Hyderabad: June 28 is the birth centenary of late P.V. Narasimha Rao, the great scholar prime minister of the country, who many referred to as the 'Modern Chanakya' because of his great insights into nation building, public policy and administration.
People called him Modern Chanakya, referring to his political skills in running a minority government successfully for the full term of 5 years - a rare feat indeed. I offer my own tributes to the reformer, educationist, linguist, and erudite scholar that he was.
Rao's contribution along with that of his Finance Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh in liberalising the Indian Economy, taking it out from the clutches of licence-permit raj, and opening it out to international competition, has been extensively covered in public discourse, and I would not repeat it. I would only add that he let India, a sheltered and limping economy with a low growth rate dubbed as Hindu rate of growth, globalise. For the first time, India came out of the Hindu Growth rate where it was stuck for 5 decades.
I worked as Union Home Secretary from June 1994 to Oct 1997, when he was the PM. Home Secretary's position is one of the more sensitive jobs in the government and normally an IAS officer from the home cadre of the Prime Minister's home State, and who earlier worked with him, and in whom the PM has great confidence, is picked up for the post. In my case, I belonged to a different cadre, namely Maharashtra. I also did not work for long in Government of India before that, except for a tenure as joint secretary during 1982-86.
In my second tenure, starting in 1993-94, I was posted as Secretary, Urban Development & Housing for a few months when I met the Prime Minister, Narasimha Rao garu, for the first time. Notwithstanding these handicaps, I was posted as Home Secretary, because I believe the then Home Minister, Shankarrao B. Chavan, who hailed from Maharashtra, mentioned to him that I am a competent and honest officer. I mention this at length to show that PV garu did not go by favouritism, but by pure merit.
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It is because of merit that he gave an opposition leader Subramanian Swamy a cabinet rank position, sent another opposition leader and a powerful speaker Atal Bihari Vajpayee to represent India in the UN meeting, and appointed an Economist and non-political person, Dr Manmohan Singh as India's Finance Minister.
The first thing I noticed in Rao is that he was cool, calm, collected, and never looked hassled, in spite of many crises created for him by people politically opposed (mostly from his own party Congress) to him. He faced administrative and political problems like the Babri Masjd demolition and criticism of his handling, with equanimity. The Librahan Commission, which looked into the Babri masjid issue very minutely, held that the PM cannot be faulted for the stand taken by him. He was the typical example of 'Sthithapragna'.
The most characteristic quality of his governance, is his total dedication to the Constitution of India. Whenever any new policy proposal is put up to him for clearance, the first question he would ask is: "Is this constitutional?" He never accepted any proposal which he thought was against not only the letter, but against the spirit of the Constitution.
He was the first leader who evolved the "Look East Policy" of India. Until then, the focus used to be towards the western nations or to the Gulf region. He thought that India's place in Asia can only be established by India developing better relations with Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, and other ASEAN countries. He is the one who also developed strong relations with Israel, and allowed the country to open its embassy in 1992 in New Delhi. He also built strong relations with Iran.
Narasimha rao pushed the country's nuclear tests, and ballistic missile program towards great success. In fact, in May 1996, days before the general election, he ordered Dr Abdul Kalam to be ready to test the nuclear fusion Bomb. However, the election results turned out against the Congress, and ultimately the nuclear weapon was tested in 1998 by the Vajpayee Government.
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He fervently wanted to solve the Kashmir issue, though insurgency in that state was the highest during 1993-97. He told Dr Farooq Abdullah, and other leaders that he is prepared to concede any proposal, as long as the suggestion was that Kashmir remains an integral part of India. He announced from Burkina Faso, where he was on official visit, that "sky is the limit as far as autonomy to Kashmir is concerned, as long as it remains an integral part of India." But before he could do anything in this regard, general elections intervened, and Congress lost power.
He must be given credit for wanting to conduct elections in Jammu and Kashmir to parliament and State Assembly seats, as no elections were held there for 8 years and he believed that people cannot be denied their right to have an elected government.He told me that the elections should be delinked from, and should be planned after the general elections are completed in the rest of the country. But as things turned out, Congress lost the general elections. Elections were subsequently held in Jammu and Kashmir after Herculean efforts by the Election Commission, and the Home Ministry, in facing logistic problems and security issues during the time of Deve Gowda.
It is in line with the above philosophy of his, that elections are an antidote to insurgency, that he insisted on the Election Commission to hold elections in insurgency-hit, Assam and Punjab, however poor the turnout may be. The elections did in fact pave the way for controlling insurgency, and for ultimate return to normalcy.
Many people are not aware that Rao initiated a dialogue with Naga Insurgent Organizations. In June 1995, he met the Naga underground leaders Muivah and Issac Swu in Paris to explore cessation of fighting as a prelude to finding a negotiated solution. Before this, Naga problem was treated as a law and order and security problem. Sri Rao agreed with the argument of the Naga leaders that it is a political problem, and invited them for talks. His initiatives ultimately resulted in a ceasefire agreement with insurgents in August 1997 and led to political talks, bringing peace in Nagaland, and other Naga inhabited areas in other parts of the Northeast.
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Rao garu was perhaps the only Prime Minister, who was harassed by a number of criminal cases against him, while in power and immediately after he left the post. The investigations and trials took years and greatly shattered him. These are the JMM corruption case which dragged on from 1996 to 2002, the St. Kitts case, Lakhubhai Pathan case, etc. In all these cases, ultimately he came out successfully and unscathed. All these cases were instigated by political dissidents.
Many Congressmen, and a few opposition leaders were very upset with the fact that PV garu ordered CBI to launch corruption cases against them on the basis of Jain dairies (so called Jain Hawala case). But Rao had hardly any alternative, as it was the Supreme Court that ordered investigations in this case, and also closely monitored the progress on a weekly basis. It is unfortunate that some of his own party men were unkind to him.
Rao left the PM's position in May 1996, and continued to live in a government house assigned to former Prime Ministers. I also continued to be in Delhi, and frequently met Rao saab at his home. The great man lived a lonely life, busy with his writings and his books.
It is time that the title of BharatRatna is conferred on the great soul, whom Natwar Singh praised in the following words: "His roots were deep in the spiritual and religious soil of India. He did not need to 'Discover India'."
