Book review: 1991 How did PV Narshima Rao made history

Written by: Sanjaya Baru

About the author:

Sanjaya Baru is Distinguished Fellow at United Service Institution of India, New Delhi. He was
Media Advisor and Principal Speechwriter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2004-08. He
has been Editor, Business Standard and The Financial Express; Editorial Page Editor, The Times of
India and Associate Editor, The Economic Times. His publications include Strategic
Consequences of India's Economic Performance (Routledge, 2006), The Political Economy of
Indian Sugar (Oxford University Press, 1990) and The Accidental Prime Minister: The Making and
Unmaking of Manmohan Singh (Penguin/Viking, 2014); India and the World: Essays on Geo-
economics and Foreign Policy (2016). 1991: How PV Narasimha Rao Made History (2016). India's
Power Elite: Class, Caste and a Cultural Revolution (2021); 75 Years of the Indian Economy
(2022).

Summary

P. V. Narasimha Rao (or PV as he was popularly known) has been widely praised for enabling the
economic reforms that transformed the country in 1991. The author with his personal and professional
association with the former prime minister, shows how PV’s impact on the nation’s fortunes went way
beyond the economy.
This book is an insider’s account of the politics, economics and geopolitics that combined to make 1991 a
turning point for India. The period preceding that year was a difficult one for India: economically, due to
the balance of payments crisis; politically, with Rajiv Gandhi’s politics of opportunism taking the country
to the brink; and globally, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, its ally. It was in this period that the
unheralded PV assumed leadership of the Indian National Congress and took charge of the hot seat of
central government as Prime Minister. He restored political stability, pushed through significant
economic reforms and steered India through the uncharted waters of a post-Cold War world. He also
revolutionized national politics, and his own Congress party, by charting a new political course, thereby
proving that there could be life beyond the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty.
1991 marked the end of an era and the beginning of another. It was the year that made PV. And it was the
year PV made history.

It was a watershed year in the history of India, as well as of the world. Chaos prevailed both
inside and outside India. At the beginning of the year, the country on her West, Iraq, was
brought to its knees by America and its allies, on a six-month long war to free Kuwait. This
brought a deep strain on the pockets by raising the price of oil. On her East, USSR, one of
her own long-term allies, was heading on a period of political uncertainty. And, this caused
a lot of trouble to the exports, which mainly depended on USSR. The situation at home was
not much heart warming either. Two prime-ministers came and went in quick succession.
There was no political certainty in the country.
What was even more alarming was the balance-of-payments crisis, with India having the
foreign exchange reserves that could afford for only two-week’s worth of imports. Even if
India had decided to curb all the other imports and spend the scarce reserves only on
crucial commodities of food and oil, this situation would only have worsened. With the credit
rating of the country suffering a serious blow, raising credit in the global markets was
becoming next to impossible. There was the humility of having pledged gold with the banks
of Europe and Japan to raise foreign-exchange. IMF advising India to mend her ways and
show some financial prudence. There were two options ahead of India – either to become a
defaulter, lose credibility and creditworthiness for a long time to come or to implement some
tough but timely measures to steady the ship. In a populous country like India, implementing
any idea or policy that is going to usher in changes, especially some bitter ones, was never
going to be easy. But the cat had to be belled.
The unfortunate assassination of Rajiv Gandhi won for Congress a mandate that was barely
enough to claim the right to rule the country for the next five years. Amidst all that
uncertainty arose an unlikely hero – P.V.Narasimha Rao. This diminutive persona proved
himself worthy by overcoming all those challenges. Apart from recruiting Dr.Manmohan
Singh, who went on to become the Prime Minister himself, and giving him a free hand to
implement the necessary changes in the country’s fiscal policy, Rao did also open up the
Indian industry by doing away with all the cobwebs of ‘License Raj’. Also, at a time when the
Congressmen were en masse falling at the feet of Nehru’s descendants, Rao gave hope by
proving that in the ranks of Congress were capable leaders that could still hold their own
when it came to leading the country.

But, there are quite some ironies in the tale of this memorable Prime Minister. Though a
polyglot, who could converse in nearly two dozen languages, he was known more for his
silence than for his eloquence. A man that was secular and sensible, it was under his
regime that the shameful demolition of Babri Masjid took place, though he had played a vital
role during the struggles against the Hyderabad Nizam in the 1940s. Though he had
achieved many things in the five years with his minority government, the credit for many of
his good initiatives went to his successors. Whether he deserves a Bharat Ratna or not is a
topic worthy of debate and decision.

About the book, well, Sanjaya Baru has done an amazing work with his research and
writing. Many of the books that I have read about History and Economy have all sounded so
dry and dull. But this book feels more like a political thriller than like a work of non-fiction.
The fluent style of Sanjaya Baru, reinforced by his impartial assessment of the prevailing
scenario of that time, makes for interesting reading, though occasionally one gets the
feeling that he tries to depict Narasimha Rao as a man without any faults. Baru makes up
for it by not pulling any punches when it comes to criticizing the dynastic behavior of the
current descendants of the Nehru clan.

This is a book that extensively recounts the economic and political changes in India during
1991. Changes that turned the tide in India’s favor and placed her on the path of economic
progress. Changes that were brought about by an unsung hero that went from being
respected to reviled in a life full of ironies.