Unlike Nehru his knowledge of Sanskrit was profound. Nehru had a temper, PV a temperament. His roots were deep in the spiritual and religious soil of India. He did not need to Discover India. - Natwar Singh Rao is patriotic statesman who believed that the nation is bigger than the political system. - APJ Abdul Kalam His tenure as Chief minister of Andhra Pradesh is well remembered even today for his land reforms and strict implementation of land ceiling acts in Telangana region. He was the first person outside the Nehru-Gandhi family to serve as Prime Minister for five continuous years, the first to hail from southern India and also the first from the state of Andhra Pradesh His cabinet included Sharad Pawar, himself a strong contender for the Prime Ministers post, as Defence Minister. He also broke a convention by appointing a non-political economist and future prime minister, Manmohan Singh as his Finance Minister. When the Indian National Congress split in 1969 Rao stayed on the side of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and remained loyal to her during the Emergency period (1975–77). Adopted to avert impending 1991 economic crisis the reforms progressed furthest in the areas of opening up to foreign investment, reforming capital markets, deregulating domestic business, and reforming the trade regime. Raos governments goals were reducing the fiscal deficit, Privatization of the public sector and increasing investment in infrastructure. Rao energised the national nuclear security and ballistic missiles program, which ultimately resulted in the 1998 Pokhran nuclear tests He increased military spending, and set the Indian Army on course to fight the emerging threat of terrorism and insurgencies, as well as Pakistan and Chinas nuclear potentials. It was during his term that terrorism in the Indian state of Punjab was finally defeated. Raos crisis management after the 12 March 1993 Bombay bombings was highly praised. He personally visited Bombay after the blasts and after seeing evidence of Pakistani involvement in the blasts, ordered the intelligence community to invite the intelligence agencies of the US, UK and other West European countries to send their counter-terrorism experts to Bombay to examine the facts for themselves. Rao decided that India, which in 1991 was on the brink of bankruptcy,[56] would benefit from liberalising its economy. He appointed an economist, Dr. Manmohan Singh, a former governor of the Reserve Bank of India, as Finance Minister to accomplish his goals. This liberalization was criticized by many socialist nationalists at that time. Rao has successfully decimated the Punjab separatist movement and neutralised Kashmir separatist movement. It is said that Rao was solely responsible for the decision to hold elections in Punjab, no matter how narrow the electorate base would be. In 1993, a strong earthquake in Latur, Maharashtra killed nearly 10,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands. Rao was applauded by many for using modern technology and resources to organise major relief operations to assuage the stricken people, and for schemes of economic reconstruction. Rao had great interest in Indian literature among 16 languages. He was very fluent in many languages including his mother tongue Telugu, Marathi, Hindi, English, Tamil, French etc. He was able to speak 17 languages.[11][12] Due to his college education in Fergusson College In Pune, he was very prolific reader and speaker of Marathi. He translated the great Telugu literary work Veyipadagalu of Kavi Samraat Viswanatha Satyanarayana into Hindi as Sahasraphan According to a vernacular source, despite holding many lucrative posts he faced many financial troubles. One of his sons was educated with the assistance of his son-in-law. He also faced trouble in paying fees for a daughter of his who was then studying medicine. According to PVRK Prasad, an IAS officer who was Narasimha Raos media advisor when the latter was Prime Minister, Rao asked his friends to sell away his house at Banajara hills to clear the dues of advocates. Rao suffered a heart attack on 9 December 2004, and was taken to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences where he died 14 days later at the age of 83. In Delhi, his body was not allowed inside AICC building but was cremated with full state honours in Hyderabad
Posted on: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 13:37:10 +0000
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