P.V. Narasimha Rao, R.I.P.

A statesman, scholar and linguist, Pamulaparti VenkataNarasimha Rao will be remembered for several firsts to his credit during aneventful five years as Prime Minister in the last decade that saw India take anew economic path, the demolition of the controversial Babri Masjid and the riseof the saffron forces.

A hardcore Congressman, Rao, who died at the age of 83,was the first Prime Minister from the South, the first from outside theNehru-Gandhi family to complete a full five-year term and also dubiously thefirst to face criminal charges and accusations in and out of the top office.

However, before his death he was cleared in all thethree cases he faced trial, the relief in the last Lakhubhai Pathak cheatingcase coming just a few months ago.

Born in an agrarian family in Vangara village ofKarimnagar istrict of Andhra Pradesh on June 28, 1921, Rao took over the reignsof the Congress after the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in May 1991 and becamePrime Minister after the staggered Lok Sabha elections in June.

PV, as he was popularly known, would be remembered forinitiating far-reaching economic changes which turned Nehru's public sectorpenchant upside down.

Educated at Osmania, Bombay and Nagpur Universitiesfrom where he took his B.Sc. and LL.B degreees, Rao's political baptism began in1938 during the protest against the Nizam government's ban on singing 'Vande Mataram'in his college.

Rao, a widower, leaves behind three sons and fivedaughters.

A staunch and trusted loyalist of the Nehru-Gandhi family, Rao had the raredistinction of holding important non-economic portfolios at the Centre --External Affairs, Defence and Home at different times in the 1980s. Rao, whosefamous pout was a cartoonists' delight, did not not contest the 1991 electionsand had virtually wound up his establishment here reconciling to politicalretirement.

But fate willed otherwise. After Rajiv Gandhi'sassassination, he became the consensus candidate for the Congress president'spost that put him in the Prime Minister's seat after the elections.

He headed a minority government for sometime and lateracquired a majority strength in the Lok Sabha under controversial circumstanceswhich his detractors said was acquired through dubious means.

After he relinquished power in 1996, he went through adifficult period facing trials in the infamous JMM MPs' bribery case and theLakhubhai Pathak case.

While the lower court convicted him in the briberycase, the Delhi High Court exonerated him later. He was also discharged in theSt Kitt's forgery case.

One who earned the soubriquet "Chanakya" forhis manoeuvering skills, he also came under attack from his own party colleaguesand opposition leaders when his government pursued the "hawala" scamin which they were implicated. The scandal, however, finally met a judicialdeath.

If Rao has left a legacy as Prime Minister, it is because of LPG (Liberalisation,Privatisation, Globalisation) and economic reforms under the then FinanceMinister Manmohan Singh as the duo pulled the country from the economic brink itwas facing at the height of a severe foreign exchange crisis. One black spot ofhis rule was the demolition of the disputed structure at Ayodhya in December1992 and nationwide communal riots that followed.

He was the Union Home Minister when riots erupted afterthe assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984 and even then he was blamed for"criminal inaction".

In 1993, a year after the securities scam, big bullHarshad Mehta created a sensation when he alleged to have handed over to him asuitcase with Rs one crore at his residence. It took a while for Rao to come outof the political crisis that the muck had left behind.

Not many expected him to remain Prime Minister forlong, some even called him the "stop-gap" Premier given his age,ailing health and lack of charisma and grassroot support.

Yet, confounding political pundits, the "meekinheritor" soon emerged as a "power player" and he was in splitswatching one party split after another including Telugu Desam, Shiv Sena andJanata Dal.

But one scam after another made his government highlyunpopular, culminating in defeat of the Congress in the May 1996 Lok Sabhapolls. In September, Rao quit the post of the party president. After beingchargesheeted in St Kitt's forgery and JMM bribery case, he also gave up the CPPleadership.

Rao was the first Prime Minister to have faced criminal charges but herelentlessly fought all the cases. After Sonia Gandhi took over the party reinshe did not contest Lok Sabha polls.

Rao was back to what he did best -- writing -- and cameout with an over 700-page semi-autobiographical tone, "The Insider",released by his arch political rival but close friend and another former PrimeMinister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

His true gift lay in putting across party ideology, andhe played a key role in drafting the political, economic and foreign policyresolutions for the AICC session at Kamagatur Nagar in Chandigarh.

After Emergency was lifted, he was one of the fewprominent Congressmen who withstood the Janata wave and entered the Lok Sabhafrom Hanamkonda in 1977.

Politics, however, was just one of the many interestsof this multi-faceted personality. A Sahitya Ratan in Hindi, Rao was fluent inseveral languages, including Spanish.

Taking a cue from the the Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi,Rao was over 60 years old when he became a computer addict spending hours on hisword processors when most politicians were not computer literate.

The word processors came in handy to draft the newEducation Policy when he was asked to head the newly created Human ResourceDevelopment Ministry in 1986. The Navodaya Vidyalaya scheme was his brainchild.

Later as Prime Minister, "the consensus man" implemented V.P. Singh'spet project, the Mandal Commission report. Rao's Prime Ministership also markedan upswing in Indo-US relations after a summit meeting with the then AmericanPresident Bill Clinton in Washington in 1994.

A science and law graduate from Nagpur University, Raolater lectured at the universities in the US and Germany. He always had a waywith words.

A day before he was sworn in as Prime Minister, hesaid, "As an individual, I feel overwhelmed, utterly humble. But as a representativeof a great party, I feel like a colossus".

Known for his conciliatory manner and ideologicalfirmness, Rao always held his own in any discussion without threatening anybody,making him a successful External Affairs Minister in the Indira and Rajivcabinets. His multi-lingual skills always came in handy.

After the 1992 Ayodhya demolition, he pacified Muslimclerics in chaste Urdu. Later, he was quoting slokas from the Gita whileaddressing the IAS probationers at his residence.

PTI