PV and Congress cannot be separated as @Usha does to absolve PV. Like every leader he had good and bad points, but after he is no more let us remember the good he did esp to change dramatically the Indian economy.
Well said. Instead of picking the holes why people should see his weaknesses. There is no human who has not committed a mistake. It's only those who do not work will not commit mistakes. It should be remembered that the schemers behind the screens made him scapegoat .The weakness of PV was well utilized by the Congress party.
PV will be remembered by the Nation for his economic reforms. Like it or leave it.
Mistakes and criminal acts are two different things. I had earlier also written that Indians have a habit of glossing over things and procrastinating on issues and that is the reason we will never catch up to china or ever dominate the world. Why not call a spade a spade.?
Today's TOI carries a news item stating that a memorial has been built for PV at Delhi where other PM's have memorials. That should satisfy his supporters.
I am of the view that any objective and critical evaluation of a person should not unduly attach greater weightage to any particular facet of his or her character. Late Rao was a kind of character defying all efforts to understand him. A polyglot, a rare scholar, an original thinker. Rao took over the reins when his party was passing through one of its worst crisis and the country the worst ever in the economic domain. And it goes to his that he came wonderfully on top despite leading a minority government. On the seamy his greatest failure for which history won't forgive was to prevent demolition of Babri Masjid. He ought to have acted with firmness and more decisiveness and here again the principal villain Rajiv Gandhi who perpetrated the grand communal thuggery on this nation, first by unjustly denying Shah Bano her basic human and constitutional rights and then shamelessly attempted to offset this outrageous communal act by another flagrant communal act - unlocking the Ram temple at Ayodhya , is seldom mentioned. What Rao inherited was the makings of another Gandhi! All said I don't. consider Rao to be less deserving of a memorial than some whose memorials grace(?) the national capital.
While agreeing with Chimnoy, I'd like to add more facts related to PV as he was fondly remembered
from a snake charmers land to an IT hub and a major economic hub, PV changed the image of India
He revolted against the Nizam and was trained as a guerilla fighter.
He was the first to have questioned the dynasty rule. This made him branded as Arrogant.
Fluent in more than 13 languages, well versed with subjects related to economics, law, history, politics & arts, he was rightly called the scholar among politicians.
Here is an excellent article about PV. Narasimha rao
PV was niether ignored nor insulted. Please understand unless a leader is followed by his or her progeny they are one amongst the so many who come and go. Why do we remember the Ambanis and the Birlas is because of dynastic succession. If PV was followed by his son he too would have recd a different treatment. Who remembers V P Singh or I K gujral or Chandrashekhar or even Advani or Vajpayee. But we remember Nehru and Gandhis because of dynastic successions. PV rose to his peak and has melted away in the pot of time to become a para in India's history. No need to feel sorry or hurt. That is te way of the world.
