Rao's
mandate,
Manmohan
Singh
launched
India's
globalisation
angle
of
the
reforms
that
implemented
the
International
Monetary
Fund
(IMF)
policies
to
rescue
the
almost
bankrupt
nation
from
economic
collapse.
Rao was also referred to as Chanakya for his ability to steer economic and political legislation through the parliament at a time when he headed a minority government.
Rao's term as Prime Minister was an eventful one in India's history. Besides marking a paradigm shift from the industrialising, 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 could speak 9 Indian languages Telugu, Oriya, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada,Hindi, Sanskrit, Tamil and Urdu) and 8 foreign languages French, Arabic, Spanish, German, Greek, English, Latin and Persian.