The Quintessential Rebel

The Quintessential Rebel
A KRISHNA RAO
Translated from Telugu by A.Srinivasa Rao

THE QUINTESSENTIAL REBEL
When I talk about India, it is not about a geographical map

of India that we see in the World Atlas. India is much bigger and
broader. It represents a culture. It represents a philosophy. It says
the entire world is one and the entire universe is one. In Indias
viewpoint, peace does not mean no war; absolute peace is what
happens when everything in the universe is at peace with one
another. This is what the sloka Shanti eva Shanti means.
A young plant requires nurturing, and that, in this stage,

even a stray goat can nibble it away. Once, however, it has grown,
struck deep roots, and developed a trunk with a wide girth, even
elephants can be tied to it. We are now welcoming the elephants.
If a region dominated by Muslims is handed over to

Pakistan, what should we do with the regions dominated by
Christians? Where should they be sent? India is a secular country
inhabited by all sections of people including Hindus, Muslims,
Christians, Parsis etc. People of all religious faiths live in India. We
cannot send people of different religions to different countries and
retain people of only one religion. That is not my ideology. It might
happen in Pakistan but that is not my concern.
P.V. Narasimha Rao

ii
(Latha) 1st Proof (4.1.22)

A. KRISHNA RAO
INDEX
FOREWORD by S. Venkatnarayan
My Word
1. PV A Historical Necessity
2. Ayodhya- From UP to Gujarat
3. Strategies, Counter-Strategies
4. Schemes or Scams?
5. Daring Decisions Within and Outside
6. Politics of Home State
7. Revolutionary Sage
iii
FOREWORD
I am delighted to see that The Quintessential Rebel, the

English version of my good friend A Krishna Raos book in
Telugu ViplavaTapasvi on former Indian Prime Minister PV
Narasimha Rao is now ready.
He wrote the book in Telugu to mark Raos birth centenary
on June 28, 2021. It was released by Vice-President M Venkaiah
Naidu in Hyderabad. Primarily, the book deals with the late leaders
tumultuous tenure in office during 1991-96.
Journalist Krishna Rao arrived in New Delhi in 1992 to cover
national affairs for Udayam, a Telugu daily published from
Hyderabad. He meticulously covered Raos minority government,
the problems it faced from the opposition, and from within the
Congress party, and the successful efforts Indias first Prime Minister
from South India had made to survive in office. He was the first
Telugu to rule India after the Satavahanas, who governed much of
the country between Second Century BCE and early Third Century
CE.
This gave him a ring side view of what went on in the national
capital during those five years that changed India forever. His job
provided him with an opportunity to meet the prime minister, his
officials, ministerial colleagues, leading politicians from the
opposition parties, and Congress leaders from Andhra Pradesh.
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A. KRISHNA RAO
He writes in great detail about how Rao tackled tricky

situations to neutralize ambitious colleagues within the Congress
Party who tried their best to topple him in the hope of occupying
the prime ministerial chair. He also writes about how the opposition
in general, and certain prominent leaders in the Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP) in particular, spared no effort to make life difficult for
Rao. There were three motions of no-confidence moved against
his government. Each time, he survived with great tact and with
help from friends, well-wishers and admirers.
It is a tribute to Raos skills, vision and farsightedness that,
despite heading a minority government, he introduced economic
reforms that liberated India from the notorious Licence Raj to a
free economy, and changed the country and its economy in a way
no one thought was possible at that point of time. He picked Dr
Manmohan Singh, a non-political economist, and gave him the
freedom to do what needed to be done to fix the economy. He
protected Dr Singh by taking all the political flak on himself.
Thirty years ago, our foreign exchange reserves were barely
two billion dollars. We even had to pawn some of our gold with
Swiss banks to pay for our oil imports. Today, our foreign exchange
reserves have crossed $633.56 billion as on August 27, 2021. This
makes India the country with the fourth largest foreign exchange
reserves after China, Japan and Switzerland.
But for the coronavirus pandemic, Indias Gross Domestic
Product (GDP) would have been $3 trillion by now. And more
than 250 million Indians have been brought above the poverty line.
Other benefits and fruits of the reforms we now enjoy are there for
all to see.
v
History will record Narasimha Raos tenure in office as an

important milestone in Indian history. I believe he possessed qualities
that are recommended by Chanakya and Machiavelli to be a good
ruler. I first met Narasimha Rao in December 1979 in Medak in
present day Telangana state when Indira Gandhi had arrived at the
District Collectors office to file her nomination for the Lok Sabha
polls. I kept in regular touch with him till December 23, 2004,
when he breathed his last in New Delhi. Alone. Abandoned. Sad.
Unsung.
Most of my meetings with him used to be after 9pm at his 9,
Motilal Nehru Marg residence before he became Prime Minister.
They were all off-the-record conversations over excellent South
Indian coffee! If he said something that I thought was newsworthy,
I would instinctively take out my notebook and pen from my pocket.
Even before I would open the notebook, Rao would abruptly stop
talking, and say: Put that notebook back in your pocket! He would
resume the conversation only after I heeded his request.
During one such meeting after Mrs Gandhi appointed him as
her External Affairs Minister in January 1980, I asked him: How
come she gave you this portfolio? He replied: After we won the
Lok Sabha polls, she called me one day and said she would like me
to be the External Affairs Minister. I protested, tried to dissuade
her, and said: Madam, I am a vegetarian. I dont touch alcohol. At
my age, I am not particularly fond of travelling across the globe.
And I have not dealt with foreign affairs much. Why me?
He continued: Mrs Gandhi smiled and said: I know all that.
But I think you are better informed about global affairs than anyone
else I can think of. I am confident that you will do a fine job. So,
that was that! Of all the Prime Ministers India has had, Rao was
easily the most literate, well-read and well-informed one. His
attitude to life and power was philosophical. In a manner of speaking,
he comes pretty close to what Plato would call a philosopher-king.
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A. KRISHNA RAO
Once I asked Rao how Mrs Gandhi conducted her cabinet

meetings and took crucial decisions. Apparently, before serious
discussions began, she loved to indulge in small talk and even
exchange notes on the latest gossip! She was curious about the private
lives of some of her more colourful cabinet colleagues. Is it true
that Ms So-and-so is the current girlfriend of Mr So-and-so? she
would query. The ministers would look at each other, simply blush
and keep quiet!
When any issue came up for discussion at a cabinet meeting,
she would ask each one of the ministers to present his or her opinion
on that subject. Finally, she would turn to Rao, and ask: What do
you think, Narasimha Rao ji? He would enumerate the pros and
cons, patiently explain what good would come out of a particular
decision, and what adverse reaction could be expected from the
opposition, the media and the people at large. Mrs Gandhi would
pause for a minute or two, nod her head, and announce her decision.
After her assassination on October 31, 1984, Rajiv Gandhi
became the Congress Party president and the Prime Minister of
India. Rao worked with Rajiv and had held the portfolios of Home,
Defence and Human Resources Development (HRD). Rajiv
detested the then President Zail Singh, and would refuse to call on
him after returning from official foreign trips. Rajiv used to hold
press conferences at the airport whenever he returned from a foreign
trip.
He held one such press conference on his return from a state
visit to the United States during George H W Bushs tenure as
President. He said his visit would improve Indias relations with the
US, that he had established an excellent rapport with President Bush,
that he was now on first-name terms with the US President, and
that he addressed the US President simply as George, and not as
President Bush.
vii
I happened to be at the press meet. I stood up and asked Rajiv:

Its nice that you have established such an intimate relationship
with the American President. What about your relationship with
the Indian President? Rajiv shot back: What about it? Another
journalist got up and said: The Prime Minister briefs the President
after returning home from a foreign visit. But you have not been
briefing President Zail Singh. You are breaking a protocol!
Rajiv retorted: Ive been breaking so many protocols! So
what? The Bofors Scandal broke in April, 1987, and the opposition
was feasting on Rajivs alleged involvement in the kickbacks scam.
Rajiv sacked Vishwanath Pratap Singh as Defence Minister. While
all this was making front page news, I met Rao for one of those
late-night meetings. I asked him how come Rajiv was getting into
trouble so often? Rao said to me: You people gave him such a
massive mandate. Like it or not, you had better put up with him!
I responded: People gave him such a huge mandate because they
thought experienced leaders like you would guide him properly.
Rao said: My dear man, nobody can offer any unsolicited advice
to a Prime Minister! You can express your opinion to a Prime
Minister only when he asks you for it.
In early 1991, Rao had almost retired from active politics and
went back to his home in Warangal. When Rajiv Gandhi was
assassinated by Dhanu, a female activist of the Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam (LTTE) of Sri Lanka, at an election rally at
Sriperumbudur near Chennai on the night of May 21, 1991, Rao
was summoned to rush back to New Delhi. After Sonia Gandhi
refused to accept the Congress Partys president post, the party made
Rao its President on May 23. He was sure to become the Prime
Minister of India!
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A. KRISHNA RAO
That evening, I went to his residence with a request that he

pose for pictures for photographers from the global media, including
a crew from ITN of London and a renowned photographer from
TIME magazine of New York. There would be no interview as
such, I promised. Somewhat reluctantly, he moved to an ante room
and sat on a sofa, Sphinx-like. The photographers needed him to
move his limbs, even talk a bit to get the pictures. But he did neither
for what looked like an eternity. Then I ventured to ask him a few
questionsif only to help my friends get some decent photographs.
It was over in about ten minutes or so. I thanked him and proceeded
to live. He gave me an unhappy look, and said: But you broke
your promise into a thousand pieces! Somewhat sheepishly, I
muttered: I was only doing my bit to ensure that people around
the world get to see what Indias new Prime Minister looks like!
During his prime ministerial days, he was always plagued by
some crisis or the other. So, I would not ask to see him. One evening,
I called up his residence, identified myself to the operator, and asked
to speak to him. He promptly came on the line. After the usual
greetings, I asked him: So, how is it being Prime Minister? How is
it going? He replied: You have to tell me!
While he was Prime Minister, I attended a get-together the
President of India usually hosts on the Republic Day. I walked up
to the enclosure where he was seated with the President, former
Presidents, Prime Ministers, and Sonia Gandhi. I greeted him with
folded hands. Rao acknowledged my greetings and asked with a
smile: I dont see you these days. How come? I replied: As Prime
Minister, you have a million things to worry about! A journalist
shouldnt be troubling you, isnt it? He smiled and nodded his
intellectual head as I quietly moved away and dissolved into a big
crowd of diplomats, politicians, artistes and media folks.
ix
I travelled with Rao on several of his official foreign visits as

Prime Minister. They included two visits to the United States, one
to a Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in Colombia, a Davos
Economic Forum Summit in Switzerland, to Malaysia, Iran, and
Germany.
During my five-decade-long career in journalism, Ive had
the privilege of interacting and interviewing a galaxy of presidents,
prime ministers and kings. In India, they include Indira Gandhi,
Rajiv Gandhi, Morarji Desai, Atal Behari Vajpayee, VP Singh,
Charan Singh, Inder Kumar Gujral, Chandra Shekhar and, of course,
Narasimha Rao. And Rao remains one of my favourites. Not only
because of his modesty, genteel temperament with no airs, his deep
knowledge and understanding of Indias rich literary and cultural
heritage, but also because of what he has done for the country.
I am sure Krishna Raos book will help Indias present generation
understand and appreciate what Narasimha Rao did for the country
during those crucial five years as Prime Minister. History, I am
confident, will surely accord him the honour and space he so richly
deserves.
S Venkat Narayan
New Delhi
September 6, 2021.

A. KRISHNA RAO
MY WORD
I t was one of those summer days in 2003. The time was

around noon. I was standing in a queue at the LIC office at
Mayur Vihar in New Delhi to pay my policy premium. Suddenly,
my mobile phone rang and I picked up the call.
Krishna Rao, I need help from you. Can you please come
to my place? It was the soft voice of P V Narasimha Rao, former
Prime Minister of India. I explained to him my position. I am
going home sir, after paying this bill. I will straightaway come to
your house after taking my lunch, I told him.
At around 2 pm, I went to Narasimha Raos residence at 9,
Motilal Marg. He received me with a smile. Krishna Rao, I have
some copies of old newspaper clippings in PDF format. Is it possible
to convert the matter into text using optical character recognition
(OCR) and edit them? he asked.
If the clippings are of Telugu newspapers, it is difficult sir,
I told him with my little knowledge in computers. Okay, but how
can I convert the text typed in Leap Office into Word? Narasimha
Rao asked. Leap Office was the only software available for most of
the users those days.
xi
Its no big deal, sir. We can save it as RTF (rich text format)
and convert it into word format, I said. Okay, can you please
show me how to do it? he asked. I nodded in affirmative.
He took me to his bedroom. There was a computer with a large
monitor on his table. I switched it on and typed a few lines of a
Telugu poem in Leap Office: NenuSaitham Prapanchaagniki
Samidhanokkati Aahuthichchanu. (Rough translation: I, too,
added some fuel to the fire of the world) and then converted them
into Word format.
Oh, are you a fan of Sri Sri? Narasimha Rao asked with a
surprise in his eyes (Srirangam Srinivasa Rao (30 April 1910 15
June 1983), popularly known as Sri Sri, was an Indian revolutionary
poet in Telugu). He patted my back with affection even as I looked
at him with awe. I suggested to him that if anybody wanted to send
any file in Word format, he should ask them to send the font as
well, so that it could be saved in his computer and used for reading
the text later. I downloaded some of such fonts from my mail and
saved them on his computer.
Narasimha Rao was extremely happy. Very good and
thanks, he said with an appreciation in his eyes. Still, it is difficult
to edit the text, right? he asked. Later, he engaged a data entry
operator and learnt Telugu typing. Many years later, Unicode and
Googles Telugu software came into operation which made typing
of Telugu words easy.
I was transferred to New Delhi as a reporter of Telugu daily
Udayam, a few months after Narasimha Rao took over as the
Prime Minister. Though I met him during his tenure as the Prime
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A. KRISHNA RAO
Minister on certain occasions, I got more opportunities to spend

time with him personally after he stepped down from the hot seat.
I had lengthy discussions with him on many issues and learnt many
things about the decisions taken during his tenure and the Chief
Ministers he had dealt with. I also discussed with him extensively
on the Ayodhya episode. Most of the time, he was busy collecting
books for the Swamy Ramananda Tirtha Trust. You, too, should
look at procuring books for the trust, he told me once.
Narasimha Raos tenure was a watershed in Indian politics,
which laid the foundation for several social, political and economic
changes in the country in the last three decades. The economic
reforms initiated by him completely transformed Indias socio-
political narrative. They also brought a change in the thinking of
the common man. No doubt, the reforms resulted in a disparity
between the rich and the poor, but it is also true that the market
economy penetrated even into the common mans life and
introduced him to the competitive world. It brought about a conflict
as well as complexity in everybodys life; changed human relations
and the dynamics of politics. Interestingly, the economic reforms
also more or less erased the ideological differences among the political
parties in the country.
As a journalist of a vernacular daily posted in the national
capital, I could get an opportunity to witness this whole social,
political and economic transformation in India. I used to attend daily
briefings of Congress spokespersons V N Gadgil and
ChandulalChandrarker. I was an eye-witness to the demolition of
Babri Masjid, which completely changed the countrys political
xiii
scenario. I closely observed how Narasimha Rao, who was preparing

for retirement from politics, got an unexpected opportunity to
become the Prime Minister and took various measures for the larger
interests of the country, while adopting strategies and counter-
strategies to safeguard his minority government for five long years.
The 10th Lok Sabha was unique in many ways. In fact, many
people thought it would not continue for long but would collapse
within a month. They called me an interim Prime Minister,
appointed till the vacancy was filled up. They predicted that even
the term of the Lok Sabha would not last long. But I filled up the
vacancy for five long years. At least, I never thought the government
would fall. I was unmoved even after facing three non-confidence
motions. It was made possible because of my invisible friends, who
cooperated with me in all ways to strengthen democracy,
Narasimha Rao said on the last day of the 10th Lok Sabha on March
12, 1996.
Narasimha Rao did not bother much about the allegations
levelled against him. What seems right to us in politics may not be
considered right by the judiciary, he said. He never craved for
credit for any of his achievements, as he thought he was only
discharging his duty. He knew very well, as a famous Telugu poet
Chemakura Venkata Kavi said in his book Vijaya Vilasam, that
the contemporaries would not appreciate ones achievements
irrespective of ones greatness. Like a statesman, he went on doing
whatever he felt right.
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A. KRISHNA RAO
Former President of India APJ Abdul Kalam rightly observed

that Narasimha Rao was a great patriot and statesman who always
felt the nation was greater than the political system. Except a few
ideologically bankrupt people, nobody, who wants to write the
history of modern India, can ignore the contribution made by
Narasimha Rao in bringing about social, political and economic
transformation in the country after 1991.
In the post-Independence era, if Indias socio-economic
history, starting from Jawaharlal Nehru to Rajiv Gandhi, can be
considered one episode, the next episode began with Narasimha
Rao. It is an undeniable fact that the decisions taken by Narasimha
Rao had given a new dimension to the countrys socio-economic
development and heralded a new world before our eyes. Though
he is not there amongst us now, his era has left an indelible impact
on the country. When we make a detailed analysis of the
revolutionary decisions taken by him, we can understand how deeply
he had thought about each and every decision. One wonders how
many more important decisions he would have taken had he got an
absolute majority of MPs in Parliament like Narendra Modi now
has and his rivals within the Congress not created troubles for him.
Narasimha Rao had a deeper understanding about ancient
Indias cultural roots, Vedas, Upanishads, literature and significance
of ones religious faiths. At the same time, he was equally conscious
about modern thinking and technology. In a way, he was a perfect
blend of old and new thoughts. He kept himself away from extreme
and moderate thinking and adopted a middle path. He was a scholar
who learnt Buddhism; a revolutionary sage who treaded a cautious
xv
path by keeping his mind under control, despite having thoughts of

revolting against the circumstances around him. He was like an
ocean which appears calm at times, despite having the capacity to
create a tsunami with powerful waves. Unfortunately, the Congress
leaders did not realise how leaders like Narasimha Rao with such
creative thoughts were indispensable for the country. In a way, they
distanced themselves from the countrys ideology. In the process of
harming him, these leaders have created a pathetic situation of
disappearing from the annals of history altogether.
When Narasimha Rao was the Prime Minister, I happened
to meet him on quite a few occasions. I attended the All-India
Congress Committee plenary held at Tirupati in 1992. I met him
personally at his felicitation function at Andhra Pradesh Bhavan on
the occasion of the completion of his one year in office. Along with
his relative VodithelaRajeshwara Rao and chairman of our Udayam
newspaper, Congress MP MaguntaSubbarami Reddy, I went to
the Prime Ministers residence at Race Course Road on several
evenings. On one occasion, Rajeshwara Rao took me to Narasimha
Rao for a personal interaction.
I used to gather a lot of information from former election
commissioner and former member-secretary of Law Commission
GVG Krishna Murthy, who was very close to Narasimha Rao and
also from Kuchi Suryanarayana, former media advisor to President
of India Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy. I was regularly enquiring with
them about the developments in the Prime Ministers Office, besides
various issues they had discussed with him and other Delhi politics.
Suryanarayana was also looking into the affairs of Udayam daily for
some time.
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A. KRISHNA RAO
I also used to interact with Prime Ministers OSD A V R

Krishna Murthy. Similarly, I developed acquaintance with Union
home secretary Padmanabhaiah by interviewing him soon after he
assumed charge. Whenever there was an opportunity, I used to sit
with him and get useful information. I also met another senior IAS
officer in the PMO B N Yugandhar through popular writer
Chalasani Prasad. Though I spoke to him only a few times, I could
collect very crucial information.
Those days, the office of Udayam daily was on the premises
of Congress MP Dronamraju Satyanarayana at Feroz Shah Road.
Dronamraju, too, used to meet Narasimha Rao regularly and he
was a major source of information for me. When I joined Udayam
in New Delhi, senior journalist AdirajuVenkateshwar Rao was
already working there and through him, I came to know a lot about
Delhi politics in general and Narasimha Rao in particular. Later, he
handed over the charge to me and returned to Hyderabad, but I
continued to be in touch with him over the phone. I could get a lot
of perspective on various national issues, thanks to my association
with several senior journalists like Sanjaya Baru, S Venkatanarayan,
Sam Rajappa from The Statesman, Tankasala Ashok from Andhra
Prabha, P A Rama Rao from Deccan Chronicle, G Valleeshwar
from Eenadu, Ganapathi from UNI and former Indian Express editor
G S Bhargava.
I happened to meet former President of India Gyani Zail Singh
and Kota Rama Sharma, editor of National Herald, on many
occasions and learnt many things from them. Similarly, Khandekar
and Chetan Sharma, who were working in PMO, used to like me
xvii
very much and it was through them, I could meet Narasimha Rao
after he became a former Prime Minister. I used to get New Year
greeting cards from the PMO every year and also frequent phone
calls requesting me to arrange copies of Udayam daily.
In 1993, the PMO included my name in the list of media
persons accompanying Narasimha Rao on his Oman trip. During
the three-day tour, I got an opportunity to interact with him. I had
yet another invite from the PMO to be part of the media delegation
travelling along with him to the USA as well. But I lost the
opportunity to record the historic tour as my editor
PotturiVenkateshwar Rao himself evinced interest in the US tour.
However, soon after Narasimha Rao returned from the US, I went
to Hyderabad House to gather the details of the tour. I was also
meeting the Prime Ministers media advisor P V R K Prasad and get
my doubts cleared on various issues which were making headlines
those days. He was giving a lot of off-the-cuff information and I
was using them to write special stories in my paper.
It was not just the developments during the heyday of
Narasimha Rao, I also got an opportunity to follow the happenings
during his last days. Nobody, except Youth Congress leader
Maninder Singh Bitta, used to come to his residence at Motilal Nehru
Marg, while there was a lot of hustle-bustle at 10, Janpath, across
the road. Even party leaders from Andhra Pradesh had almost stopped
calling on him.
I was a spectator to Narasimha Rao running around courts to
wriggle out of cases foisted against him, getting admitted to the
hospital with deteriorating health condition and finally breathing
his last. I was also a witness to the tragic incident of the Congress
leadership refusing to allow his mortal remains into the AICC
premises.
xviii

A. KRISHNA RAO
Recording histories of fake leaders and burying histories of

real heroes in New Delhi, the city of tombs, is all part of the
contemporary degenerative history. As a journalist, initially I thought
of writing a book, recording the historic developments that I had
witnessed in New Delhi, starting with the regime of Narasimha
Rao to that of Narendra Modi. But I thought it was very essential
to write a book exclusively on Narasimha Rao on the occasion of
his birth centenary.
I owe a debt of gratitude to Managing Director of Andhra
Jyothi Vemuri Radhakrishna, senior editors A B K Prasad,
GajjelaMalla Reddy, K N Y Patanjali, PotturiVenkateshwar Rao,
K Ramachandra Murthy and I Venkat Rao, who encouraged me
in the profession and gave me an opportunity to work in New Delhi
during the tenure of Narasimha Rao as Prime Minister.
As the birth centenary year of Narasimha Rao commenced in
June 2020, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao was
the first person to acknowledge the same and appointed a committee
for holding the year-long celebrations. This has led to a nation-
wide debate on Narasimha Rao and his significance in Indian
history.
Most of the issues I mentioned in this book were based on my
news reports and columns published in various dailies like Udayam,
Andhra Jyothy and Andhra Pradesh Times. I am thankful to the
publishers for taking up the publication of this book.
Lastly, I thank my younger brother A Srinivasa Rao, Senior
Assistant Editor of Hindustan Times, who has burnt the midnight
oil to translate my book into English. I thank veteran journalist Sri
S Venkata Narayan for writing the foreword to my book giving
insights of PVs character.
- A Krishna Rao
xix
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A Krishna Rao is a senior journalist from Telangana based

out of New Delhi. He is presently working as Associate
Editor in Andhra Jyothy Telugu daily in the New Delhi bureau. A
post graduate in English literature and journalism, Krishna Rao has
38 years of experience in the field, including 29 years in the national
capital. His long presence in New Delhi as a senior journalist has
brought him into the inner circle of politicians, jurists, bureaucrats,
literary and cultural personalities at the national level. He has written
a wide range of articles from politics to economics to literature.
Popularly known as Krishnudu in literary circles, Krishna Rao
authored quite a few books on contemporary politics and literary
criticism, apart from compilation of poems.
His weekly column India Gate in Andhra Jyothi Telugu
daily on the contemporary political developments is widely
acclaimed as the most popular column in Telugu journalism having
a deep insight into the national politics. His column Delhi Dateline
in Udayam Telugu daily in 80s also received wide appreciation.
His sharp and incisive criticism on present-day politics has been a
syllabus for new generation journalists.
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A. KRISHNA RAO
Besides being a prolific writer, Krishna Rao has also been a

good orator and has won several prizes and awards, including
MoturiHanumantha Rao Award, N R Chendur Award, Tapi
Dharma Rao Award, Bharat Gaurav Award, Mother Teresa Award,
AluruBairagi Award. He received Sahitya Academy award for
translation for his Telugu translation of famous Kashmiri poet Padma
Sachdevs poetry.
As part of his professional assignments, Krishna Rao toured
several countries including Russia, China, Pakistan, Sri Lanka,
Australia, Oman and Germany.
Books Published:
India Gate (A compilation of articles on contemporary political
scenario) released by M Venkaiah Naidu, S Jaipal Reddy and Sitaram
Yechuri
Nadusthunna Heena Charitra (A book on Indian political
system) released by former Union home secretary Padmanabhaiah,
eminent jurist Dr P P Rao and Padma Bhushan Dr Yarlagadda
Lakshmi Prasad
AaksaamKolpoyinaPakshi (The bird which lost the sky, a
compilation of poems) released by Sahitya Academy president and
Jnanpith awardee Chandrasekhara Kambara
Translated three books on former Prime Minister P V
Narasimha Rao, Smt Indira Gandhi and on bifurcation of Andhra
Pradesh by former Union minister Jairam Ramesh
xxi
Translated award-winning book of Dogri poet Padma Sachdev

A handful of sun and other poems for Sahitya Academy · Translated
a book on Emergency by A Surya Prakash, former chairman, Prasara
Bharathi.
· Translated award-winning book of Dogri poet Padma
Sachdev A handful of sun and other poems for Sahitya
Academy ·
. Translated a book on Emergency by A Surya Prakash,
former chairman, Prasara Bharathi.
· Book on Telugu writer GurajadaAppa Rao, translated
into Kannada by Kuvempu Bhasha Bharati Pradhikara,
Bangalore.
· Krishnapaksham, a compilation of literary articles ·
. Forthcoming book PV to Modi.
xxii

A. KRISHNA RAO
ABOUT THE TRANSILATOR
S rinivasa Rao Apparasu is a senior journalist based out of

Hyderabad, with 34 years of experience in English
journalism. He has worked for several English dailies like Newstime,
Deccan Chronicle and India Today.
He is presently working as Senior Assistant Editor for
Hindustan Times English daily, covering political and social
developments of the twin Telugu states, apart from doing human
interesting stories for the national daily.
A post-graduate from Osmania University, Rao has earned
reputation as a journalist with passion, vision and dedication. He
broke several exclusive stories that created sensation in the media in
Delhi, when he was working for the India Today Group.
He had specialised in fields of Energy, Industries, Finance and
Irrigation sectors, in which he had written a number of articles during
his stint in various publications. He extensively toured all parts of
Andhra Pradesh to do exclusive stories on Naxalism, social issues
like Prohibition, Drought, Starvation Deaths and Migration of
Labour.
He interacted with prominent personalities including Atal
Behari Vajpayee, L K Advani, Deve Gowda and P V Narasimha
Rao. Covered meetings of all Prime Ministers and other VIPs,
besides tours of foreign dignitaries including Bill Clinton, Bill Gates,
Tony Blair, George Bush and Ivanka Trump to Hyderabad.
He toured Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and China
as part of the State official delegation on a study tour and interacted
with political and business leaders of these countries.
xxiii
PV NARASIMHA RAO,
A HISTORICAL NECESSITY
I t is a success story which has not been recorded in history...

was the comment made by the World Economic
Forum president on the rule of former Prime Minister of India P V
Narasimha Rao in 1994.
What is history? Who makes history? Many historians made
an attempt to find answers to these questions. Men make their
own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not
make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances
existing already, given and transmitted from the past, said
philosopher Karl Marx.
If history is not scripted based on facts but on emotions, it
cannot be called history. It is either fiction or a farce. History is a
commentary on a subject based on facts. These facts cannot be
changed even by a historian. Facts are important, but the quality
of the interpretation of the facts is more important, says noted British
historian E H Carr.
Whether conditions were inevitable or congenial for
economic reforms in India is a matter of ideological debate. Whether
there was no other option but to go in for economic reforms is also
a debatable issue. Some people argue that India would not have
opted for economic reforms had the conditions not been suitable for
the same. But how long had there been such suitable conditions
for reforms in India? Why didnt the leaders before 1991 dare
introduce reforms? These are also debatable questions.
The exercise to introduce economic reforms in India, in fact,
started in late 60s during the regime of Indira Gandhi and was later
followed up by her son Rajiv Gandhi. In 1969, Indira Gandhi
nationalised banks, but after her return to power in 1980, she started
liberalising economic policies to some extent, in terms of granting
industrial licenses etc. She also constituted a committee headed by
Arjun Sengupta for restructuring the public sector.
However, Yoginder Alagh, a former Union minister and
Senguptas long-time colleague and friend, said the reforms
championed by Sengupta those days were our own, not big bang
IMF/World Bank reform initiatives.
Rajiv Gandhi, who succeeded his mother in 1984, too, made
some efforts to take the reforms process forward to some extent. He
removed controls over imports and entrusted the Planning
Commission with the responsibility of preparing a detailed agenda
for industrial policy reforms, which called for a more liberal policy
towards foreign investment, relaxation of restrictions on growth of
private industry and regulation of capital market.
However, the attempts of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi
were half-hearted. They did not go in for large scale structural
reforms. They did not dare touch the public sector, nor did they
make an attempt to bridge the huge gap between exports and
imports. They did not even bother to study rapidly changing global
economic and political conditions and take measures accordingly.
2

A. KRISHNA RAO
Vishwanath Pratap Singh, who succeeded Rajiv Gandhi in

1989, and led the National Front government, too, had some fresh
ideas on reforms. He prepared a radical agenda of reforms with the
help of his advisor Montek Singh Ahluwalia, but he lacked the
courage to implement the agenda.
His successor Chandra Shekhar, heading the minority
government of Samajwadi Janata Party, had neither will nor the
opportunity to implement economic reforms, notwithstanding the
fact that he had Dr Manmohan Singh as his economic advisor and
Yashwant Sinha as his finance minister.
Over a period of time, the leadership of the country realized
the importance of reforming the economic sector in tune with the
changing conditions in the country, but they lacked political will
and determination to implement them. As a result, suggestions made
by various economists remained only on paper.
There is no substance in the arguments that Rajiv Gandhi
would have introduced radical economic reforms had he won the
elections in 1991. When he was the Prime Minister, he had evinced
some interest in taking up economic reforms in the first half of his
regime, but subsequently, he backtracked on the same, despite
having an overwhelming majority in Parliament. Political scientist
Atul Kohli pointed out that after a good beginning in 1985 when
he introduced modest fiscal and industrial liberalisation, Rajiv
Gandhi abandoned these initiatives after two years, as he was afraid
of the vested interests.
3
As a result, the current account deficit worsened, while

domestic and foreign debts continued to mount at an alarming rate.
His finance minister Narayan Dutt Tiwari did not focus on additional
revenue generation while expenditure went up steeply.
Bimal Jalan, then chief economic advisor and secretary,
banking, who warned Rajiv Gandhi of an impending economic
crisis due to wrong fiscal policies of the government, was forced to
step down and he left for the World Bank. Gopi Arora, who was his
special secretary, also made an attempt to advise Rajiv Gandhi, to
reduce expenses and go to the International Monetary Fund for
borrowing. He later became the executive director of the IMF.
Even IMF managing director Michael Camdessus, who came
down to New Delhi to meet the top officers, gave his piece of mind
to Rajiv Gandhi, but the latter did not bother to listen to him keeping
in view the ensuing elections. As a result, the fiscal deficit mounted
to Rs 11,750 crore in 1989-90, which was 10 times more than
what it was a decade ago.
In fact, at the Congress Working Committee meeting held
on February 19, 1991, Pranab Mukherjee submitted a
comprehensive document on the grave financial position of the
country. Rajiv Gandhi, who chaired the meeting, himself admitted
that India was going through a severe financial crisis, it had no forex
reserves to repay international borrowings and that it was not in a
position to even import fertilisers.
Yet, the Congress leadership could not come to a decision on
the economic reforms as suggested by Pranab Mukherjee. Had the
party taken any decision implementing the reforms agenda, it would
have definitely been incorporated in the form of a new economic
policy in the partys election manifesto in 1991.

A. KRISHNA RAO
Thus, Rajiv Gandhi, despite his party winning more than 400
MPs in the Lok Sabha elections post-assassination of Indira Gandhi,
did not show any direction to the country on improving theeconomy
of the country. While neighbouring China was forging ahead to
emerge a modern economic force in the world by introducing
reforms 13 years ago, Indian leadership failed to rise to the occasion
and catch up with China in implementing speedy reforms. India
remained a financially weak nation, thanks to the vote-bank politics
of our leaders, their lack of understanding about global scenarios
and prevailing political conditions.
A series of politico-economic changes across the world also
led to further crippling of Indias economy. Exports nosedived due
to the collapse of the Soviet Union and its controlled economy,
besides rapidly changing developments in Eastern Europe. Crude
oil prices shot up abnormally due to the Iraq-Kuwait war. India
was facing political instability due to the change of three Prime
Ministers between November 1989 and June 1991 and confidence
levels in the investors were abysmally low.
India was heading towards a virtual bankruptcy. The credit
ratings given by international agencies indicated the collapse of the
Indian economy. It was getting increasingly impossible to borrow
more funds from foreign banks as the balance of payments situation
was extremely alarming. The fiscal deficit reached 8 percent of the
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and foreign debts accounted for 41
per cent of the GDP.
5
India plunged into a pathetic financial position following

skyrocketing crude oil prices by three times on account of Gulf
war, reverse migration of thousands of Indian workers from the
Gulf countries and withdrawal of bank deposits by non-resident
Indians on a large scale. The country ran out of forex reserves and
they could sustain only for two weeks before the country was on
the brink of being declared bankrupt.
Under those circumstances, the Chandra Shekhar government
had to face the ignominious situation of pledging gold reserves to
raise foreign loans to meet the external payment obligation. On
May 16, 1991, India leased 20 metric tonnes of confiscated gold,
worth US $ 200 million, to the State Bank of India for sale to the
Union Bank of Switzerland. It was an unprecedented, worst-ever
scenario India had ever faced.
P V Narasimha Rao, who succeeded Chandra Shekhar a few
months later, quickly understood the crisis the Indian economy was
going through. He realised that there were no soft options before
the government and it was time to take hard decisions to safeguard
the countrys economic independence. He took the bold decision
to initiate economic reforms, heralding a new economic culture in
the country.
In the initial days of his regime, Narasimha Rao never sought
to project himself as an architect of economic reforms and gave an
impression that he was turning around the countrys economy. The
main reason for this was that he was facing stiff resistance from within
the Congress on one side, and the Left parties, which had been
strongly opposing any kind of reforms, on the other.
6

A. KRISHNA RAO
Within the Congress party, there were forces which did not
digest the fact that Narasimha Rao, a leader from South, ascended
the throne of Prime Minister. Therefore, he had to tread a cautious
path to first settle down in his position. He was calculative in taking
every decision and uttering every word.
He was aware of the presence of a large number of loyalists of
Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi in the party and more particularly,
the dominance of Rajiv Gandhis followers. So, whenever
Narasimha Rao had to address the party functionaries on any forum,
he did not forget to repeatedly invoke the names of Nehru, Indira
Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. He knew he was going to take
revolutionary decisions, which were against their ideological
thoughts, but he sought to create an impression that he was following
their footsteps. He described his thought process as a transformation
through evolution.
There was a reason for Narasimha Rao claiming that he was
only following the Nehruvian model. Though Nehru adopted the
model of mixed economy, he had given a lot of priority to the
private sector, as was evident from the statistics. Communist leaders
like Ajay Ghosh acknowledged Nehru as a socialist, but pointed
out that he had also followed the philosophy of capitalism. In the
first two Five-Year Plans, private expenditure was more than public
expenditure and the private sector made a predominant contribution
to the Gross Domestic Product.
During 1950-51, the private sector accounted for 90 per cent
of the national income. This had come down to 85 per cent in
1960-61. During this period, the share of the public sector in the
7
national income had risen from 7.4 per cent to 10.7 per cent. Even
during the Nehru regime, there was an increase in the foreign direct
investment and stakes of foreign companies in the Indian private
sector also went up substantially.
That was precisely why Socialist Congress leader Jayaprakash
Narayan accused Nehru of trying to build socialism based on the
capitalist model. Historian Sarvepalli Gopal, who wrote a biography
on Nehru observed that the planned development during the Nehru
regime did not lay the path for socialism, but encouraged capitalist
approach in industries and agriculture. There were also comments
that the First Five-Year Plan had been influenced by industrialists
like J R D Tata, G D Birla, A D Shroff and John Matthai.
It was an undeniable fact that big business houses had provided
election funds to the Congress party. But that doesnt mean one can
draw a comparison between the reforms process initiated by
Narasimha Rao and the Nehruvian model of economy.
In fact, the Nehru government had a tight hold over private
investments in India. The Industrial Development Regulatory Act
introduced in 1951 brought several sectors, including atomic energy,
railways and roads under the control of the Central government.
The same Act decided the priorities of industrial expansion and
increased the government control over private industries. It
introduced licence raj in 1952 and it even imposed restrictions on
production of goods.

A. KRISHNA RAO
Therefore, the reforms process initiated by Narasimha Rao

were in sharp contrast to the policies of Nehru. Yet, he deliberately
chose to create an impression that there were no differences between
his policies and that of Nehru. He used to take the name of Nehru
as frequently as possible in his speeches, only to silence his critics
within the Congress. He used to argue, rather subtly, that Nehru
had left agriculture to the private sector.
Naturally, it satisfied the ego of the Congress leaders who
thought Narasimha Rao was only continuing Nehrus policies. But
they failed to realise that he was completely transforming Indias
economy. He appeared to be going two steps backward, but, in
fact, he was only making four steps forward. Very cleverly, he
overhauled the Nehruvian policies.
If one has to understand Narasimha Raos economic
philosophy, one has to deeply study his speech at the All-India
Congress Committee (AICC) plenary held at Tirupati in April
1992,where he spoke about The Tasks Ahead, and the Middle
Path between free-market economy and state socialism. He
extensively quoted Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv
Gandhi in support of his policies.
Giving a clarion call of continuity with change while
delivering the presidential speech, Narasimha Rao asserted that
democracy, secularism, socialism and non-alignment had been the
four ideological pillars of the Congress. He said Nehruvian policies
were still fundamental and necessary to the countrys progress.
Though some people were of the view that Socialist India dreamt
by Nehru was not possible in the changing context, it was not
correct, he said.
9
Stating that one should try to strike a balance between

individual benefits and community benefits, Narasimha Rao said as
a matter of fact, there was no big difference between the two.
Recalling the words of Nehru that the private sector, too, should
be allowed to play its role, he emphasised on the need to bring in
reforms in the public sector.
He pointed out that more than Rs 1 lakh crore was spent on
the public sector, but the results of this investment were far below
the expectations. Therefore, in the coming days, expansion of the
public sector should be done in a calculated manner. He suggested
that the public sector should be made healthy and profitable. At the
same time, he observed that the doors of the economy should be
opened very cautiously and calculatedly; otherwise, it would result
in economic disparities in the society.
Three years after he stepped down from the Prime Ministers
post, Narasimha Rao delivered the second JRD Tata Memorial
Lecture organised by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and
Industry (ASSOCHAM) at Hotel Meridian in New Delhi, wherein
he explained the rationale behind the economic reforms introduced
by him.
Making it clear that he wanted liberalisation to grow as a
sturdy child, he said the reforms, embarked upon in 1991, envisaged
a large portion of infrastructure investment by private enterprise
and investment in human resources by the government.
He said India had to find employment for its teeming millions
through industrialisation and needs huge investments in
infrastructure in power, oil, telecommunications, fertilisers and, of
course, agriculture and irrigation, apart from roads, railways and
10

A. KRISHNA RAO
ports. This immediate need makes it inevitable to follow the present

technologies for some time; yet even in this the technology that is
flexible enough to admit of later modifications to suit changing
considerations, if available, must get reference, he said.
Describing information technology as a new weapon of
progress, he said it had mind-boggling possibilities in the coming
century. He said there was a need to explore the full potential of
this field well in advance.
I lost one job (Chief Ministers post) trying to implement a
socialistic programme. And as if to balance it, I have also lost another
job (Prime Ministers post) trying to liberalise what had tended to
become insensitive somehow after the socialist process, though not
because of it, I am convinced. In both cases, I have found some
surprisingly similar some even identical causes for the results
that accrued, he remarked.
He must have made these comments keeping in view the
defeat of the Congress in the assembly elections held in various states
including his home state of Andhra Pradesh and finally across the
country in 1996 Parliament elections, despite the reforms process
picking up pace. But he knew there were political reasons behind
the defeat of the Congress.
Narasimha Rao had a comprehensive vision on attracting
investments in India. He said India needed large scale investments,
not just for taking up welfare programmes for the people, but also
for creating basic infrastructure facilities for them. If the private sector
could invest in a big way in infrastructure development, the
government could focus on investments in human resources
development and rural development, he said.
11
He was of the view that there is a close relationship between

the quantum of happiness and the quantum of consumption.
Professor Galbraith and several others have written of the wisdom
and need to perceive the difference between luxury and necessity, a
topic that was considered elementary in our economic textbooks
long ago. It seems to have been practically given up in recent years
and everything is seen as a necessity today. The Indian housewife is
the best judge of this very real distinction, he said.
He went on to say that consumer satisfaction undoubtedly
gives pleasure, and pleasure is an essential ingredient of good, but
pleasure and good cannot be taken as identical. There must surely
be a social, psychological and perhaps spiritual content of the good,
which is highly intangible but equally an experienceable
phenomenon, though it is not purely market-determined.
He advocated industrialists of the country to find equilibrium
among three factors: The level of material benefits necessary for a
human being to attain his full creative potential; the level of
exploitation of nature consistent with its own needs to replenish
itself; and the need to ensure comparable benefit to the vast masses
of people and lift the social pyramid as a whole.
There is a specific reason for Narasimha Rao choosing Dr
Manmohan Singh as his finance minister. He was aware that
Manmohan Singh was worried only about the countrys economy
and that he would not divert his attention on political issues.
Ironically, most of the pro-Congress writers, who wrote books about
Narasimha Rao sought to give the entire credit of implementing
economic reforms in the country to Manmohan Singh. But they
12

A. KRISHNA RAO
conveniently ignored the fact that Manmohan Singh was only a

tool in the hands of the Prime Minister and the real credit for
introducing economic reforms in the country undoubtedly goes
only to Narasimha Rao.
One should also remember that Manmohan Singh was the
financial advisor to the Chandra Shekhar government at the time of
pledging gold reserves with foreign banks to repay external debts.
And when he became Prime Minister of the country nearly eight
years after Narasimha Rao, he failed to carry forward the economic
reforms process in the same pace as he had when he was the finance
minister. It clearly shows how Manmohan Singh could not function
independently.
Similarly, if one were to study the policies enunciated by Manmohan
Singh in the Five-Year Plan when he was the deputy chairman of
the Planning Commission, one could notice that they were
completely in contrast to what he had implemented as the finance
minister in the Narasimha Rao cabinet.
Soon after being elected as the Congress Parliamentary Party
leader, Narasimha Rao called his cabinet secretary Naresh Chandra,
finance secretary S P Shukla and chief economic advisor Deepak
Nayyar and discussed with them about the countrys financial
position. They explained to him that India was going through the
worst-ever financial crisis.
It was then Narasimha Rao decided to appoint an economist,
rather than a politician, as the finance minister. He asked his close
aide P C Alexander (who was principal secretary of Indira Gandhi)
13
to suggest a couple of names. Initially, he thought of appointing

IndravadanGoverdhanbhai Patel (I G Patel), former governor of
Reserve Bank of India and then director of London School of
Economics as the finance minister. But Patel refused to accept the
offer and therefore, Narasimha Rao selected Manmohan Singh.
Addressing the nation through All India Radio and
Doordarshan on June 22, 1991, a day after taking over as the Prime
Minister, Narasimha Rao made his stand very clear. The
government is committed to removing the cobwebs that come in
the way of rapid industrialisation. We will work towards making
India internationally competitive, taking full advantage of modern
science and technology and opportunities offered by the evolving
global, he said.
He explained the prevailing situation in the country and what
the people have to do to safeguard the countrys economic
independence. The economy is in shambles. The balance of
payments situation is exceedingly difficult. Inflationary pressure on
the price-level is considerable. There is no time to lose. The
government and the country cannot keep living beyond their
meansand there are no soft options left. We must tighten our belts
and be prepared to make the necessary sacrifice to preserve our
economic independence which is an integral part of our vision for a
strong nation, he said.
In fact, his first speech as the Prime Minister deserves to be
compared with that of first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in the
Central Hall of Parliament on the day when India achieved
Independence. But historians deliberately did not attach much
significance to Narasimha Raos speech.
14

A. KRISHNA RAO
By then, it had been just 24 hours since Manmohan Singh

assumed charge as finance minister. And he did not announce any
industrial policy statement. Yet, Narasimha Rao explained his views
without any ambiguity. It showed his authority and clarity on what
changes India was going to witness in the coming days.
Three days after taking oath as the finance minister on June
21, 1991, Manmohan Singh met Narasimha Rao in his chamber
and had no clue as to what the latter had in his mind. He told the
Prime Minister that India urgently needed to borrow at least 5000
million US dollars to wriggle out the grave financial position.
Though it would be enough to borrow 2000 million dollars for the
immediate needs, it would be better to borrow a larger amount
keeping in view the future needs, he suggested.
A senior bureaucrat said Manmohan Singh was stunned when
Narasimha Rao, without batting an eyelid, told him smilingly: I
know. You can go ahead. Within minutes of getting the nod from
the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh went to his chambers and
wrote a letter to IMF Managing Director Michel Camdessus, seeking
a structural adjustment loan for undertaking structural reforms that
would be in tune with Indias social objectives to the extent possible.
Within no time of coming to power, Narasimha Rao realised
that it was inevitable for India to strike a deal with the World Bank
and IMF and implement economic reforms. He summoned Gopi
Arora, who was the executive director in IMF, and discussed with
him on the way forward. He submitted an unofficial note on the
issues to be discussed with the IMF, including removal of licence
raj for industrial sector, changes in Foreign Exchange Regulation
15
Act (FERA), amendments in Monopolies and Restrictive Trade

Practices Act (MRTP), reforms in electricity sector and slashing of
subsidies etc.
While preparing the ground for implementation of reforms
in a big way, Narasimha Rao also held internal discussions with
opposition party leaders including Janata Dal leader Chandra
Shekhar, BJP leader L K Advani and CPI (M) leader Harikishan
Singh Surjeet. Later, he convened an all-party meeting to place the
reforms blueprint before them. Since he had already held discussions
with most of the opposition leaders, he did not face any rumblings
in the meeting. It was his master strategy.
Noted economic and social commentator Gurucharan Das,
in his book India Unbound, said the economic revolution brought
in by Narasimha Rao in the second half of 1991 was more significant
than the political revolution of Jawaharlal Nehru in 1947. He,
however, observed that Narasimha Rao had lacked confidence in
his own revolution. The Economist described India as a tiger
uncaged.
Gurcharan Das asserted that the entire credit for economic
reforms should go to Narasimha Rao, though many assumed that it
was Manmohan Singh who was responsible for implementing the
reforms.
In an interview to Gurcharan Das after relinquishing his office,
Narasimha Rao said development was essential to eradicate poverty
but at the same time, it was inevitable to implement job-oriented
schemes for employment generation.
16

A. KRISHNA RAO
Stating that he was against privatisation of the public sector,

Narasimha Rao said he had made the public sector compete with
the private sector. You cannot strangle your own child to death,
he said. Das quoted him as saying that reforms should be carried
forward at a certain pace and any unwarranted aggression would
lead to a major disaster.
All his reforms were soft: They did not really mean job losses
for organised labour or an attack on subsidies, Gurcharan Das said.
Narasimha Rao never tried to cut down jobs in the organised sector
and slash subsidies. At the same time, he never boasted of achieving
a complete turnaround of the economy. It was because of his steady
and cautious approach, India could successfully withstand all forms
of turbulence, while many other countries plunged into crisis during
the course of implementing reforms. Narasimha Rao implemented
his plans strategically to ensure that India did not face such a crisis
situation.
Narasimha Rao was aware that it was meaningless to
implement reforms if the trade policies were not amended in tune
with the economic policies. That was why he appointed P
Chidambaram as his commerce minister and used his expertise.
He made the first move towards reforms on the trade front
with a key decision of devaluation of Indian rupee on July 1, 1991
and a bolder second devaluation two days later. In fact, Chidambaram
was a little hesitant in abolishing the export subsidy. Manmohan
Singh tried to convince him that the fiscal deficit could be reduced
as export subsidies had become meaningless due to devaluation of
rupee. But Chidambaram, who belonged to the old school of
thought, argued that subsidy was essential to encourage exports.
17
Manmohan Singh told Chidambaram firmly: Take a decision

at the earliest. The Prime Minister wants it to be announced by
tomorrow. Chidambaram was surprised and had no option but to
make the proposals ready by the same evening. He proposed to
make Indian currency convertible on the trade account by shifting
to a market-oriented exchange rate. It took eight hours for them to
abolish the 40-year-old licence raj in foreign trade sector.
On the night of July 3, 1991, Manmohan Singh,
Chidambaram and Montek Singh Ahluwalia went to the Prime
Ministers residence. Narasimha Rao, looking fresh after taking his
evening bath, gave a patient hearing to the proposals read out by
Chidambaram.
Later, he turned to Manmohan Singh and asked: Are you
okay with these proposals?
Manmohan Singh nodded in affirmative.
Then, you sign the proposals, the Prime Minister told him.
After the finance minister signed on the document, Narasimha Rao,
too, signed beneath it. Sometimes, it takes months or even years to
make a decision in any government. But these four leaders took
these decisions with a breakneck speed and they turned out to be
revolutionary in the coming years.
On July 4, Chidambaram announced strong trade reforms.
While extending support to exports, he ended the perverse system
of import controls and simplified import policies. The discretionary
powers of the government in the form of trade licensing were done
away with. The Prime Minister kept the portfolio of industries with
himself to take up industrial reforms.
18

A. KRISHNA RAO
Addressing the Congress Parliamentary Party on July 9,

Narasimha Rao explained his priorities without mincing words. He
declared that overhauling the countrys economy from the grassroots
level was on the top of his agenda. He said he would announce
strong industrial reforms in the next four days.
In an interview to K K Katyal of The Hindu on July 7, 1991,
Narasimha Rao said India would have lost its economic
independence had he not introduced reforms. He said the situation
would have been worse if India had been acknowledged as a nation
that defaulted loans. In another interview to The Indian Express
Editor Prabhu Chawla a day later, he said it was inevitable for him
to take hard decisions to prevent India from plunging into an
irrecoverable vicious cycle. We mean business now. The country
could not wait any longer. These decisions should have been taken
long ago, he said.
Later, Narasimha Rao addressed the nation for the third time
through Doordarshan and All India Radio. In the wake of the
commencement of Parliament sessions from July 10, 1991, he
thought he would send political indications directly to the people.
Stating that the countrys economy is sick and sinking, he said
his government was taking speedy and bold measures to make the
economy healthy and robust. He said first steps had already beenmade
in that direction and there would be more reforms and changes that
would have far-reaching consequences. He explained in detail how
the countrys economy had plunged into the crisis during the
previous two regimes.
19
We have no other choice but to take hard decisions, he

said and explained in lucid terms why India needed to maintain
foreign exchange reserves. He asserted that his ultimate objective
was to see India become self-sufficient and self-reliable. Our annual
budget to be introduced in Parliament on July 24 will clearly reflect
my governments socio-economic policies and our present measures
symbolise our policy, he said.
Narasimha Rao mentally prepared the people by appealing
to them to get ready for sacrifices and said time was up for narrow
political narrative.
During the days of budget preparation, the cabinet committee
of political affairs used to meet almost every day. During these
meetings, Narasimha Rao himself spoke on behalf of Manmohan
Singh and convinced others on economic reforms.
At the Congress parliamentary party meeting held after the
presentation of the budget by Manmohan Singh in the Parliament,
several party MPs launched a tirade against the government. They
were worried that their political future would be at stake if fertiliser
subsidy was slashed. As many as 63 MPs expressed apprehensions
over the outcome of the reforms, but Narasimha Rao clarified all
their doubts and rescued Manmohan Singh from their onslaught.
Narasimha Rao had effectively utilised the services of All India
Radio and Doordarshan three decades ago. Whenever there was an
opportunity, he did not hesitate to explain to the people directlywhy
he had initiated economic reforms and taken hard decisions. Within
a few days of assuming the chair of Prime Minister, he emphasised
on the necessity of India achieving self-reliance (AtmaNirbharta).
20

A. KRISHNA RAO
Self-Reliance is not a mere slogan for me. It means the ability

to pay for our imports through exports. My motto is - trade, not
aid. Aid is a crutch. Trade builds pride. And India has been trading
for thousands of years, Narasimha Rao said in his speech on All
India Radio on July 9, 1991.
On many occasions, the Prime Minister himself declared both
on the government and the party forums that the reforms were
irreversible. Both inside and outside Parliament, he defended the
reforms, including devaluation of rupee. During the discussion on
the Motion of Confidence in Lok Sabha, which came up for voting
on July 15, 1991, Narasimha Rao strongly argued in favour of
economic reforms. He went beyond his written text and spoke
eloquently for 45 minutes to defend his stand.
He explained why there were no alternatives to what he had
done such as devaluation of rupee, negotiations with IMF and
initiating stringent trade reforms. We have only salvaged the
prestige of this country.Sarvanashesamutpanneardhamtyajatipanditah
(When everything is being destroyed, intelligent people sacrifice
something to see that the remaining is not destroyed). This is precisely
what we have done. I do not say that the economy has been booming
or is going to boom immediately, he said, thereby indirectly
conveying the message that he had prevented the country from a
total collapse.
When Manmohan Singh introduced the economic policy
resolution in Parliament on June 21, 1991, the Bharatiya Janata Party
strongly supported it. BJP floor leader in Lok Sabha Jaswant Singh
said the resolution was completely in resonance with the BJP policies.
21
Though the Left parties and Janata Dal opposed the resolution, it is
significant that the Lok Sabha adopted the resolution with a
thumping majority. Actually, there was no need for seeking the
approval of Parliament for the policy decisions, but Narasimha Rao
chose to introduce the resolution in Parliament to prove that he
was not taking unilateral decisions but taking everybody into
confidence.
As a next step, Narasimha Rao took up abolition of licence
raj in the industrial sector. He deliberately kept the portfolio of
industries with himself to fulfil the task for which he appointed A N
Varma as his principal secretary. In fact, Varma worked out the
draft proposals to abolish industrial licensing policy during the V P
Singh regime itself, but he did not get the approval. He got such an
opportunity after Narasimha Rao took over as the Prime Minister.
Soon after appointing him in the PMO, Narasimha Rao called
Varma and asked him to dig out the old proposals on industrial
licensing policy. He directed that more industries be included in
the list of those which were seeking foreign direct investment. He
asked him to take measures to facilitate foreign investors to gain a
majority stake in their collaborative industries in India. Everybody
was surprised when he said at the cabinet meeting: Why should
we go in for only partial reforms? Let us throw open the entire
industry sector to the open market.
He, however, cautioned that the tone and tenor of industrial
reforms should be carefully coined so as to prevent troubles from
old-time Congress leaders. As a result, Chidambaram included
different paragraphs about the policies of Nehru, Indira Gandhi and
Rajiv Gandhi, while preparing the policy document.
22

A. KRISHNA RAO
Another strategy adopted by Narasimha Rao to build public

opinion on his policies was to leak them to the media and throw
them up for discussion. For instance, on his decision to abolish the
industrial licensing system, he got an article written in Hindustan
Times by Kalyani Shankar, who was then working as a political
editor in the daily. Both Narasimha Rao and Kalyani Shankar were
close friends and enjoyed perfect understanding on various subjects.
Through Kalyani Shankar, who grew up the ladder in journalism
with her talent and hard work, Narasimha Rao had implemented
quite a few political strategies. She has still been writing columns in
various national and international dailies and websites.
Before 1991, customs duties were as high as 200 per cent.
They were brought down to 25 per cent during the Narasimha
Rao regime. Tax rates came down from 56 percent to 30 percent.
Indian companies were allowed to go in for external borrowings.
The government was refrained from indiscriminate borrowings from
the Reserve Bank of India. In its report, the World Trade
Organisation Secretariat, expressed the view that the Indian trading
sector could do a business of at least 20 billion US dollars, at a time
when the global business was around 510 billion US dollars.
Replying to the debate on Motion of Confidence in Lok Sabha
on July 15, 1991, Narasimha Rao said the previous Chandra Shekhar
government was not in a position to take any decisions, as a result of
which several decisions supposed to be taken by a government had
piled up. My government has no time and so, I am forced to take
all decisions at a time, he said.
23
He said it was the Congress which was running the

government and he was only implementing the Congress manifesto.
It is not Mr Manmohan Singh. Manmohan Singh plus Mahatma
Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and we,
the small people on whom the mantle has fallen, this is a combination.
Here is a person who knows what is to be done and here we are
who know what the people want. There will be a marriage between
the two. There is absolutely no doubt about it. We will not pursue
anything which will be against the national interest or against the
programmes of the Congress meant for the poor. This is the
guarantee that I can give to this House. We go by the manifesto,
he asserted.
On July 26, 1991, ministers holding key portfolios in
Narasimha Rao cabinet Manmohan Singh, KotlaVijayabhaskar
Reddy, Rangarajan Kumaramangalam, P J Kurien and P K Thungan
held a joint press conference and announced new industrial policy.
It clearly showed how Narasimha Rao had done tremendous
backroom work to bring everybody into the loop on economic
reforms.
Later, he also convened the Congress Parliamentary Party meeting
on August 1,2 and 3, 1991, and provided an opportunity for the
Congress MPs to have a free-wheeling debate. On day one,
Narasimha Rao did not attend the CPP meeting, but deputed
Manmohan Singh to hold discussions with the members. In the
next two days, the Prime Minister himself attended the meetings
and gave a patient hearing to the views of all the MPs.
24

A. KRISHNA RAO
He held another round of CPP meetings on August 27,28

and 29 to allow a healthy discussion among the party MPs. Never
in the history of the Congress party were the CPP meetings held so
democratically and effectively as they were during the Narasimha
Rao regime. While allowing everybody to express his or her
opinions, he finally made them agree with his view point. That was
the unique style of Narasimha Rao.
Similarly, Narasimha Rao also tried to gain the confidence of
trade unions. On August 26, he invited representatives of various
trade unions to his residence, after they held the first round of talks
with Manmohan Singh. They were on cloud nine after meeting
the Prime Minister. On the same day, replying to a debate on the
demand for grants to the industries department, Narasimha Rao, in
the capacity of industries minister, explained in detail about the
package rolled out as part of new industrial policy. He made it clear
that one should not stick to obsolete ideology while facing new
challenges.
Ironically, CPI member Nirmal Kanti Chatterjee, during a
debate in Lok Sabha, strongly opposed washing machines, on the
ground that it would destroy job opportunities.
I will give you an example of effective employment also.
We are producing washing machines. It costs about Rs 10,000. Not
only directly, indirectly also how employment is affected, let us try
to ponder. With Rs 10,000 in fixed deposit, one can earn Rs 100 a
month. With that Rs 100 a month, any family can provide part
time employment for washing clothes., he argued.
(During the regime of Rajiv Gandhi, too, opposition leaders
protested new technology and raised slogans like Automation-Anti
Nation!)
25
Reacting to the CPI members argument that resources which

are utilised for producing washing machines, could be utilised for
other purposes, Narasimha Rao gave a strong retort: That is the
point. If you take that as the criterion, then you will remain a country
of maid-servants only. This is the point. You are condemning our
women folk to a life of drudgery permanently. That is where
diversification is necessary. That is why we have not given them
any education so far. Let her be educated. She will refuse to do the
washing, the moment you educate her. Today, we are talking of a
society, which itself is fast changing. And if you do not admit that
this change is coming, you will be overtaken by events. It is very
simple to say that you are throwing people out of employment. But
what kind of employment?
His comments evoked thunderous applause from the
members. As he anticipated, the Communists were overtaken by
the changing events. He asserted that there was no question of going
back on the measures taken by his government, but at the same
time, there was no question of succumbing or surrendering to the
IMF.
Replying to the debate on Motion of Thanks to the
Presidential Address in Lok Sabha on March 9, 1992, Narasimha
Rao reiterated that there was no question of mortgaging the nations
economic sovereignty.
the question of jeopardising the economic sovereignty of
the country is totally irrelevant. It does not arise. I would like to say
with all the emphasis at my command that this shall not be allowed.
There is no question of our affecting in any way the economic
sovereignty of the country, he asserted.
26

A. KRISHNA RAO
But what is sovereignty? Sovereignty does not consist in not

doing anything in times of peril. Sovereignty consists in keeping
complete control over ones policies. The World Bank did not want
me to do anything on the public distribution system. The World
Bank did not say anything about anti-poverty programmes. If the
World Bank tomorrow says that you should not have these
programmes, I will say, I am sorry, I have to have these programmes
whether you like it or not. So, the World Bank will not be able to
interfere with my internal policy, economic policy to any extent.
The World Bank certainly may have its conditionalities. I will accept
them only if they suit me. I will not accept them if they do not suit
me if they go against my policy, he said.
The measures taken by Narasimha Rao were not superficial.
But he went all out to implement the reforms in letter and spirit.
He constituted seven export committees and lifted several industrial
and trade controls. He linked the valuation of the rupee with the
market. It was only after he initiated these reforms did the IMF and
other agencies come forward to lend money to India. The reforms
resulted in several consumer goods coming to the availability of the
people. The standard of living of the people gradually started
improving.
During the Narasimha Rao regime, licence raj was abolished
for all industries except 18 of them. Many offices pertaining to
granting of licences to and imposing controls on industries were
wound up. The Office of the Controller of Capital Issues which
used to impose restrictions on releasing debentures and shares by
companies was abolished. At the same time, Securities and Exchange
27
Board of India (SEBI) headed by G V Ramakrishna was established

to prevent irregularities in the stock market. Restrictions were
removed on foreign companies desiring to enter India to do business
and permissions were given to them to enter the stock market.
Incentives were provided for foreign direct investments in a whole
range of sectors. Foreign multinationals have come to India in a
big way. Even fast-food businesses have discovered India, the second
largest market in the world after China. Kentucky Fried Chicken
and Pizza Hut etc., are beginning to crop up in larger centres. Pepsi
and Coca-Cola, long banned from India, are waging big advertising
in the country. Automobile companies, American, Japanese and
European, are making inroads into India in collaboration with local
capitalists. In short, India has become part of the global capitalist
economy, said Satya P Sharma, Associate Professor of Anthropology
at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada in his article The
Cultural Costs of a Globalized Economy for India. (Dialectical
Anthropology, 1996)
For nearly two years, Narasimha Rao kept the portfolios of
defence and industries with him. Large Scale industries were taken
out from the purview of the dreaded MRTP Act so that they could
attract investments and expand their business. He also created Foreign
Investment Promotion Board under the direct control of the Prime
Ministers Office to grant quick permits for FDIs. Principal
secretary in PMO A N Varma, who was the chairman of the board,
used to approve the proposals for major investments flowing from
abroad. In fact, PMO used to wield more powers during the
Narasimha Rao regime than during the period of India Gandhi.
The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), too, was formed during
his regime in 1992.
28

A. KRISHNA RAO
After Pranab Mukherjee was appointed as the deputy chairman

of the Planning Commission, the Narasimha Rao government
modified the Gadgil formula to rationalise devolution of funds to
the states. It was the guiding principle for the Centre to help the
states till recently. Similarly, his government appointed a committee
headed by renowned economist Raja Chellaiah to suggest tax
reforms and implemented its recommendations; the subsequent
governments, too, followed the same report. It also implemented
banking reforms based on the recommendations of the
MydavoluNarasimham committee. It not only strengthened the
public sector banks, but also facilitated the entry of private banks.
As a result, many private banks like ICICI, HDFC, Axis, Kotak
came into existence and banks were modernised with the
introduction of technology.
Apart from granting liberty to currency and capital markets,
reducing the state control over banks and other financial institutions
and liberating industries from licence raj, Narasimha Rao also
embarked on privatising the power sector. In October 1991, his
government began issuing notifications encouraging entry of private
companies into the electricity sector. The Indian Electricity
(Amendment) Act passed by Parliament was aimed at setting up
thermal-power projects of any size and capacity based on coal/
ligniteor gas, hydro-electric projects and wind/solar energy projects
in the private sector and facilitating the companies enter into power
purchase agreements with the state electricity boards.
29
Among various incentives provided to the private companies

entering into power generation were granting of tax-holiday for
five years, permission for holding a mere 20 per cent equity in the
total project cost, granting of counter-guarantee for the companies
taking bank loans and giving fast-track approvals for the projects.
Steps were initiated even to attract private foreign investments in
the electricity sector. It is an undeniable fact that these measures
taken by Narasimha Rao with a lot of foresight were responsible for
the country coming out of darkness and the states emerging power
surplus.
The concept of Public-Private Partnership began only during
the Narasimha Rao regime. In 1993, the first toll road in the country
was laid in Madhya Pradesh. Financed by a quasi-government
investor, the 12-km-long tollway linking Indore to Pithampur in
Madhya Pradesh reduced the distance by 10 km and curtailed travel
time by 45 minutes. Encouraged by the success of the tollway that
had a daily collection of Rs 20,000, projects at other industrial centres
like Bhopal-Indore were fired up. (India Today, March 1995).
Subsequently, the condition of highways across the country
witnessed significant improvement.
Similarly, Narasimha Rao government formulated guidelines
for attracting private partnerships in ports. Restrictions on private
investments in the ports sector were relaxed by amending the FERA.
National banks were given freedom in extending loans to the private
sector. Foreign investors were permitted to buy shares in the
Indiancompanies. Private banks got the approvals. The National
Renewal Fund was created to help public sector undertakings
recover from losses. The Sick Industrial Companies Act was
amended.
30

A. KRISHNA RAO
Cultural globalization followed economic liberalization.In

1991, people booked hotel rooms to watch the Gulf War on CNN.
India witnessed the emergence of Zee TV as the first private
television channel, heralding a new revolution in the broadcasting
industry. In October 1992, Zee TV introduced a cable television
package focussing more on Hindi language programming, which
expanded cable viewing beyond the narrow confines of the affluent
classes. The percentage of the urban population with access to
television increased from 9 percent in 1990 to 74 percent in 1995.
With channel wars intensifying, the race to seduce the
viewers became a game of innovations, city specific channels and
area-specific programmes the ploy. (India Today, February 1996).
In October 1991, Hong-Kong based STAR TV, part of
Rupert Murdochs News Corporation, introduced a package of
MTV, BBC, Prime Sports and Star Plus into India.
As foreign exchange restrictions eased with economic
liberalization, by the mid-1990s, Hollywood films were being
dubbed in Hindi and the dubbed version of Jurassic Park was a success
in Indian cities.
The de-regularisation of the Indian civil aviation sector also
began during Narasimha Rao regime with private airlines being
given permission to operate charter and non-scheduled services
under the Air Taxi scheme. With the open sky policy in 1991, the
aviation industry was expected to zoom to new heights, said India
Today in January 1992.
31
Two years later, private airlines cornered 44 per cent of the

passenger traffic. Trivandrum-based East West Airlines was the first
national level private airline in India.
Similarly, the telecom revolution also began during this period.
After a lot of dilly-dallying, the Narasimha Rao government granted
permission to private operators in the telecom sector in 1994. The
National Telecom Policy formulated by his government opened
up the Indian markets for foreign direct investment as well as
domestic investment in the telecom sector, albeit with certain
regulations. On July 31, 1995, the first mobile call in India was
made by then West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu to Union
Communications Minister Sukh Ram. It was made using Nokia
handsets.
On August 15, 1995, Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL)
formally launched internet services for the people and mobile phone
services, too, were made available to the people, who gained new
freedom from that day, thanks to the Information Technology
revolution. The postman doesnt need to deliver mail anymore.
Just key in your username and password and read and send mails to
anyone, anywhere, noted India Today in September 1995
Before 1991, the Planning Commission used to dictate the
states. But after 1991, it transformed itself into a guiding and
supportive system for the states. In its annual report for 1991-92, it
said: The Planning Commission would now work on building a
long-term strategic vision of the-future. The concentration would
be on anticipating future trends and evolving integrated strategies
32

A. KRISHNA RAO
for achieving the highest possible level of development of the country

in keeping with the competitive international standards. Planning
will largely be indicative now and it is contemplated to withdraw
the public sector from areas where no public purpose is served by its
presence. The new approach to development will be based on a re-
examination and re-orientation of the role of the
government,harnessing the latent energies of the people through
peoples involvement in the process of nation-building, creating an
environment which encourages and builds up peoples initiatives
rather than their dependence on the government and which sets
free the forces of growth and modernisation. The state has to play
more of a facilitator role and to concentrate on protecting the interests
of the poor and the under-privileged.
Keeping these things in view, the Eighth Plan gave priority
to adequate employment generation, containment of population
growth, universalisation of elementary education, eradication of
illiteracy, provision of safe drinking water and primary health
facilities, self-sufficiency in food, generation of agricultural surpluses
for export and strengthening of infrastructure.
The Economic Survey for 1991-92 mentioned for the first
time, issues like education, health, family welfare, sanitation,
housing, rural development, social welfare, nutrition and basic
infrastructure facilities. It emphasised on the need for human
resources development for planning and its effective implementation.
That was precisely why allocations for human resources development
were increased and it was given top priority in policy reforms, in
order to improve the efficiency of manpower.
33
New schemes were introduced for the development of social sectors.

In 1992, the Wasteland Development Board was shifted from the
Ministry of Environment and Forests to the Ministry of Rural
Development. During the Narasimha Rao regime, forest and waste
land development programmes were taken up in a big way.
At the same time, the Narasimha Rao government constituted
a committee headed by Dilip Singh Bhuria on tribal issues. The
committee examined the proposals to extend the facilities beinggiven
to gram panchayats under Part IX of the Constitution of India to
scheduled areas as well. Based on the committees recommendations,
the Parliament enacted the Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled
Areas) Act, 1996 (PESA), extending the Part IX of the Constitution
to the scheduled areas of the fifth schedule. The committee made a
revolutionary recommendation that tribal areas also should be given
autonomy for self-rule, on the lines of gram panchayats.
During 1992-93, the Narasimha Rao government launched
various other schemes for the skill development of urban poor,
increasing wage employment in urban areas by creating basic
amenities and providing housing and livelihood. The National Rural
Employment Act was first proposed in 1991 by Narasimha Rao
aiming to enhance livelihood security in rural areas by providing at
least 100 days of wage employment in a financial year to every
household. This was later modified as Mahatma Gandhi National
Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in the later years,
giving entire credit to Sonia Gandhi.
34

A. KRISHNA RAO
Narasimha Rao also launched Prime Minister Rozgar Yojana

(PMRY) for creation of employment in urban and rural areas. In
1995, he also started five new social welfare schemes, including old
age pension, family benefits and maternity benefits. Though the
Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA)
scheme was launched in 1982-83 itself, it was confined to only 50
districts across the country. But the Narasimha Rao government
extended the scheme to the entire country in 1994-95.
It was during the Narasimha Rao government that strong
measures were taken for strengthening the Panchayati Raj system.
Though Rajiv Gandhi had a huge mandate with 426 MPs in
Parliament, he had completely failed to get the 73rd and
74 thConstitutional amendment bills passed. Despite heading a
minority government, Narasimha Rao successfully got the two
crucial legislations passed to conduct elections to the local bodies
from gram panchayats to municipalities. Not only that, he also
provided 33 per cent reservations to women in the local bodies,
thereby heralding a new era of giving due representation to women
in politics.
Narasimha Rao was aware of electoral politics and the lavish
spending of money to buy votes. But he realised he cannot fight
this unhealthy trend in politics alone. He made an attempt to bring
in electoral reforms through chief election commissioner T N
Seshan, but when the latter tried to cross his limits, Narasimha Rao
was forced to restrain him by appointing two more election
commissioners.
35
In his speech in Lok Sabha in July 1993, Narasimha Rao

unfolded a series of electoral reforms such as discouraging non serious
candidates contesting elections, government itself bearing the
election expenditure, disqualification of candidates in the immediate
elections if they are proved guilty of indulging in corrupt practices,
introduction of multi-purpose photo identity cards, accounting for
expenditure incurred by political parties as that of their respective
candidates, conduct of by-elections to a seat within six months of it
falling vacant, banning of funding by big business houses to various
political parties and appointment of an independent secretariat for
the Election Commission of India.
The committee headed by former Home Secretary N N
Vohra, appointed by the Narasimha Rao government, to study the
problem of criminalisation of politics, recommended several
measures to expose the unholy nexus among criminals, politicians
and bureaucrats in India. The Vohra committee brought out a lotof
explosive information about how criminals controlled Indian politics.
It is a different issue that this explosive content did not see the light
of the day.
Many electoral reforms proposed by Narasimha Rao were
implemented in the subsequent years. Had the remaining proposals
also been implemented, the present electoral system would have
got rid of the maladies still plaguing the countrys polity.
Initially, there used to be only a Chief Election Commissioner
for the entire country and it was Rajiv Gandhi who thought of
making the Election Commission a three-member body. On
October 16, 1989, Rajiv Gandhi appointed two Election
Commissioners. But V P Singh who replaced Rajiv Gandhi removed
the two Election Commissioners and restored the original position
of having only the CEC.
36

A. KRISHNA RAO
However, Narasimha Rao made amendments to the statute

and appointed two more election commissioners G V G Krishna
Murthy and M S Gill on October 1, 1993, along with CEC T N
Seshan. Narasimha Rao was aware that if a person like Seshan was
given full powers, he would act indiscriminately.
There were various reasons for him to contemplate creation
of a three-member election commission: Seshan recommended
expulsion of Union ministers Sitaram Kesri and Kalpanath Rai from
the Union cabinet on the grounds that they had enticed voters. He
also recommended that the Centre send Central paramilitary forces
to restrain Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa. And the Left
parties, too, demanded impeachment of Seshan. CPI (M) leader
Somnath Chatterjee demanded in the Lok Sabha on July 28, 1993
that the Centre appoint two more members in the Election
Commission.
Narasimha Rao himself warned in Lok Sabha on August 9,
1993 that those in Constitutional positions should function within
their limits. Left party leaders Sukomal Sen, Gurudas Dasgupta,
Somnath Chatterjee and Janata Dal leader S Jaipal Reddy demanded
in Parliament that Sheshans wings should be clipped at any cost.
Seshan challenged the Narasimha Rao governments decision to
make the Election Commission a three-member body in the
Supreme Court. He argued whether there could be sub-inspectors
in a police station. He said three members with equal powers and
responsibilities would make them superfluous, since the EC did not
have enough work, which could be shared among them.
37
But the Supreme Court, on July 14, 1995, struck down

Seshans petition. It made it clear that it was not appropriate to
concentrate all powers in one person. Quoting Narasimha Rao, G
V G Krishna Murthy said Seshan was looking like a Ghatotkacha
of Mahabharata. But Krishna Murthy told the Prime Minister to
leave to him how to handle Seshan.
Initially, Seshan used to enter into frequent fights with the
other two election commissioners. He went to the extent of
describing them as donkeys. The government passed an ordinance,
saying that all decisions will be taken by majority and landed those
two donkeys in my office. The donkeys came and spoke to me
viciously, he said in an interview.
One day, Seshan even got the telephone connections of
GVGs office snapped. Apparently, GVG went to Seshans office
with a pair of scissors and threatened to cut something else of
Seshan, if he did not mend his ways. In any case, the attempts of
Narasimha Rao to take up comprehensive electoral reforms did not
materialise for various reasons.
Not just one or two, the Narasimha Rao government took
hundreds of important decisions in various sectors. It was Narasimha
Rao who had formed the National Human Rights Commission,
following Pakistan raising Kashmir issue at the United Nations
Commission on Human Rights and other countries expressing
concern over large scale allegations of human right violation in
Kashmir. He introduced the tradition of appointing a retired
Supreme Court judge as the chairman of this commission. Though
this commission had hardly anything to do with regard to the goings-
38

A. KRISHNA RAO
on in Kashmir, it did a commendable job in questioning the police

with regard to custodial deaths, fake encounters and other state-
sponsored violence and ensured that action was initiated against
them. Even civil rights associations cannot deny the fact that the
commission, despite lacking enough teeth, did justice to the victims
of human rights violation, at least to some extent.
Another major decision taken by Narasimha Rao was the
introduction of MP Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS)
on December 23, 1993. It was aimed at spending Rs 2 crore per
year per each parliamentary constituency for the works and projects
identified by the MPs of the respective constituency in their local
areas. The projects include asset building such as drinking water
facilities, primary education, public health sanitation and roads.
Subsequently, the annual fund entitlement for each MP was increased
to Rs 5 crore.
Narasimha Rao introduced the MPLADS scheme with a hope
that the MPs would set aside their petty political thinking and
concentrate on the developmental activities, so that the government
would sustain its full five-year term. Moreover, it would also help
them gain the confidence of the people of their respective
constituencies.
But unfortunately, many of the MPs misused this scheme.
They used the money for the construction of their private properties
and trusts owned by them and their cronies. Some of them even
used the money to construct swimming pools in their bungalows,
while some others swindled the money by claiming fake bills for
39
laying of already existing roads. They entrusted works to private

contractors and received kickbacks in return. It was no surprise to
find such massive corruption among the MPs, who had earned
enough notoriety for receiving costly gifts from public sector
undertakings during their visit as part of parliamentary committee
meetings and even for stealing silver spoons in five-star hotels. One
could imagine what would happen if these MPs were given the
freedom to spend such a huge amount at their discretion. It is a
glaring example of how immature and avaricious our politicians
are.
It was during Narasimha Rao regime that the reservations for
backward classes, proposed as per the Mandal Commission
recommendations, were implemented in letter and spirit. In fact,
the reservations for Economically Weaker Sections, introduced by
the present Prime Minister Narendra Modi, were mooted by
Narasimha Rao in 1991 itself. His government had issued an office
memorandum seeking to provide 10 per cent reservations to
Economically Backward Classes which were not benefited by the
reservation system. He might have taken this decision to appease
the BJP and its friendly parties so that they would not create troubles
for him. However, his decision was struck down by the nine-
member Constitutional bench of the Supreme Court.
Another landmark initiative taken by Narasimha Rao was the
establishment of as many as 17 Parliamentary Standing Committees
aimed at making the Parliament more effective in exercising
controlover and giving direction to the executive functioning and
thereby making the executive more accountable. The system was
40

A. KRISHNA RAO
formally inaugurated on March 31, 1993 and the standing

committees came into existence with effect from April 8, 1993. At
the concluding session of 10th Lok Sabha, then Speaker Shivraj
Patil said he had initiated the concept of parliamentary standing
committees only on the suggestion from the Prime Minister and
hence, the credit for the system should go to Narasimha Rao.
Because of these standing committees, Parliament members
could review the performance of each ministry and influence their
several important decisions. The MPs also got an opportunity to
tour various states and analyse the performance of public sector
undertakings. This not only enhanced the accountability of these
PSUs, but also the prestige of the MPs.
During the Narasimha Rao regime, procurement prices of
various food grains went up substantially. The curbs on transport of
food grains were lifted and agriculture began turning into a profitable
venture. In 1991-92, the total production of food grains was 168
million tonnes and by 1995-95, it shot up to 190 million tonnes.
The exports of agricultural produce went up from Rs 8,228 crore
in 1991-92 to Rs 13,712 crore in 1994-95.
Addressing the nation from the ramparts of Red Fort on
August 15, 1991, Narasimha Rao spoke about the most crucial aspect
of the public distribution system. He entrusted his secretary K R
Venugopal with the responsibility of strengthening the PDS. Within
the Congress party, there was a heated debate over the impact of
economic reforms on the poorer sections in the country. The debate
was kicked up by then human resources development minister
ArjunSingh, who opined that new economic reforms would result
41
in skyrocketing prices of essential commodities. Marxist economist

Ashok Mitra criticised the introduction of reforms as a class-oriented
decision.
As if to give a fitting reply to these criticisms, Narasimha Rao
decided to reorganise the PDS. Though there was a huge cut in the
subsidies on fertilisers and exports, there was no reduction in food
subsidy. It remained constant at around Rs 2,500 crore-Rs 2,800
crore per annum. The Narasimha Rao government decided to
expand the PDS network extensively to 1700 remote and tribal-
inhabited revenue blocks, out of the total number of 5,100 blocks
in the country. At the 13th advisory council meeting on PDS held
in August 1991, Narasimha Rao made several concrete proposals.
He felt that economic reforms should not trigger social emotions. It
was during his regime that new terms like Inclusive Growth and
Sustainable Development were first heard in the economic parlance
in the country.
Those who heard Narasimha Rao speaking at the World
Economic Forum at Davos in Switzerland on February 3, 1994 can
vouch for his authority on economic reforms. What is good has to
be adopted, he said at this convention. We have to invite all waves,
but should not be swept away by any wave. Though he was
speaking at the World Economic Forum, he sounded philosophical.
I dont think there is one and only one path for the development
of societies at all times, he said.
Two months after he made this historic speech, there was a
discussion in Lok Sabha on March 29 and 30 over the General
Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT), which was the precursor
42

A. KRISHNA RAO
of the international trade agreements. Finance minister

ManmohanSingh, who replied to the debate, said there was no
alternative for India but to accept the agreement. He said we should
tune ourselves to the changing circumstances. Time is not in our
hands, he said. Addressing a public meeting at Nandyal in Kurnool
district on January 6, 1994, Narasimha Rao himself explained to
the people about the necessity of GATT. He said the country will
not sustain without trade and Dunkel proposals pertained to the
mode of trade among 160 countries.
Both the Prime Minister and the External Affairs Minister
realised that it was difficult to succeed on the expected lines in
sustaining the economic independence in the changing economic
ecosystems. The Prime Minister felt that Jawaharlal Nehru had
chosen mixed economy model when Communism, which was based
on centralised economy, was influencing India and it had saved the
country from succumbing to political slavery and surrendering our
economy. He desired that even capitalistic ideology also could not
dominate the country completely and hence, even now, it would
follow the middle path. He is of the firm view that we should learn
to accept the good from the capitalistic model. He said India should
invite investments and technological advancement, besides
expanding relations beyond the boundaries; and that it would bring
all the countries in the world together.
Narasimha Rao quoted the middle path propounded in
Buddhism in order to explain the philosophical base of the present
government to come out of the dominance of strong market forces
and protect the interests of domestic traders and farmers. During his
43
visits to several countries, he categorically declared that the economic

reforms initiated by him were irreversible and that very soon, India
would become part of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
With India signing the GATT, even common people of the
country directly experienced the irreversible characteristics of
economic reforms. After eight years of prolonged discussions among
the countries of the world, a final agreement was formally arrived at
by 123 countries in Morocco on April 15, 1994, leading to the
formation of the new WTO. India asserted that it would implement
the agreement with regard to seeds and patents only within the
purview of Indian laws. As per appendix 4 of the final draft of GATT,
action can be taken against the countries which violate the principles
enunciated in the agreement of international trade organisations.
There are no alternatives for any of the world leaders to get exempted
from becoming partners in the GATT.
During the discussion on the GATT in Parliament, the
opposition parties staged a walkout alleging that the government
was mortgaging Indias sovereignty, but they failed to suggest
alternative models. The Congress, too, decided to hold rallies and
public meetings to counter the opposition parties politically. An
international development that was transforming the countrys
economic facet finally became a pawn in the war of political one
upmanship.
An article written by Narasimha Rao in the capacity of Prime
Minister in the Harvard International Review in September 1995
reflects his philosophical outlook on democracy in India and
economic reforms. In the article titled, An Indian Resurgence:
44

A. KRISHNA RAO
Economic Reforms in A Democratic Society, he explained why

he had to open up the countrys economy. He said as he had taken
office in June 1991, he was acutely aware that the economic progress
achieved was not sufficient to overcome the problems of poverty,
illiteracy, unemployment, and inadequate social infrastructure.
Quoting Mahatma Gandhi, Narasimha Rao said we needed
to open our doors and windows to the rest of the world without
being swept off. He explained how he brought about changes in
industrial policy in tune with the challenges he had encountered, in
foreign investment policy that would boost development and in
trade policy to encourage competition from foreign companies. He
also explained how he introduced broad-based structural reforms
in taxation, foreign trade and payment regimes, monetary and
financial sectors and took decisions like disinvestment in public sector
undertakings.
At the same time, Narasimha Rao said sustained economic
progress had been and would be possible only with the consent of
the people. When I look back at the course taken by independent
India, I am convinced that the growth and strength of both our
economy and our political structure indicate that economic reform
is possible with peoples consent, he said.
He quoted a parable concerning the development of a persons
spiritual strength in ancient Indian thought. A young plant requires
nurturing, and that, in this stage, even a stray goat can nibble it
away. Once, however, it has grown, struck deep roots, and
developed a trunk with a wide girth, even elephants can be tied to
it. - We are now welcoming the elephants, he said.
45
Narasimha Rao had a thorough knowledge of what he was

doing. He knew he was responsible for the introduction and
implementation of economic reforms in the country, but he allowed
the credit to go to Manmohan Singh. He behaved like a Yogi in
politics. He ensured that Manmohan Singh got equal
importancealong with him in history. Even Manmohan Singh was
aware of it. When he became the Prime Minister in 2004,
Manmohan Singh could not bring in second generation economic
reforms. He knew he would be denounced by the same people
within the Congress who appreciated him in the past.
Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who became the Prime Minister after
Narasimha Rao, also took several measures to attract foreign and
private investments in a big way, but the Congress created hurdles
for him. And Manmohan Singh, who silently observed the hurdles
and hassles faced by Vajpayee, must have realised how courageously
and daringly Narasimha Rao had acted during his regime.
There is no doubt that Narasimha Rao had appointed
Manmohan Singh as his finance minister only to appease the World
Bank and IMF so as to make them favour India. There used to be
discussions with the World Bank representatives very frequently
those days. World Banks local representative OktayYenal said he
used to submit periodical reports to the bank on various issues
pertaining to India including import policies, foreign payments and
subsidies. I dont have to go to the North Block whenever the
government has to present the budget, he told reporters on an
occasion. In the past, whenever we had to extend a loan to any
country, we used to make a study on whether it could repay the
loan. But now, we are compelled to even review the countrys
policies, he asserted.
46

A. KRISHNA RAO
Releasing his book Changing India in December 2018,

more than four years after stepping down from the Prime Minister
post, Manmohan Singh admitted that he had become an accidental
finance minister in the Narasimha Rao regime in 1991. He said
hewas the chairman of University Grants Commission and was
attending to his duties in his office as usual when he received a call
from Narasimha Rao.
Where are you, asked Narasimha Rao.
I am in the UGC, I replied.
Didnt Dr Alexander tell you anything? he asked. Yeah,
he told me, but I did not take it seriously, I told him. No, it is
serious. You go home, get your dress changed and come to the
swearing-in ceremony, he ordered.
That was how, I became the finance minister accidentally,
Manmohan Singh said, as the audience burst into laughter at the
India International Centre.
In his exclusive article written to Andhra Jyothy, on the
occasion of the P V Narasimha Rao centenary year, Manmohan
Singh shared his thoughts and paid rich tributes to Narasimha Raos
tremendous willpower and courage in understanding the power and
impact of economic reforms. He described Narasimha Rao as a
modern thinker who guided the country in the right direction. He
was a true statesman who changed the direction of not only economic
policies, but also foreign policies of the country, he said.
47
While stating that Narasimha Rao had given him full freedom
in implementing the economic reforms, Manmohan Singh admitted
that the country would not have witnessed historic changes had
there not been an able political leadership provided by the then
Prime Minister.
Manmohan Singh recalled the most crucial meeting between
Narasimha Rao and IMF managing director Michel Camdessus,
who had earlier failed to convince Rajiv Gandhi on economic
reforms. Before taking up reforms in India, we should keep in
mind the problems of Indians. Ours is a democratic country. We
need to protect the interests of our people, Manmohan Singh
quoted Narasimha Rao as telling the IMF in unequivocal terms.
Narasimha Rao told the IMF that his government would not allow
even a single employee of any public sector undertaking to lose his
job due to implementation of structural adjustments in the country.
Describing Narasimha Rao as a philosopher, Manmohan Singh said
reforms could be taken up in the country only in tune with the
priorities of India.
Narasimha Rao did not forget to take Chief Ministers of
various states into confidence while implementing the economic
reforms. Even the Telugu Desam Party government in Andhra
Pradesh supported the reforms. In fact, there was perfect
coordination between Narasimha Rao and N Chandrababu Naidu,
who took over as Chief Minister after N T Rama Rao, in the
implementation of reforms. Then state commercial taxes minister P
Ashok Gajapathi Raju declared at the meeting of Federation of
48

A. KRISHNA RAO
Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) that the TDP

government was extending its wholehearted support to the Centre
in inviting large scale investments for industrial and infrastructural
development in Andhra Pradesh.
The Prime Minister also convinced Bihar Chief Minister Laloo
Prasad Yadav on the advantages of economic reforms. Inspired by
Narasimha Rao, Laloo took part in the meeting of Confederationof
Indian Industry. Giving up his traditional attire, he went to the US
wearing a full suit. He used to treat Narasimha Rao as his role model.
Similarly, Karnataka Chief Minister DeveGowda also extended his
support to the economic reforms of the Centre. He personally
conveyed his stand to the United States Minister for commerce
Robert Brown.
However, Narasimha Rao appeared to be not so keen on
speeding up economic reforms further. I opened only the windows,
but they even opened the doors, he said on an occasion. But he
made it clear several times that reforms were irreversible and one
could only go ahead further but cannot beat a retreat.
In an interview to popular journalist Shekhar Gupta,
Narasimha Rao said he had to take hard decisions in view of the
circumstances prevailing at the time of his taking over as Prime
Minister; and that he did not want India to be branded as a defaulter
of loans. He clarified that he had given complete freedom to
Manmohan Singh and stood solidly behind him like a mountain.
When our party leaders were criticising Manmohan Singh,
I told them he was purely an economist and didnt know anything
and If they wanted, they could target me, he said. He also never
desired to claim the entire credit of economic reforms. We worked
as a team, he said.
49
Finance minister Manmohan Singh, commerce minister

Chidambaram, Reserve Bank of India governor S Venkataramanan,
deputy governor C Rangarajan, principal secretary Amarnath
Varma, cabinet secretary Naresh Chandra, commercial taxes
secretary Montek Singh Ahluwalia, RBI former deputy governorand
economic advisor in the commerce department Rakesh Mohan and
chief advisor in the ministry of finance Ashok Desai were part of his
core team. He chose them for speedy implementation of his decisions
on economic reforms and gave them adequate powers. During
Narasimha Raos regime, the PMO functioned stronger than ever
in the past.
Yet, Narasimha Rao was not satisfied. Sometimes, he used to
feel disappointed and frustrated with the bureaucratic delays in
implementation of his governments decisions. One day, he called
Mohit Sarobar, the then London representative of the Confederation
of Indian Industry, and through him, sent an unusual enquiry to
the British Prime Ministers private office seeking to know how it is
organised. The request was first made to the department of trade
and industry, which forwarded the same to 10 Downing Street.
David Melville of the department wrote to Stephen Wall in
the PMs office on June 29, 1992: We spoke about the request
from the Indian Prime Minister for a brief explanation of how our
Prime Ministers Private office is organised... The Indian Prime
Minister apparently finds his office bureaucratic, and is looking for
ideas on how to make it more efficient... Our officials feel the request
is quite genuine.
50

A. KRISHNA RAO
The British foreign office took Narasimha Raos request

forward and furnished the required information to him. All these
details were recorded officially in later days.
Another master strategy adopted by Narasimha Rao was to
appoint Pranab Mukherjee as the deputy chairman of the Planning
Commission. By then, Pranab, who earlier floated his own party
but had to bite the dust at the hustings, returned to the Congress
fold and was facing an identity crisis. Whenever it was required,
Narasimha Rao had used Pranab Mukherjee as his political
weapon. When Arjun Singh fired a salvo at him on GATT proposals,
Narasimha Rao forced him to shut his mouth by asking him to
consult Pranab Mukherjee if he had any doubts on GATT. He knew
nobody could argue with Pranab and win. He weakened his rivals
by effectively using Pranabs scholarly brain.
Delivering the P V Narasimha Rao memorial lecture at
Hyderabad in 2012, Pranab Mukherjee disclosed his respect and
affection towards the former Prime Minister. He lauded Narasimha
Rao for achieving a sterling success in taking the nation to the next
level of reforms in 1991.
Faced with the financial crisis, in an unprecedented and
courageous move, he departed from the usual policy of appointing
a senior political leader as the Finance Minister. Instead, he appointed
Dr Manmohan Singh as Finance Minister. Rao displayed great
foresight in making this choice and as the present bears witness, this
was a brilliant decision that could not have come at a more
appropriate time, Pranab said.
51
Crediting Narasimha Rao with introducing the economic

reforms which enabled the nation to traverse the path of realization
of its economic potential, Pranab said the then Prime Minister had
given full freedom to Manmohan Singh in implementing far reaching
economic reforms and ushering in the seminal policy of economic
liberalization. In fact, Rao had himself spearheaded the move for
dismantling the license regime as the Prime Minister while holding
additional charge of the Industry Ministry, Pranab said.
He went on to say that it was on account of Narasimha Raos
vision and foresight that a large number of big Indian corporate
houses had become the powerhouses of growth and earned their
spurs across the globe.
The nature of the economic reforms appeared to some as
revolutionary and encouraged many to oppose them. But it did not
dampen the enthusiasm of Shri Rao who faced strong political
challenges to sustain these reforms. It required the strong courage
and conviction that Late Shri Narasimha Rao displayed in abundant
measure, the former President of India said.
He pointed out that while Narasimha Rao recognized the
need for a greater role for the private sector in the development of
the nations economy, he simultaneously emphasized the importance
of state intervention in the development of human capital that was
given the position of primacy in the Eighth Five Year Plan.
Towards the achievement of this goal, emphasis was laid on
employment generation, literacy, education, health, drinking water
and provision of adequate food and basic infrastructure. The
52

A. KRISHNA RAO
Government was fully willing to take the primary responsibility for

providing the basic elements that would help the development of
human capital. These policies resulted in greater employment,
reduction in poverty and self-sufficiency in agriculture and achieved
6.5% economic growth, the highest ever until then for any Five
Year plan period, Pranab said.
He said Narasimha Rao had a unique style of functioning.
He understood the virtue of patience and depending on the
exigencies of the situation, he was ready to wait till he achieved
consensus. When he decided to refrain from acting, it was with a
singular purpose, he said.
Quoting Narasimha Rao, Pranab said: When I dont make a
decision, it is not that I dont think about it. I think about it and
make a decision not to make a decision. But, when it came tomatters
of administration and governance, Narasimha Raos decision-
making abilities were writ large in the speed and decisive manner in
which they were implemented, he pointed out.
Who can make a better statement about Narasimha Rao than
Pranab Mukherjee?
It has been three decades since Narasimha Rao introduced
reforms in the country. Their results and tremors are still there for
us to witness and they would be seen for many more years to come.
When he said reforms are irreversible, he did not say it casually.
It is necessary to debate and discuss even now on whether the
reforms, despite being irreversible, were correct, whether they
provided benefits to the people in a big way or how the future of
the Indian economy would be. But it is an undeniable fact that
53
Narasimha Rao realised on time that implementation of reforms

was inevitable to bail out India from an impending economic crisis.
The succeeding governments did not dare to discontinue the reforms
process initiated by him. In a way, it is evident that there was
unanimity in the country on the economic reforms.
It is a debatable issue as to whether Narasimha Rao had
succeeded in achieving the desired results through reforms. There
is no doubt that reforms resulted in the emergence of crony capitalists,
their entry into politics, concentration of wealth in a very few hands,
enjoyment of luxuries and other physical benefits by a few who had
no creative ability and the government itself allowing plundering of
nature. The reforms also resulted in widening the gap between rich
and poor states. Though they had achieved an average growth rate
of 5.8 per cent during the reforms period, there have been differences
among the states in terms of growth rate, per capita income and
social development index.
But Narasimha Rao, who was forced to take up reforms under
inevitable circumstances, made every effort to see that they did not
have an adverse impact on the poor people. In fact, he implemented
welfare schemes in a big way during his regime. India has gradually
been transforming from inward policies to that of outward, the
World Bank observed.
Narasimha Rao had complete clarity on the limitations of
reforms and to what extent market forces could be allowed. In an
article written in the book The Post-Cold War World, published
in 1995 by noted international journalist Keith Philip Lepor, he
said there is no mechanistic equation between free market and
economic development, just as a free market is not necessarily equal
to democracy.
54

A. KRISHNA RAO
This is particularly true in developing countries. Where

neither the affluence of the few nor their philanthropy can be
assumed to extend all the way down to the base of the pyramid.
Large numbers of our population are outside the operation of market
forces, and state intervention is necessary if we are to alleviate poverty
and distress for these sections and to raise their living standards, at
least in the foreseeable future.
Besides, in developing countries the state often has to play an
active role to create the conditions in which markets can work, for
example, by providing the necessary infrastructure and often even
institutional support, not to mention conditions of law and order,
conditions of equal opportunity, and conditions of fairness in society
as a whole. These are the things that need to be ensured even for a
free-market economy to function in a state.
The fragile institutions of democracy in the developing world
as well as in countries that have just emerged from the collapse of
the socialist system are threatened most by economic deprivation
and lack of development, he said.
Narasimha Rao went on to say: The solution lies in moving
toward a non- exploitative society wherein the availability of
opportunity is reasonably well distributed. But since exploitation is
often done through violence, a non-exploitative society is possible
only under conditions of non-violence. Mahatma Gandhi conceived
of and propounded a society of this nature.
Whenever Narasimha Rao spoke about agriculture, his
background of being a farmer was clearly visible. He said the country
cannot afford to invite risks by experimenting with agriculture. You
55
cannot make the poor farmer poor as he is, indigent as he is, take
the risk of your risks. You may be experimenting with a land with
a country, but please dont experiment with poor people there. Go
to some place where people can also think of running some risks.
We cannot run risks in India anymore, Narasimha Rao said, while
making the inaugural address at the mid-term meeting of the
Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research
(CGIAR) on May 23, 1994.
He compared the land with a human being. Every plot of
land is like a human being. It has to be tended like a child and that is
what we, the farmers, think about our land. Ask me and I can tell
you the characteristics of each survey number which I own in my
village because I have seen it, I have seen it yield, I have seen it fail
to yield, I have seen how under what conditions it yields, underwhat
conditions it refuses to yield. So, it is not just one stretch of land and
you can do anything and it will grow. It is not like that. It is not like
a factory production in fact. Therefore, it is something much more
living, much more life than factory production. Agriculture has to
be tended like that, like a child and like a mother we have to do it,
he said.
Narasimha Raos observations are definitely invaluable in the
backdrop of governments adopting strategies in the implementation
of agricultural reforms.
There is always a context in history which necessitates the
presence of an individual. And behind every change, there is a
historical constructive phase. One has to acknowledge the changes
in the history as historical necessities and understand their birth,
56

A. KRISHNA RAO
growth and limitations. Study of history is nothing but the study of

the reasons for the change. Individuals might be the reason behind
the changes in the society but the conditions required for these
changes already existed in the society. One has to understand the
developments and individuals in the context of historical necessity
already decided by the existing conditions.
One has to understand the historic role of P V Narasimha
Rao, who tried to change the socio-economic conditions from
grassroots level, in this context.
Many Congress leaders have spread the theory that Narasimha
Rao could become the Prime Minister only because Sonia Gandhi
had refused to accept the post and that it was Sonia who had chosen
him for the hot seat. But it is necessary to find out why Narasimha
Rao, who was till then disinterested in continuing in politics, had
become a front-runner for the post and why it had become a
historical necessity for him to become the Prime Minister.
In fact, Narasimha Rao could not adjust himself in Rajiv
Gandhis scheme of things. There was evidence to show that he
disagreed with the imposition of emergency during the Indira
Gandhi regime. He wrote several articles in the English journal
Mainstreamunder the pseudonym A Congressman.
In his book One Life Is Not Enough, senior Congress leader
Natwar Singh disclosed that when Operation Bluestar had taken
place in Punjab, he and Narasimha Rao were in Jakarta. When I
commented that the repercussions of this operation would be serious,
Narasimha Rao went into deep thoughts. His silence itself reflected
his opinions, Natwar Singh said.
57
Narasimha Rao observed how Rajiv Gandhis decisions had

resulted in strengthening of his rivals internally and externally.
Natwar Singh wrote in his autobiography that Narasimha Rao
appeared very much disturbed when Rajiv Gandhi went to Sri Lanka
and unilaterally declared that he would send Indian Peace Keeping
Force there to crush the uprising of Tamil rebels.
Those who made a thorough study of the political
developments of those days can acknowledge that Narasimha Rao
could not digest the wrongdoings during the Gandhi family regime.
That was precisely why when the Congress party was preparing the
list of candidates for contesting the 1991 general elections, Narasimha
Rao met Rajiv and conveyed his decision to quit active politics. He
told Rajiv that he would go back to Andhra Pradesh and keep himself
engaged in recording his memoirs.
Rajiv was surprised at Narasimha Raos decision initially, but
had to respect his feelings. He, however, requested Narasimha Rao
to finetune the partys election manifesto. While carrying out the
task assigned to him, Narasimha Rao quietly started packing up his
books and other baggage in his residence at Motilal Nehru Marg.
Swamy Trivikramananda Bharati, seer of Kurtalam Mutt, was
a close friend of Narasimha Rao. Whenever he came to Delhi, he
used to stay in Narasimha Raos residence. The seer requested him
to take over the Kurtalam mutt after he stepped down. However,
Narasimha Rao neither accepted nor rejected the offer, his second
brother P V Manohar Rao told me once. But it was evident from
the offer made by the seer of Kurtalam mutt that Narasimha Rao
had a strong spiritual orientation.
58

A. KRISHNA RAO
After the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, it was Narasimha Rao

who chaired the Congress Working Committee meeting. In fact,
he was not even a member of the CWC. But the party could not
find a better leader to chair the meeting, because of his seniority
and non-controversial nature. The same CWC meeting resolved
that Sonia Gandhi take over the reins of the party, but she rejected
the resolution.
Subsequently, senior leaders Arjun Singh and Sharad Pawar
entered the scene, competing for the Prime Minister post.
Obviously, their attempts were resisted by their rivals including
Natwar Singh, M L Fotedar and Sitaram Kesri. Others like N D
Tiwari and MadhavaraoScindia also started making their own
attempts.
Sonia Gandhi, who noticed this intense competition for the
post, consulted several leaders. P N Haksar, who was principal
secretary of Indira Gandhi, initially suggested the name of Shankar
Dayal Sharma, who was the Vice-President of India. Sharmas wife
and son immediately plunged into action and started actively
mobilising the support of others in his favour. Arjun Singh, who
was a political rival of Sharma in Madhya Pradesh, could not digest
the thought that Sharma would become the party president. He
thought instead of lobbying for the Prime Minister post, he
shouldfirst stop Sharma from occupying the chair at any cost.
However, Shankar Dayal Sharma politely rejected the offer saying
that he could not lead the party. He said those who were in the
Constitutional posts should be impartial and moreover, he could
not return to active politics as it was election season.
59
On the other hand, Sharad Pawar stepped up lobbying in a

big way. His follower Suresh Kalmadi hosted a lavish dinner for the
party leaders at a five-star hotel in Delhi, but only 48 leaders attended
the dinner. In fact, Sharad Pawars attempt to ascend the Prime
Ministers chair using his money power in Delhi turned out to be
counterproductive for him. While leaders like Anand Sharma, Suresh
Kalmadi, N K P Salve and Najma Heptullah supported Pawar, he
was strongly opposed by other leaders like Arjun Singh, Karunakaran
and Madhava Rao Scindia. Arjun Singh went all out to stall Sharad
Pawar.
With the intense competition between Arjun Singh and
Sharad Pawar leading to an unhealthy atmosphere in the party,
Narasimha Rao was compelled to enter the fray and move his pawns.
He appeared to be silently watching the high drama in the party and
the bitter fight among the leaders to grab power. But he never
dropped any hints that he was also making attempts on his own in
that direction.
In the past, Pranab Mukherjee also made futile attempts to
become the Prime Minister, but Narasimha Rao never nurtured
such thoughts. But when it was evident that his name was also in
the reckoning for the Prime Minister post, he started playing games
and attracting several party leaders in his favour. While he appeared
to be a silent observer all the time, he successfully managed to turn
the attention of all the party leaders, including Sonia Gandhi, towards
him.
60

A. KRISHNA RAO
There is no truth in the argument that Narasimha Rao was

nominated for the Prime Minister post, only because Sonia Gandhi
had refused to take up the post or because everybody thought that
he was a weak leader compared to others leaders. Arjun Singh and
Sharad Pawar did not have the support of majority leaders in the
party. Only a few MPs from North India supported Arjun Singh.
Out of 244 seats won by the Congress in 1991 general elections,
102 were from southern states and Odisha. Apart from the MPs of
these states, other MPs from states like West Bengal supported
Narasimha Rao.
The West Bengal Congress Committee passed a unanimous
resolution requesting the Congress Working Committee to elect
Narasimha Rao as the Congress President. West Bengal Chief
Minister Siddartha Sankar Ray sent telegrams to prominent Congress
Leaders like N D Tiwari seeking his support to Narasimha Rao.
Several other Congress leaders like Amar Singh Chowdary from
Gujarat, Bangarappa from Karnataka and Karunakaran from Kerala
also pitched for Narasimha Rao. Rajya Sabha Member Dr Ratnakar
Pandy claimed that 90 percent of party members in Parliament
wanted Narasimha Rao to be their leader.
More importantly, Satish Sharma and R K Dhawan who were
close associates of Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi, also entered the
scene in support of Sonia Gandhi. The way Satish Sharma
campaigned saying Narasimha Rao had the support of Sonia Gandhi,
also helped him to a large extent.
61
In fact, Karunakaran was initially in favour of Pawar, but he

had to beat a retreat after his rival in Kerala A K Antony began
moving his pawns against him. When Antonys followers raised the
demand for election of new legislative party leader of
KeralaCongress, Karunakaran had to fall in line, saying the new
Prime Minister should be selected through consensus. Young leaders
like Rajya Sabha member Suresh Pachauri, Youth Congress
president Ramesh Chennithala, National Students Union of India
president Manish Tewari, Karunakarans son and MP Muralidharan
also lobbied for Narasimha Rao.
Senior leader Sitaram Kesri held confabulations with Ghulam
Nabi Azad and Vilas Muttemwar. At the Congress parliamentary
board meeting, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Sitaram Kesri, Karunakaran
and Chief Ministers Bangarappa and Nedurumalli Janardhan Reddy
strongly criticised Sharad Pawar for going to the media on the internal
affairs of the party. But Pawar demanded that the party gain the
opinions of all the MPs to know who should head the Congress
Parliamentary Party leadership.
The parliamentary board accepted his proposal and constituted
a two-member panel comprising Karunakaran and Siddharth
Shankar Ray. Several chambers in the party office at 24, Akbar Road,
were converted into polling stations. Tamil Nadu Congress
Committee Secretary Era Anbarasu also announced that all the
members from his state would stand by Narasimha Rao
Nearly 95 per cent of the MPs supported Narasimha Rao and
only a handful of MPs, that too from Maharashtra, backed Pawar. It
did not take much time for Pawar to realise that the situation was
not in his favour. Finally, he announced that he was opting out of
the race and supporting the candidature of Narasimha Rao. Both
the leaders arrived at an understanding.
62

A. KRISHNA RAO
Talking to the reporters later, Narasimha Rao admitted that

Pawar had indeed met him. Yes, we met today. We also met
yesterday. Pawar will come to meet me tomorrow also. It was a
very good meeting. Whenever we met, we kept two objectives in
mind - how to strengthen the party and how to keep the party
united, he said.
Asked if there were any chances of making someone the
Deputy Prime Minister, Narasimha Rao quipped: Whenever the
press meets me, I have a ground rule and so far, everyone in the
media has gone by it. The ground rule is that do not ask me a question
which starts with... if.
Hours before the Congress Parliamentary Party meeting held
on June 20, 1991, Sharad Pawar issued a statement appealing to all
the members of the CPP to support Narasimha Rao and thus arrive
at a unanimous decision. Narasimha Raos name for leadership of
the Congress Parliamentary Party was proposed by Madhya Pradesh
Congress President Arjun Singh and seconded by former Union
minister and leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha P Shiv
Shanker.
Karunakaran told the CPP meeting that 90 per cent members
of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha were in favour of electing
Narasimha Rao unanimously at a time when both the party and the
country were faced with a serious situation. There was not a single
dissenting voice, he said.
The CPP meeting was presided over by senior leader and
treasurer Sitaram Kesri. Arjun Singh, Shiv Shankar moved the
motion in favour of Narasimha Rao and it was endorsed by N K P
Salve, B Shankaranand, A R Antulay, Sheila Kaul and P A Sangma.
63
Addressing the party MPs soon after his election as the CPP
leader, Narasimha Rao promised to implement the partys 1991
election manifesto in all its seriousness.
During the entire CPP meeting, Pawar thumped his desk and
joined the others in clapping, but on many occasions, he just kept
silent, listening to the speeches carefully. After Narasimha Raos
election, Pawar, however, went over to the dais to personally
congratulate him on his becoming the CPP leader.
Soon after the meeting, CPP secretary T Chandrasekhar
Reddy, sent a letter to the Rashtrapati Bhavan informing the
President of India R Venkat Raman about Narasimha Raos
unanimous election as the CPP president. The President, without
wasting much time, invited Narasimha Rao to form the government
since no other party staked its claim to form the government.
Narasimha Rao was given four weeks time from June 21 to
prove his majority in the Lok Sabha, since the Congress which had
won 224 Lok Sabha members fell short of an absolute majority in
the House. The swearing-in was fixed for 12.50 pm on June 21 in
the Asoka Hall of Rashtrapati Bhawan.
Narasimha Rao did not conceal his feelings on the issue of
domination of Gandhi family in the Congress. He told
DilipPadgaonker, Editor of Times of India on June 9, 1991 that he
had joined the Congress because of its ideology. I have very clear
views of my own on this question of the family. When I entered
politics, I was not personally acquainted with Mr Jawaharlal Nehru
or Mrs Indira Gandhi. But the Congress and Nehrus writings and
teachings and what he stood for created a new family. My cohesion
64

A. KRISHNA RAO
was with that ideological family. It has been as strong as in any other
social kind of family. The restricted family is part and parcel of the
large family and is identified with the sentiments and aspirations of
the people. Dont call it a dynasty, he said.
It clearly shows how cleverly and meticulously Narasimha
Rao moved his pawns. The strategy adopted by Arjun Singh to stall
Pawar also helped him a lot. In his book On My Terms, Sharad
Pawar lamented that leaders like Arjun Singh, Fotedar, R K Dhawan
and V George brainwashed Sonia Gandhi stating that Narasimha
Rao had become old and had not been keeping good health; so, it
would be better to make him the Prime Minister keeping in view
her future interests. He even expressed the view that he would have
become the Prime Minister had 10, Janpath not intervened in the
whole affair.
But there is no truth in Pawars observations. Compared to
Narasimha Rao, Sharad Pawar was not a national leader. He was
known only as a Maratha leader. On the other hand, Narasimha
Rao had already gained national recognition as an intellectual by
holding key portfolios like Home, Defence, External Affairs and
Human Resources Development. That was the reason why Pawar
could not get support from many MPs, except 38 MPs who got
elected from Maharashtra.
By then, there was already a sort of north-south divide in the
Congress. The party started facing debacles in the South due to
faulty policies adopted by it. The rude behaviour of Rajiv Gandhi
towards Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister T Anjaiah created
abhorrence among the people towards the party, which later led to
65
the emergence of Telugu Desam Party led by N T Rama Rao in

the state. The deployment of the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri
Lanka by Rajiv Gandhi also sent negative signs in Tamil Nadu, as
the IPKF indulged in the massacre of Tamil tigers in Sri Lanka. In
the subsequent developments, the Tamil terrorists assassinated Rajiv
Gandhi.
Against this backdrop, there was a discussion among the Delhi
Congress leaders that if a leader from the South was made the Prime
Minister, it would assuage the feelings of the South. Since it became
evident that there was no other leader from the South except
Narasimha Rao, who commanded tremendous respect among the
people, had enormous political experience, ability to bridge the gap
between north and south and above all, unflinching loyalty to the
high command, decks were cleared for his anointment as the Prime
Minister.
Though Narasimha Rao knew that he enjoyed the support
of majority of the party leaders, he displayed his statesmanship by
cajoling Sharad Pawar and Arjun Singh. First, he consulted Sharad
Pawar through his close friend, loyalist of Indira Gandhi and then
Tamil Nadu Governor P C Alexander. He sent a message that Pawar,
who was just 51 years then, had a bright future, while Narasimha
Rao had already crossed 70 years. Pawar had no option but to opt
out in favour of Narasimha Rao becoming the Prime Minister.
Similarly, Arjun Singh also fell in line, thanks to the mediation
done by Kashmiri leader M L Fotedar. Apparently, Arjun Singh
told Fotedar that he had no objection to Narasimha Rao becoming
the Prime Minister, provided he was made the Congress president.
66

A. KRISHNA RAO
Some Congress leaders from the north later alleged that Narasimha
Rao had initially agreed for Arjun Singh becoming the AICC
president, but later kept both the posts with himself. However, there
is no truth in these allegations. Narasimha Rao never gave any such
assurance to Arjun Singh, as he knew very well that it was suicidal
to have two power centres in the Congress.
Narasimha Rao made every effort to take along with him
those leaders who competed for the Prime Minister post. He offered
any one of the key portfolios like Home, Defence and Finance
toSharad Pawar. Since his political guru Yashwantrao Balwant Rao
Chavan had begun his innings in Delhi with a defence portfolio
three decades ago, Pawar, too, preferred the same. Similarly, Arjun
Singh was allotted another key portfolio of Human Resources
Development.
There was a reason for seniors like Sharad Pawar, Arjun Singh
and N D Tiwari accepting the leadership of Narasimha Rao. They
thought he was a weak leader and the party would be forced to
replace him soon. Though several leaders, not only in the Congress
but also in other parties, felt that he was a weak Prime Minister and
there had been a sustained campaign right from the day one of his
assumption of office that he would step down sooner or later.
But Narasimha Rao proved their calculations wrong. After
ascending the throne, he made all out efforts to consolidate his
position. He checkmated his rivals at every stage and gained an upper
hand over the opposition, thereby proving himself an undaunted
67
leader. He emerged as the strongest leader at the AICC plenary

held in Tirupati in 1992. After this plenary, there was a unanimous
opinion in all the CWC meetings: Narasimha Rao should decide
everything. Arjun Singh, who tried to dominate the Tirupati
plenary, himself had to propose that the power to constitute the
parliamentary board be entrusted to the party president.
It is interesting to note that at the special session of the AICC
held on March 27 and 28, 1993, Narasimha Rao made his political
detractor N D Tiwari introduce the economic resolution. During
this meeting, he made it clear that foreign direct investments would
not affect the consumer goods sector, as 97 per cent of the
investments would be made in the infrastructure sector. Self-
reliance does not mean manufacturing all those needed for the people
within the country. What is more important is whether we wouldbe
able to make payments for our needs. He said allowing free trade of
agricultural produce among the states and reduction of import tax
on the machinery required for agriculture, horticulture, forest
produce and poultry resulted in strengthening of agriculture and
allied activities.
Addressing the nation on the Independence Day in 1995,
Narasimha Rao explained in detail why he had to introduce reforms,
how he brought the country from the brink of an economic disaster
and how he mobilised funds for the welfare programmes. He
explained how his government could curtail the unrest in Punjab,
68

A. KRISHNA RAO
Assam and Bodoland. He asserted that Kashmir was an inseparable

part of India. He also elucidated how India had established strategic
relations with all countries keeping in view the domestic needs in
the wake of the end of a cold war era. He also explained why
Uniform Civil Code was not good for the country in the prevailing
conditions.
YadyapiSuddham, LokaViruddham, Naacharaneeyam and
NaaKaraneeyam (Though thoughts are good, it should not be
implemented if it is against the interests of the people), he said. In
a way, his Independence Day speech, his last one, was a sort of a
white paper on his five-year rule.
I inherited several problems. I inherited a society that was almost
breaking up. I inherited a pretty bad situation in Assam. I inherited
the Punjab and Kashmir problems. Now it is matter for anyone to
look back and decide for himself what happened during the last
year said Narasimha Rao in his interview with H K Dua, Editor,
Hindustan Times on June 8, 1992.
If one were to make a broad analysis of the developments since
1991, it is very clear that P V Narasimha Rao was a historical necessity
of his era.
` ` `
69
AYODHYA
FROM UP TO GUJARAT
R ight from the day one of assuming power, Narasimha Rao

made every effort to achieve consensus within the party
as well as among other political parties on various issues of national
concern, particularly Ayodhya imbroglio. Had he been successful
in his attempts, many contentious issues in this country would have
been resolved through consensus. But that was not to be. He was
never given an opportunity to bring about consensus on any issue
by power-hungry Bharatiya Janata Party externally and dissident
elements within the Congress.
Particularly, BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani was too eager to
bring his party to power. Only because of his political manoeuvrings
did the gap between BJP and Narasimha Rao widen. When BJP
MP S Mallikarjunaiah from Karnataka was offered Lok Sabha deputy
speaker post in 1991 and Atal Behari Vajpayee was conferred with
Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian award of the country
in 1992, Advani compared Narasimha Rao with former Prime
Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri.
Exactly a year later, Advani took out an arrow from his quiver
in the form of the Ayodhya issue to shoot at Narasimha Rao, a
strategy which he had adopted earlier during the V P Singh regime.
There was a special cell in the Prime Ministers Office headed by
70

A. KRISHNA RAO
principal secretary Naresh Chandra, which started its work

of collection, authentication and examination of records relating to
the negotiations started by the previous government, and preparation
of summaries of cases sought to be established by the two sides.
At the Congress Parliamentary Party meeting held on July
24, 1992, Narasimha Rao explained his governments efforts to find
a peaceful solution to the Ayodhya crisis and there was still time to
resolve it through mutual negotiations. He reiterated his stand in
the Parliament on the same day and asserted that history would not
forgive the nation if the Ayodhya issue could not be resolved through
peaceful methods.
That Narasimha Rao was sincere in his efforts was evident
from the legislation his government had introduced in Parliament
in September 1992 seeking to maintain status quo ante in all the
places of worship in the country existing before 1947. But even
before the discussions over archaeological evidence came to a
conclusion and the third round of discussions were completed,
Vishwa Hindu Parishad jumped the gun. It accused the government
of adopting delaying tactics and announced that it would organize
Kar Seva on December 6, 1992 at Ayodhya.
I happened to meet Narasimha Rao several times after he
stepped down from power in 1996 and had discussions with him on
Ayodhya. When I told him that I was there in Ayodhya at the historic
moment, when Babri Masjid was being demolished, he evinced a
lot of curiosity to know what I had witnessed and how exactly it
happened. After listening to his version, one would get a feeling
that there was absolutely no fault of his in the Ayodhya episode.
71
In fact, Sadhus initially agreed with Narasimha Raos appeal.

In an interview to senior journalist M D Nalapat, Narasimha Rao
said he had repeatedly tried to get the issue settled peacefully. I
was able to prevail on the Sanths to halt their ongoing Kar Seva on
July 26, 1992, by pointing out to them that what they were doing
was violative of court orders. After that, I met with religious leaders
from the two communities to nudge them towards a solution, he
said.
At the Congress Parliamentary Party meeting held on July
24, 1992, Narasimha Rao called for efforts to prevent the situation
that might lead to bloodshed. I am prepared to talk to anyone
because we have to avoid the situation of bloodshed. History will
not forgive us, if we do not insist on a peaceful settlement. Otherwise,
it will lead to an undesirable consequence not only for the Congress
Party but for the country itself, he said.
At one stage, Narasimha Rao also contemplated invoking
Article 256 of the Constitution of India to exercise the powers of
the Centre to issue directions to the Uttar Pradesh government to
bring the situation in Ayodhya under control. Should we give
direction under Article 256 of the Constitution to the State
Governments? Do we make use of it now? So, this exercise is being
done. Whether we do it or not, that is a different matter. In fact,
there is no case law on that since this has not been done before, he
said.
He said if all parties were prepared to abide by the verdict of
the court, a negotiated settlement would have become possible long
before going to the court in many cases. In extreme cases, if it
72

A. KRISHNA RAO
isnot possible, then let us go to the court. But then there is a whole
lot of litigation. Is it possible for the district court to clear or even
for the Supreme Court to clear that? Is it possible to see the end of
the litigation? This has gone on for generations, he said. Ram has
proved to be a novel vehicle for them (BJP), he added.
In a statement made in both Houses of Parliament on July 27,
1992, Narasimha Rao said the Central government believed that all
avenues of amicable settlement on Ayodhya must be sincerely
explored first. He pointed out that the Lucknow Bench of the
Allahabad High Court, in its interim order on July 15, restrained
the parties from undertaking or continuing any construction activity
on the 2.77 acres of land which had been notified by the Government
of Uttar Pradesh for acquisition Though the Uttar Pradesh
government repeatedly assured the Central government as also the
National Integration Council that it would have the orders of the
High Court implemented, the construction activity at the Ram
Janma Bhoomi-Babri Masjid complex continued. The non-
implementation of the High Court orders created misgivings among
the people, he said.
In view of the critical situation which had come about at
Ayodhya, I had a meeting with the religious leaders on July 23.
During the discussion, I drew the attention of the delegation to the
serious situation created by the non-compliance of the court orders
by the Government of Uttar Pradesh. Finally, I requested the
religious leaders to see that the work is stopped so that efforts to
solve the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute etc could,
thereafter, be proceeded with, in a time-bound manner, he said in
the statement.
73
In October 1992, too, Narasimha Rao held discussions with

both the groups and brought about an understanding between them
on various issues concerning the disputed structure. At the National
Integration Council meeting held on November 23, 1992, too, he
briefed the members about the developments on the Ayodhya issue
till date, including the discussions he had with VHP and Babri Masjid
Action Committee representatives and also Rajasthan Chief Minister
Bhairon Singh Shekawat. He said he had proposed to hold another
round of meeting with the stakeholders on November 8, after going
through the evidence submitted by historians and archaeologists
nominated by both sides after three rounds of discussions.
Unfortunately, well before the meeting was held, an
announcement was made on behalf of the VHP and allied
organisations that the Kar Seva would be resumed from December
6, 1992. This seriously jeopardised the resumed process of
negotiations, the Prime Minister told the National Integration
Council meeting.
Narasimha Rao made repeated appeals to the VHP and its
allied organisations to drop their plans to undertake Kar Seva. He
requested them not to make any moves that created law and order
problems. On November 24, 1992, his government issued
instructions for movement of 20,000 Central paramilitary forces to
suitable locations in Uttar Pradesh. He informed the UP government
on the same day that these forces would be available at a short notice
if and when required by the state Government for deployment in
connection with security of Ram Janma Bhoomi-Babri Masjid
structure and maintenance of law and order.
74

A. KRISHNA RAO
He said he had called UP Chief Minister Kalyan Singh several

times and told him that in view of the wide ramifications of the
Ram Janma Bhoomi- Babri Masjid issue, the Centre was prepared
to give to the State government whatever assistance it required to
protect the structure. I spoke to Atal Behari Vajpayee and Gwalior
Rajamata Vijaya RajeScindia and both of them assured that they
strongly believed no harm would be done to the existing structure,
he said.
Even after the VHP announced commencement of Kar Seva
at Ayodhya, the BJP acted in a very strategic manner. On November
27, 1992, the Kalyan Singh government filed an affidavit in the
Supreme Court, reiterating that it was fully committed to
safeguarding and protecting the disputed Ram Janma Bhoomi
structure in Ayodhya. The affidavit also stated that the state
government would deploy additional 15 companies of police forces
for the security of the structure and for maintaining law and order.
It further submitted that Kar Seva would be a symbolic occasion for
carrying on certain religious activities and would not be allowed to
be exploited for any constructional activities, symbolic or otherwise.
The Supreme Court Chief Justice JusticeVenkatachalaiah
adjourned the case to November 28, 1992 and instructed the State
Governments counsel to file an affidavit giving an assurance that
no construction material or machinery would be allowed into the
site and no permanent or temporary structure in violation of the
court orders would be erected.
75
The Supreme Court apparently believed the assurances given

by the UP government and hence, did not pass any orders stopping
Kar Seva. On November 28, 1992, it directed that the
Centralgovernment did not intervene in the matter and that the
lower courts would take a call after reviewing the prevailing situation.
In his book Ayodhya, 6 December 1992, Narasimha Rao clearly
mentioned that on November 29 Supreme Court had asked the
state governments counsel K K Venugopal to advise the authorities
concerned to publish and clarify that Kar Seva would not mean any
construction activity.
On November 21, Narasimha Rao left for Senegal on a three
day tour to attend a G-15 meeting. In his absence, he delegated full
powers to his cabinet colleagues to take any crucial decision on
Ayodhya. On November 21 and 22, his cabinet ministers Arjun
Singh, Sharad Pawar and S B Chavan took several decisions. In
case they were in favour of a firm action, they could have taken it
then, when the responsibility vested in their hands. They made
several other decisions, and as is my way, I never questioned their
right to do so. But not this one (Ayodhya), he said in an interview
later.
Perhaps, he thought his cabinet colleagues, too, might not
have anticipated that the situation would turn so worse. Maybe,
absence of any negative reports from the intelligence bureau on
what might happen in Ayodhya on December 6 was yet another
reason for their inaction.
During the course of a conversation, Narasimha Rao told me
that the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid issue was not his creation.
It had been raging for several decades before him, but the burden of
resolving the dispute had fallen on his shoulders.
76

A. KRISHNA RAO
The 42nd amendment to the Constitution of India had

incorporated Article 257-A, which provided that the Government
of India may deploy any armed forces or any other force subject to
the control of the Union (not of the state) for dealing with any
grave situation of law and order in any state, which shall not, subject
to the superintendence or control of the state government or any
officer or authority subordinate to the state government.
But this provision was removed from the Constitution by the
44th Amendment. According to this amendment, the Centre can
send its military forces, but only after the state government issues
the orders to that effect. Had the Article 257-A not been removed,
it would have given us the authority to act without needing to take
recourse to the extreme measure of dismissing the state government,
Narasimha Rao said.
Soon after the demolition of Babri Masjid, the Ayodhya
magistrate issued written orders directing the Central forces to return
to the barracks. Narasimha Rao said he did not even have the option
of imposing Presidents Rule under Article 356 as a pre-emptive
measure, as it would be against the recommendation of Sarkaria
Commission and also spirit of Supreme Court judgement S R
Bommai case.
In fact, at one stage, Narasimha Rao considered the option of
imposing Presidents Rule in UP. He asked the Home Secretary on
November 28, 1992 to put up a Cabinet note on Article 356, just
in case the situation warranted it. However, there was no consensus
among those who were handling the issue.
77
Moreover, then Uttar Pradesh Governor B Satyanarayana

Reddy submitted a report to the President of India that there was
no serious law and order problem in Ayodhya and everything was
peaceful. In his report, Reddy mentioned that the state government
had assured full protection to the disputed structure and adequate
arrangements had been made to protect it. The Governor even
warned the Narasimha Rao government against imposing Presidents
Rule in UP, stating that it would have far-reaching consequences
and might even lead to large-scale violence not only in the state but
also in other parts of the country. A stern warning from a Governor
to the President of India could hardly be imagined, said Narasimha
Rao in his book.
Satyanarayana Reddy, who was from Mahabubnagar district
of Telangana, was appointed not by the Narasimha Rao government
but by the previous V P Singh government. He was not even a
Congress leader. He was a Lohiaite and was associated with anti-
Congress parties like Socialist Party, Janata Party and Janata Dal.
Despite being a strong opponent of communal politics,
Satyanarayana Reddy did not sound any warning bells to Narasimha
Rao on the possibility of the Babri Masjid demolition.
Having gained tremendous mileage from the Rath Yatra taken
up by senior leader L K Advani during the V P Singh regime, the
Bharatiya Janata Party decided to follow the same strategy during
the Narasimha Rao regime. And the strategist was none other than
Advani himself.
78

A. KRISHNA RAO
Perhaps, Advani thought Narasimha Rao was a weak Prime

Minister and the BJP could easily come to power, if it can force him
to step down by creating troubles for him. Needless to say,
Advaniwas propelled by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and
its affiliated organisations in a systematic manner. Many other BJP
leaders strongly backed Advani, except Atal Behari Vajpayee, who
chose to stay away from Kar Seva plan for his own reasons. Maybe
he had sensed well in advance what was going to happen at Ayodhya
on December 6. Moreover, there is every reason to believe that he
did not want to embarrass Narasimha Rao. In fact, speaking in the
Lok Sabha on December 2, Vajpayee said it was quite wrong on the
part of Janata Dal, the Left Front and even some Congress members
to jump to conclusions on the basis of newspaper reports that court
orders would be violated during the Kar Seva.
I was very much in Ayodhya on the day when the historic
Babri Masjid was demolished. In a way, it was the first major
assignment for me in my profession after being posted in New Delhi.
It happened within a few months after I joined as a correspondent
in the Delhi bureau of Udayam Telugu daily. It was my first
experience as a journalist to be a direct witness to an unusual incident
and file a comprehensive report.
I know my way of thinking, my ideological background and
my personal opinions on any issue are completely different from
my professional requirements. I always ensured that my beliefs and
my ideological thinking do not come in the way of my professional
writing. And I evinced a lot of interest in learning any subject which
was required for my profession and whoever I met as part of gaining
knowledge on any subject, I used to attract their attention only
because of my inquisitiveness.
79
It was part of this inquisitiveness that I attended the meetings

of BJP, VHP and RSS leaders to understand their perspective about
Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. I regularly used to cover their press
conferences. That was how I made friendship with a retired
archaeologist Gupta and started meeting regularly. He showed me
a lot of documents to prove that there was a Ram Mandir in Ayodhya
before the construction of Babri Masjid. Subsequently, I came to
know that he had strong RSS links.
When I came to know that BJP, RSS and VHP activists were
going to Ayodhya in large numbers to conduct Kar Seva, I, too,
wanted to go there. I sought Guptas help and he gave me a
recommendation letter written in Pali script. He asked me to hand
it over to Rama Shankar Agnihotri, who was looking after media
affairs in Ayodhya.
On December 4, I started for Ayodhya, along with my
photographer Gurram Srinivasa Rao, in Faizabad Express. Though
we had prior reservation in sleeper class, our entire compartment
was packed with Kar Sevaks. They were least bothered to leave our
berths to us, though we pleaded with them saying we had
reservations. All the upper berths in the compartment were occupied
by Ram Bhakts. Initially, they behaved rudely with us, but when
they came to know that we were journalists going to Ayodhya,
they changed their attitude and started showing some respect towards
us. They offered us delicious snacks and sweets. Amidst singing of
Ram Bhajans by Kar Sevaks all through the day, I felt it was too
long a journey. Somehow, we reached Faizabad by the evening of
December 5.
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A. KRISHNA RAO
We checked into a mediocre hotel in Faizabad. We dumped

our baggage in the hotel room and immediately rushed to Ayodhya
without wasting any time. To our utter surprise, everything was
peaceful there, except the sounds of police boots behind iron
barricades around Babri Masjid. A few yards away from the structure,
we noticed camps of paramilitary forces. Children were playing in
the open ground in front of the mosque. Everything was calm before
the storm.
Gradually, thousands of Kar Sevaks started landing in Ayodhya
in drones. Activists of different parts of the country put up their
tents with banners representing their respective states. We also
noticed camps of Kar Sevaks from Andhra Pradesh. All arrangements
were being made in a systematic manner cooking of food, serving
of meals, performing prayers and conducting bhajans.
We made a quick tour of Ayodhya passing through lanes
adjacent to the masjid. We passed by a few temples which were
buzzing with devotees. Life was absolutely normal everywhere. We
went to the offices of VHP and Bajrang Dal. We saw Bajrang Dal
leader Vinay Katiyar discussing with some activists and many others
were waiting for their turn to meet him. We introduced ourselves
to him and he spoke to us for some time. We asked him where we
could meet Agnihotri and he directed us to a chamber upstairs.
We climbed up the narrow staircase and met Agnihotri. I
showed him the letter given by Gupta. Agnihotri went through the
letter and was very much pleased.
81
Oh, you are closer to Sangh Parivar leaders! How long have
you been acquainted with Gupta? he asked me affectionately. He
gave all the details about the Kar Seva programme the following
morning.
We returned to the hotel room in Faizabad and hit the beds.
We got up early in the morning the following day and reached
Ayodhya. By then, the Babri Masjid area was completely cordoned
off. The organisers erected barricades with bamboo sticks around
the open ground in front of the mosque. They arranged a stage at a
distance from the ground as if it was meant for a public meeting. I
later realised that the stage was meant for leaders not just to address
the gathering but also to witness the destruction of the masjid.
Soon, the entire area was flooded with activists of VHP and
Bajrang Dal, who queued up state-wise. I noticed some familiar
faces among the Bajrang Dal activists from Warangal. First, they
allowed media persons into the ground where Sadhus and Sants had
already begun the Kar Seva ritual in front of the mosque.
Arrangements were also being made for the commencement of a
homam, under the auspices of RSS leader Seshadri. RSS leaderKS
Sudarshan was also present there.
Beyond the barricades around the ground, lakhs of Kar Sevaks
assembled as if they were waiting for some instructions. After some
time, Vinay Katiyar started addressing the Kar Sevaks from the dais,
giving some suggestions to them. I asked Sudarshan ji as to what
exactly was going to be the next programme. Right now, we are
performing Shilanyas (Bhumi Puja) for the Ram Mandir we are
going to build. We shall invite Kar Sevaks from each region to come
there and pour holy water over the foundation stone, he said.
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A. KRISHNA RAO
I was a little surprised. You said you would build only the
entrance for Ram Mandir, but now, you are saying there will be
Shilanyas for the mandir itself. Why did you invite lakhs of people
to this simple ceremony, instead of a few important leaders? I asked
Sudarshan. But he looked at the other side talking to somebody
else, as if he did not listen to my question.
Uttar Pradesh police, who were standing behind the iron
barricades erected around the Masjid, were looking at the entire
ceremony passively. At around 9 am, Faizabad district magistrate R
S Srivastava arrived there and had a brief talk with Senior
Superintendent of Police D B Roy (Later, this gentleman became a
BJP MP), who was standing there. The para-military forces were
nowhere in the vicinity of the masjid. They were still positioned in
the barracks far away from the spot.
An hour later, VIPs started coming to the venue. Uma Bharati,
Sadhvi Ritambhara, Kalraj Mishra, L K Advani, Murali Manohar
Joshi, Ashok Singhal, Vishnu Hari Dalmia, KedarnathSahani,
Pramod Mahajan, VijayarajeScindia, Giriraj Kishore and several MPs
arrived there one after the other. Vinay Katiyar invited them on to
the dais, after they performed Shilanyas (pouring water on the
foundation stone). Later, several RSS and BJP leaders began
addressing the gathering.
What ignited fire among the Kar Sevaks was the aggressive
speeches by Vinay Katiyar and Sadhvi Ritambhara. Suddenly at
around 10.30 am, lakhs of Kar Sevaks broke open the barricades
and started rushing towards Babri Masjid. As if they were given
instructions well in advance, Sadhus and Sants too surged ahead
83
holding stones and bricks. They first targeted electronic

mediarepresentatives who came to cover the Shilanyas programme.
As they ran for their safety, the Sadhus turned their attention to the
print media reporters.
Initially, I did not pay much attention to the commotion
around me as I was busy scribbling notes about Kar Sevaks carrying
various types of weapons while attending Shilanyas ritual and the
points I had discussed with various leaders. Suddenly, a stone zoomed
past my head. I got panicky and when I turned my head, I noticed
a Sadhu getting ready to hurl another stone at me. I looked around
for help, but to my shock, I did not find any of my print media
colleagues in the area. Having no other choice, I too, ran away
from the spot for my safety.
Not just media persons, even the police personnel gave up
and fled the area, forgetting their fundamental responsibility of
safeguarding the mosque. District Magistrate and SSP, too, quietly
disappeared from the scene. Within minutes, the lanes and by-lanes
of Ayodhya were flooded with lakhs of Kar Sevaks, raising Jai Sri
Ram slogans.
I did not know what I should do in that situation. It struck
me that I had the letter given by archaeologist Gupta in my pocket
and it reminded me of my duty. I stopped at a shop where saffron
scarfs with Jai Sri Ram slogans were being sold. I quickly bought
one scarf and tied it to my forehead. I picked up a stick and mingled
with the crowd moving towards masjid again.
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A. KRISHNA RAO
It was just a matter of a few minutes all the iron gates and
barricades around the masjid were pulled down by Kar Sevaks.
Though Central Reserve Police Forces (CRPF) were not very far
away from the spot, they remained unmoved and did not make any
attempt to protect the structure. Later, I was told they did not enter
the scene for want of instructions from the Centre.
I returned to the ground and got on to the dais to get a
betterview of the masjid being razed to the ground. Nobody stopped
me,as I was sporting the saffron headband and if any leader
questioned,I had Guptas letter ready in my pocket.
What shocked me was the way thousands of Kar Sevaks
werecarrying crowbars, hammers, shovels, and iron rods in their
hands.And I realised then that the decision to demolish the mosque
wasnot a spontaneous one, but it was a well-planned move for
whichthe blueprint was prepared well in advance.
Every leader who was speaking from the dais gave a call,
somedirectly and others indirectly, to the Kar Sevaks to pull down
thestructure. They instigated the activists to demolish the masjid as
amark of retaliation to the attack on Kar Sevaks by the
MulayamSingh government in October-November 1990. And
Ashok Singhalcalled upon Kar Sevaks to finish the task of demolition
of the mosqueas early as possible.
At around noon, one of the three domes of the mosque
wasrazed to dust. By 2 pm, another dome of the mosque was
demolished.Thick plumes of dust billowed the entire area and further
darkenedthe clouds in the sky. Quite a few Kar Sevaks were crushed
85
underthe debris of the same domes which they had demolished and
manyothers sustained injuries. Yet, there was no let-up in the
aggressionof the Kar Sevaks. By 4 pm, the entire masjid was reduced
to rubble.
I later came to know that it was an RSS worker from
Vangaravillage of Warangal district, the native of Narasimha Rao,
who haddealt the first blow on the dome of the mosque with a
crowbar.
The organisers quickly arranged ambulances to carry
injuredactivists to hospitals. Some activists brought some relics related
toplaces of worship to Advani saying they had found them in the
debris.Some others brought some stone plaques with some
scripturesinscribed on them. Vinay Katiyar told them to preserve
those stones,plaques and relics in the Bajrang Dal office in Ayodhya.
By 7 pm, the Kar Sevaks erected a makeshift place of
worshipamidst the rubble and installed idols of Lord Sri Ram, Sita
and Lakshman. Later, they began retreating from the spot holding
piecesof bricks belonging to the mosque as if they were mementoes
andraising slogans: Ram Naam Satya Hai, Babri Masjid
Dhwasthhai.
We, too, returned to Faizabad, amidst reports of
sporadicviolence from different parts of the state. By the time we
reachedFaizabad, a curfew-like atmosphere was prevailing in the
town. AsI was filing my report sitting in the hotel room, I received
a flashnews that Chief Minister Kalyan Singh resigned from his post.
TheCentral Government on the other hand claimed that the
ChiefMinister Kalyan Singh was dismissed.
86

A. KRISHNA RAO
Addressing the nation through Doordarshan in the

night,Narasimha Rao said the destruction of the mosque was a matter
ofgreat shame and concern for all Indians. A grave threat has
beenposed to the institutions, principles and ideals on which
theconstitutional structure of our republic has been built, he said.
He lashed out at the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh
forbetraying the nation by throwing to winds all its assurances given
tothe Centre, the Supreme Court and the National
IntegrationCouncil. He expressed anguish over the way some
political partieshad grown impatient and gone to extreme lengths
for the sake ofpower. They whipped up religious passions by
exploiting the RamJanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute for their
petty political gains,he alleged.
Narasimha Rao pointed out that there were no
differentopinions on the construction of a magnificent Ram temple
inAyodhya, but the BJP-VHP combine had resorted to violent
meansonly with an eye on power. This is a betrayal of the nation
and aconfrontation with all that is sacred to all Indians as the legacy
whichwe have inherited as a part of our national ethos, he said
angrilyand warned them that such forces which disturbed peace and
security of the nation would not be tolerated henceforth.
Replying to the debate on the non-confidence motion
againsthis government in Parliament by Atal Bihari Vajpayee on
December21, 1992, Narasimha Rao came down heavily on the BJP.
He saidthe entire nation was committed to protecting the
Constitution fromthe ruthless politics of the BJP. I plead guilty for
believing in a stategovernment. I have no compunction on that.
87
The question is whathas happened to the Constitution of India in

this process. It liesshattered. If we are secular, the vandal cannot be
allowed to take the advantage of vandalism, he said, and reminded
that even theSupreme Court had believed the Uttar Pradesh
governmentsassurances.
At the Congress Parliamentary Party meeting held the
following day,Narasimha Rao disclosed an interesting
information.In July, Advani came to me and told me: You talk
to the Sadhus,I am not able to persuade them. They will not listen
to me. I said, Ok, I will talk to them. Otherwise, I had no contact
with the Sadhus, I know many Sadhus but not these Sadhus. I know
Shankaracharya Ji and others but the Sadhus of Ayodhya I did
notknow. I was not acquainted with them and it was by the
permissionand courtesy of the then leader of the Opposition that I
got themhere and I talked to them. I do not know whom it must
haveshocked. It has shocked many people, but what has actually
happenedis that they listened to me and that was the last Khatre ki
Ghanti(dangerous signal). If the Sadhus start talking to me directly
and not through the proper channel, the channel (for the BJP) is
gone.They clearly told me that they want the temple. We want
thetemple. We have nothing to do with politics.
The BJP leaders realised that the Sadhus were going out oftheir
hands gradually and they conspired to break their talks withthe
government, Narasimha Rao told the CPP leaders.He said Lord
Ram was born in Ayodhya, but he was not alocal leader confined
to only Ayodhya and that his footprints werethere all over the
country. To all of us, Ram is a concept, theconcept of national
88

A. KRISHNA RAO
integration. Nothing more, nothing less. Ramis a concept. Ram is

a Man. Ram is a God. To some, Ram is theGod. To some, Ram is
MaryadaPurushottham.
He went on to say: Perhaps, you dont know how
manycountries are having sleepless nights because of
fundamentalismtoday. It may be Islamic fundamentalism, it may be
Buddhistfundamentalism, it may be something else; but
fundamentalism isan entity, fundamentalism as a phenomenon has
become the baneof political life in many, many countries and world
leaders arespending sleepless nights over this. We are one of them,
he said.
In his interview to India Today Editor-in-Chief Arun Purieon
January 15, 1993, Narasimha Rao accused the BJP of indulgingin
competitive militancy. It has been said that the RSS tail waswagging
the BJP. In the case of Ayodhya, it has now becomeapparent that
the BJP dog was being waged by more than one tail.The front
organisations of the BJP have obviously overtaken theparty and the
BJP leaders were forced to indulge in competitivemilitancy. Even
Vajpayee has confirmed this, he said.
He said the average Indian citizen would take them (BJP andits
front organisations) as nothing less than outlaws. And he has todecide
whether he wants a government run by the rule of law. Or he wants
a government of outlaws. This society is a law-abidingsociety. If
you decide everything by the size of the crowd, thengoodbye to
the Constitution, he said.
89
In fact, Lal Krishna Advani deposed before the

LiberhanCommission that he had not expected the demolition of
Babri Masjidon that fateful day. He mentioned the same in his
autobiography.He claimed that he and other leaders of Ram Janma
Bhoomi movement had made repeated appeals to Kar Sevaks not
to indulgein demolition. Since there were no television channels
those days,their speeches had not been recorded. But there was no
evidence either to believe that they were not responsible for the
demolition of the mosque.
I cannot in all honestly deny that 6 December representedan
epoch-making day in the life of India and also of Hindus. It wasthe
clear signal in modern Indias history that the Hindu
communitywould not forever tolerate denial of and disrespect
towards itslegitimate sentiments .Those who took Hindu concerns
and aspirations for granted, and tried to thwart them through an
endlessprocess of political machinations and judicial delays, got an
answer which they will hopefully not forget, Advani wrote in
hisautobiography My Country My Life. These words clearly
reflectwhat he had in his mind on Ayodhya.
At the same, Advani also said: Mass movements
sometimesacquire an inner dynamic of their own which even its
leaders cannotalways comprehend or fully control. Thus, through
an action thatneither the leaders of the temple movement nor the
leaders of thecentral government could control or prevent, a group
of Kar Sevaksdelivered their own verdict on some of the seminal
questions ofIndian history, both medieval and modern.
90

A. KRISHNA RAO
It shows Advani had given clean chit to the Centre as well

asNarasimha Rao in the Babri Masjid demolition episode.There is
no evidence to say that the demolition of the masjidat Ayodhya
took place with full knowledge of the Prime Minister.At the same
time, one cannot blindly believe that he was completelyin the dark
about what was happening in Ayodhya or that he hadfailed to predict
what was going to happen. But undoubtedly, therewas a clear failure
of the intelligence bureau during the NarasimhaRao regime. One
can only question why an intellectual likeNarasimha Rao failed to
predict the impending disaster at Ayodhya.
But it is not correct to throw the blame only on him and treat
himas a criminal. Sharad Pawar, in his autobiography On My
Terms, saidNarasimha Rao never wanted Babri Masjid to be
demolished, buthe certainly failed to take adequate measures to
prevent thedemolition. He was afraid of using military power, as
he was apprehensive that even if a few Kar Sevaks were killed in the
process, it might lead to large-scale violence across the country,
Pawar said. Even Pranab Mukherjee also felt that demolition of Babri
Masjidwas one of the failures of Narasimha Rao and it had affected
theparty.
In February 1993, the Narasimha Rao government released
awhite paper reflecting the official response on the Ayodhya issue.In
the first page of this document itself, the government admittedthat
the disputed structure had not been used as a mosque for prayersfrom
December 1949 to December 6, 1992. The white paper allegedthat
the Uttar Pradesh government had committed a crime by nottaking
any measures to prevent the demolition and that it had completely
failed to discharge its duties.
91
At around 5.30 pm on December 6, 1992, Uttar Pradesh

ChiefMinister Kalyan Singh resigned from his post. Within a short
time,the Centre dismissed his government and imposed Presidents
rulein the state. Entire Ayodhya came under the administrative
controlof the Central government. Yet, the Central forces did not
makeany attempt to rein in Kar Sevaks who stayed put in Ayodhya
therein big numbers. After pulling down the domes of the mosque,
theycontinued with their demolition of remaining parts of the
mosqueand cleared the rubble from the premises. All through the
night,the Kar Sevaks were engaged in cleaning up the area and
constructinga makeshift mandir in the place. Later, they installed
the idols ofLord Sri Ram, Sita, Laxman and Hanuman in the
mandirfollowing all rituals.
Maybe the Narasimha Rao government thought it would
notbe a right decision to use the Central armed forces against Kar
Sevaks,as they were still in a frenzied mood. This led to the talk that
theCentral government indirectly admitted the legitimacy
ofconstructing the Ram mandir at the disputed site. And with
theAllahabad high court giving an interim order in 1993 allowing
darshan of Ram Lalla at the temporary mandir at Ayodhya,
itgained more credence.
In India, it is not so easy to pass critical comments on
certaindevelopments. Narasimha Rao knew it and so did Advani.
But theyhave their own political reasons.
The demolition of Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992, was
amajor turning point in Indian politics. Activists of Bharatiya
JanataParty, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal, too, proved
that itwas not just a revolution, but even a destruction, can break
92

A. KRISHNA RAO
theinertia. The Ayodhya episode posed a threat to the very

existenceof the Congress in the country. Advani struck a heavy blow
on themorale of Narasimha Rao who, by then, gained international
acclaimby successfully implementing economic reforms. But by the
time his detractors like Arjun Singh took any advantage of it,
NarasimhaRao managed to secure overwhelming support both in
the CongressParliamentary Party and executive committee meetings.
Most of the Congress leaders these days are blaming it
onNarasimha Rao for the sorry state of affairs in the party at
present.They are of the view that the downfall of the Congress began
withthe demolition of the Babri Masjid and it was Narasimha Rao
who was responsible for the growth of BJP. Even Rahul Gandhi
onceindirectly abused Narasimha Rao saying had a leader from
Gandhi family been in the hot seat in 1991, Babri Masjid would not
havebeen demolished.
But sequences of events in Indian history cannot hide the
facts.Nobody can deny the fact that it was the policies adopted by
RajivGandhi and V P Singh, who ruled the country before
NarasimhaRao, that led to the growth of the BJP as a major political
force byinciting religious passions in the country.
The Ram Janmabhoomi movement steadily picked
upmomentum from the very first year of Rajiv Gandhi taking over
asthe Prime Minister of the country. Those days, Congress leader
VirBahadur Singh was Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. The
Congressgovernments at the state and the Centre took several key
decisionswith regard to Ayodhya.
93
On January 19, 1986, Hindu religiousleaders held a

convention at Lucknow, where it was decided tobreak open the
locks of Ram Janma Bhoomi, if the governmentsdid not take any
decision by Maha Shiv Ratri on March 18.The Congress
government acted swiftly on this ultimatumand filed a memorandum
in the Faizabad district court seekingpermission to open the locks of
Ram Janmabhoomi gates. Whenthe court rejected the plea on
January 28, it filed a review petitionand the court gave permission
to open the gates on February 1. Theorders were implemented
immediately and the gates of the structurewere opened within three
days. The event was given a nation-wide coverage by Doordarshan.
This is a classic example of how the courtscan change their views
within no time, if the governments of theday have their say.
Similarly, in 1989, it was the Rajiv Gandhi government
whichallowed the conduct of Shilanyas a couple of hundred metres
awayfrom the disputed structure. Narasimha Rao was then a minister
inthe Rajiv Gandhi government. It was recorded in history that
duringthe 1989 Lok Sabha elections, Rajiv Gandhi had vowed to
launchhis election campaign from Ayodhya and establish a Ram
Rajya inthe country.
The pro-Congress historians, who accuse Narasimha Rao
ofbeing responsible for the Babri Masjid demolition, have
convenientlyignored the criticism that Rajiv Gandhi had allowed
opening ofgates of the disputed structure in 1986, only to satisfy the
Hinducommunity. For, Rajiv Gandhi was under fire by his critics
forsuccumbing to the demands of the All-India Muslim Personal
LawBoard (AIMPLB) and introduced a legislation in Parliament to
94

A. KRISHNA RAO
nullifythe judgement of Supreme Court in the case of Muslim

womanShah Bano who demanded maintenance for divorced
Muslimwomen.The announcement to reverse the SC judgement
in Shah Banocase and the removal of the locks of disputed structure
at Ayodhyahappened within a span of two weeks. There is no doubt
that thegame plan of Rajiv Gandhi to do a balancing act, thereby
garneringthe votes of both Hindus and Muslims was responsible for
thedownfall of the Congress party.
Later, in 1990, it was during the BJP-backed V P
Singhgovernment, L K Advani took out the Rath Yatra that
whipped upemotions among the people and that ultimately led to
the growthof the BJP and the fall of the Congress party. Yet, those
who pointan accusing finger at Narasimha Rao for the downfall of
the Congresshave never acknowledged these facts.
Why did the strength of the Congress, which had won 269seats
in Uttar Pradesh assembly elections in 1985, come down to 94seats
in 1989 and further down to 46 seats in 1991? Why was RajivGandhi
forced to step down from power with the humiliating defeatof the
party in the 9th Lok Sabha elections held in November 1989?Was
it not due to his vacillating stand on Ayodhya and surrender inthe
Shah Bano case, apart from the Bofors scam?
Was it not during the successive regime of V P Singh did
Advani launch his Rath Yatra from Somnath in Gujarat? Was it
notbecause of the subsequent developments and emotive issues
couldthe BJP led by Kalyan Singh come to power in Uttar Pradesh
in1991 assembly elections by winning 221 seats? The BJP also
wonMadhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh state
assemblyelections.
95
Can anybody hold Narasimha Rao responsible for the

growthof the BJP in all these states? Why did his critics ignore the
fact thatthe BJP had lost the assembly elections in three out of four
states, after Narasimha Rao dismissed their state governments post-
demolition of Babri Masjid? Is it not true that Samajwadi Party and
Bahujan Samaj Party, which had successfully stalled the growth ofthe
BJP in Uttar Pradesh earlier, had lost their credibility due to
internal turmoil and irregularities in their administration?
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad took up the Rama
Janmabhoomimovement in the early 80s. Nine years later, the BJP
at its nationalexecutive meeting held at Palampore decided to take
up the Ayodhyaissue as a political movement. It was only after that
the countryspolitics took a major turn. The permission granted by
the RajivGandhi government for the conduct of Shilanyas gave it
further momentum, leading to the growth of the BJP as a major
politicalforce. But by then, the people of the country had already
come tothe conclusion that there was a need for a political alternative
to theCongress. And the post-emergency developments only
accentuatedit.
After the assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984, BJP
contestedthe elections independently for the first time but won only
twoseats with a vote share of 7.66 per cent. However, one should
notforget the fact that the BJP stood second in as many as 101
seats.Had there been no sympathy wave of Indiras assassination,
the BJPwould have got a much higher vote share. Maybe this was
the reasonbehind Rajiv Gandhis rethinking on Ayodhya. The same
96

A. KRISHNA RAO
sympathyfactor led to the defeat of the BJP for a second time in

1991. The Congress could win 232 seats due to the sympathy wave
post-assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. The BJP, which had won 86
Lok Sabha seats in 1989 elections, improved its tally to 116 in
1991elections. There is no reason to deny the theory that the BJP
wouldhave won more seats had Rajiv Gandhi not been
assassinated;otherwise, it would not have been so easy for Narasimha
Rao to form the minority government.
Why did Congress fail to assess the growth of BJP as a
powerfulpolitical force in Indian politics? In fact, it was not just
theCongress, but all the other anti-BJP forces have miserably failed
tostall the growth of the BJP in the country.
After the Ayodhya incident, there were bomb blasts
inMumbai. And failure of intelligence machinery was glaringly
evidentin both the incidents. Narasimha Rao was attending a
programmeat the residence of Union minister G Venkat Swamy in
New Delhi,when he came to know about Mumbai bomb
explosions.
Director of Intelligence Bureau V G Vaidya who was
alsopresent at the programme, too, might have got the message at
thesame time. When Narasimha Rao was calling him, Mr
Vaidya,Mr Vaidya, the latter quietly disappeared from the scene as
if hehad not heard the Prime Minister. I was there at the spot when
thishappened and I wrote a news report on the indifferent attitude
ofVaidya.
97
Advani, who had once described Narasimha Rao as the

bestPrime Minister India had after Lal Bahadur Shastri, said in
hisautobiography that his personal and political relations
withNarasimha Rao had undergone a dramatic changefrom
friendlyto frosty - during his five years at the helm of the government.
He said he had admired Narasimha Raos erudition.
Hecombined a scholarly understanding of national and
internationalaffairs with rich political and administrative experience.
Secondly,in my initial meetings with him, I found that his views on
severalcritical policy issues to be congruent to those of the BJP, he
said.
In economic policy, Narasimha Rao brought about a radical
shift by introducing a series of delicensing and decontrol measures
toherald a new era of reforms, he said.
Advani observed that Narasimha Rao had faced the
difficulttask of managing his relations with 10 Janpath, which many
in hisCabinet regarded as the only legitimate centre of power both
in theCongress party and in a Congress government. But Rao, a
shrewdpolitician, handled this task deftly, never ceding political
authorityto an extra-constitutional centre of power. Therefore, I
beganadmiring him when, like Lal Bahadur Shastri, he too soon
acquired Prime Ministerial stature on his own, without belonging
to theNehru-Gandhi dynasty, he mentioned in the autobiography.
He even said during the initial days of the Narasimha
Raoregime, there were constructive relations between the
governmentand the opposition, which had never been witnessed.
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A. KRISHNA RAO
There wastruth in Advanis observations. At one stage, there were

evencomments that the Congress and the BJP might become so
closethat they might form Bharatiya Janata Congress.
But there is no doubt that serious differences cropped up
betweenNarasimha Rao and Advani only in resolving the
RamJanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute in Ayodhya. During the
courseof finding a solution to the issue, Advani met Narasimha Rao
severaltimes.
Narasimha Rao felt that Advani had backtracked on his
wordthat there would be no harm to Babri Masjid. Officials at the
seniorlevels of Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) repeatedly
cautionedthat Rao should not trust any assurances given by
Advani,Bahukutumbi Raman, former Additional Secretary in the
CabinetSecretariat, said in his book The Kao boys of R&AW
Downthe Memory Lane.
These warnings were conveyed to the thenPrime Minister
orally, he said. One got the impression that Raowas in two minds.
Sometimes, he felt he could trust the assurancesof Advani.
Sometimes, he felt he could not. Once he told theR&AW that he
did not like Advani coming to his house fordiscussions, lest there be
mischievous speculation in the media. Heasked whether the R&AW
had a secret guesthouse in which hecould meet Advani without the
media coming to know about it.The R&AW told him that it had
such a guest house, which wasbeing used by Rajiv Gandhi for secret
discussions with the Akalileaders before Operation Blue Star in 1984.
He developed secondthoughts and gave up the idea. He then asked
the R&AW to givehim a secret recording device and explain to
99
him how to use it. He wanted to use it for recording his discussions
with Advani in hishouse. It was given to him. After the demolition
of the Masjid, hereturned the device to the R&AW. He did not say
whether he hadused it and, if so, what happened to the recording.
Nor did theR&AW ask him, Raman said.
There were also suspicions that Narasimha Rao had
fixedAdvani in the Jain Hawala case only for betraying him on
theAyodhya issue.Before the Ayodhya incident, Narasimha Rao
used to bereferred to as indecisiveness personified, because of his
inactiontowards growing dissidence in the Congress party in various
states.But after the December 6 episode, he turned out to be an
enigmafor his own admirers. Several Congress MPs from South,
who hadstood by him in the past, commented that they were forced
tosupport him under inevitable circumstances because they had no
other choice. They even accused him of handing over power to the
BJP on a platter.
Maybe all these criticisms had an electrifying effect

onNarasimha Rao and he suddenly started taking startling
decisions.Within two days of the demolition of Babri Masjid,
Advani, MuraliManohar Joshi, Ashok Singhal, Vishnu Hari Dalmia,
Vinay Katiyarand Sadhvi Uma Bharati were arrested. Advani was
imprisoned at aguesthouse at Matatila in Jhansi. On January 10, 1993,
the courtordered their release.
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A. KRISHNA RAO
On December 10, 1993, the Narasimha Rao government

banned RSS, VHP and Bajrang Dal, along with Jamaat-e-Islam-e-
Hind and Islamic Sevak Sangh. While the Uttar Pradesh government
was dismissed within hours of the demolition of Babri Masjid, the
three other BJP governments in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and
Himachal Pradesh were also dismissed later.
In the subsequent assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, theBJP
got 44 seats less than what it had won in the previous
elections.Mulayam Singh and Mayawati formed the government
together.In Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, the Congress
bouncedback to power. Only in Rajasthan, the BJP managed to
retain power,thanks to the personal image of Bhairon Singh
Shekhawat. Thoughthe Congress could not come to power in Uttar
Pradesh, NarasimhaRao was credited with stopping the juggernaut
of the BJP gained ground.
The BJP also realised that the demolition of Babri Masjid
inAyodhya had not helped the party in any manner. During
theJanaadesh Yatra conducted by the BJP leaders, the party
expectedthat there would be sympathy among the people for the
dismissal oftheir governments in four states. Kalyan Singh went to
the extentof declaring that the elections in UP would be treated as
areferendumof the people of Ayodhya. BJP official spokesperson K
L Sharma endorsed Kalyan Singhs statement in an interview given
to me.
But even before the declaration of results, BJP leaders realised
thattheir calculations had gone wrong. A survey commissioned by
theBJP revealed that the Ayodhya incident was not on the top of
the list of issues that were influencing the people of the nation.
101
At the same time, Narasimha Rao brought to fore a proposalto

form a trust which was abandoned during the V P Singh regime.Like
V P Singh, Narasimha Rao too used the services of AndhraPradesh
Governor Krishna Kant. He mobilised the support ofspiritual gurus
like Chandraswamy, Dwarka Peeth Shankaracharyaand Swamy
SwaroopanandaSaraswati and tried to include them in the
trusts.Shankaracharya conducted Sant Sammelan at Jyoteshwar
nearNarsinghpur in Madhya Pradesh, while Chandraswamy
performeda five-day Vishnu Maha Yagna in Ayodhya itself.
Narasimha Raoappealed to Sitaram Sharan Swamy of Lakshman
Khila, who wasrevered by the people of Ayodhya, to head the trust.
More or less, he succeeded in turning the Sadhus towards his side.
On January 7, 1993, Narasimha Rao decided to make
areference to the Supreme Court through an appeal by the
Presidentof India under Article 143 of the Constitution to know
whetherthere was a Hindu temple originally in the place where
Babri Mosquewas demolished. On the same day, he also
promulgated an ordinanceto acquire the entire 67.703 acres of land
in and around the disputedsite in Ayodhya. In March 1993, the
ordinance was replaced by alegislation The Acquisition of Certain
Area at Ayodhya Act, 1993,which was aimed at preventing any
further conflagration. Narasimha Rao planned to form two separate
trusts one for the constructionof the temple and another for the
restoration of Masjid.
However, the Constitutional bench of the Supreme
Courtrejected the reference of the President of India and ordered a
statusquo at Ayodhya, as a result of which Narasimha Rao had to
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A. KRISHNA RAO
keephis decisions in abeyance. Interestingly, the Supreme Court

upheldthe acquisition of the land by the Centre at the disputed site
inAyodhya, but said that the Centre could take a decision on the
landafter a meaningful implementation of the final resolution of
thelitigation in the Ayodhya matter.
There is no doubt that the decision taken by Narasimha Raoto
acquire the disputed land has helped the present Narendra
Modigovernment, following last years judgement by the Supreme
Courtallotting the entire 67.7 acres of land at Ayodhya for the
constructionof Ram Mandir.
Narasimha Rao also proposed to enact a legislation banninguse
of religion in politics. He introduced a bill in Parliament to thateffect,
proposing an amendment to the Constitution and also
theRepresentation of Peoples Act. However, the government
wasforced to withdraw the legislation after it failed to get the
requiredtwo-thirds vote for approval of the members.Neither the
Supreme Court nor the CBI special court thatprobed into the Babri
Masjid demolition case mentioned anythingabout Narasimha Rao
government in their judgements. TheLiberhan Commission,
constituted by the Central government onDecember 16, 1992 to
investigate the demolition of the mosque,submitted its report after
a long gap of 18 years, exonerating
Narasimha Rao. The commission, however, said Advani,
MuraliManohar Joshi and other BJP and VHP leaders had hatched
theconspiracy to demolish the mosque in a pre-planned manner.
After nearly 28 years, the CBI special court recently gave
cleanchit to everybody who was connected with the demolition
withoutpassing a single comment against them. Reason: The CBI
103
failed tofurnish any evidence against the BJP leaders who had taken
outnation-wide Rath Yatras, stepped up the Ram Janmabhoomi
movement and made explosive speeches on the day of demolitionof
the mosque and threw the Liberhan Commission report into the
dustbin.
As a result, an emotional chapter that turned a new leaf in the
history of India was closed for once and for all. When leaders
likeAdvani themselves were declared not guilty, who can point
anaccusing finger at Narasimha Rao?
After ensuring that the heat and dust raised after the
demolitionof Babri Masjid settled completely, Narasimha Rao
presented yet anotherpopulist budget in February 1993, obviously
to divert thepublic attention. He also made quite a few changes in
the Unioncabinet. He made all his ministers resign and reshuffled
the cabinetby including five new faces, thereby proving his authority
over theadministration.
His yet another masterstroke was to appoint Sharad Pawar
asthe Chief Minister of Maharashtra in March 1993. Though
Pawarwas also one of the strong contenders for the Prime Minister
post, he was not as wily as Arjun Singh. Moreover, he was a mass
leaderwho commanded respect from all political parties and also a
strategist.
Within three days of assuming power as the Chief Minister
ofMaharashtra, he brought the situation under control in the
state.After the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation issued a statement on Babri
Masjid demolition criticising Narasimha Rao for his
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A. KRISHNA RAO
inaction,dissidents in the Congress party tried to gang up against

him. Theywere provoked by Arjun Singh. But he was totally isolated
at theCongress Working Committee meeting held a week before
theAICC plenary at Surajkund in Haryana.
The CWC meeting wasorganised by Narasimha Rao to discuss
the statement issued by ArjunSingh on March 21 saying the party
leadership had miserably failedto curb the fundamentalist forces. At
the marathon meeting thatbegan at 5 pm on March 22, 1993 and
continued till 2.30 am thefollowing day, all the CWC members
right from Sitaram Kesri,Ghulam Nabi Azad, A K Antony,
BalaramJakhar to K Karunakaran everybody took Arjun Singh to
task. They made him give an explanation stating that he had not
made the one-post-for-one-person demand. The CWC meeting
is a classic example of how the party succumbs to those who are in
power.
Gaining strength from the CWC meeting, Narasimha
Raoimplemented his political game plan. The special AICC session
heldat Surajkund on March 27 and 28 adopted a unanimous
resolutionstating that the one-post-for-one-person formula was not
applicableto the Prime Minister and ensured that he had no
opposition withinthe party. In a way, Arjun Singhs revolt did more
benefit than harmto Narasimha Rao.
Addressing the AICC session, the Prime Minister asserted
thatthe only way the Congress could take on the BJP was to give
afitting reply to the issues being raised by it. He referred to the
criticismabout Article 370 of our Constitution granting special status
to thestate of Jammu and Kashmir, also the issue like uniform civil
codeand the Minorities Commission.
105
You have to fight the BJP, but that fight is not to be

foughtwith spears and lathis but with ideas. We have to carry out
this fightin the minds of the people, we shall need to explain to
them what isthe meaning of our secularism. Until we are able to do
this andclarify this to our people, the BJP will continue to carry on
itspropaganda, he said.
He cautioned the party leaders that the BJP was trying to
instilin the minds of the people that the Congress was opposed to
RamTemple and that only BJP could and would build the temple.
Wehave to crush this slogan of theirs. We have to respond to this
sloganwith such a resounding voice that they are forced to shut up.
Youknow that the decision about the temple and the mosque has
alreadybeen taken. The temple is going to be built and so will be
themosque. I wish to tell the BJP and the entire country the
templethat will be built will not be the temple of any party. It will
be the temple of all our parties. It will be a peoples temple. It will
be aRam Temple. A temple, which will belong to the whole of
India,he said.
If only the Congress leaders of those days understood the
spiritof Narasimha Raos speech, they would have effectively stalled
thegrowth of the BJP.
In fact, the BJP assumed Narasimha Rao as avery weak Prime
Minister and in the initial days, it felt that it hadthe chance to grow
stronger if he continued in power for sometime. But very soon, the
BJP realised that there was no such scope.Though it had shown
signs of growth as a potential political force in1991 elections, the
party leaders did not realise that their impatiencewould prove
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A. KRISHNA RAO
counterproductive for the party. Because of thisimpatience, the BJP

could not get any major political advantageafter the demolition of
Babri Masjid. The party went into secondthoughts after facing the
debacle in the November 1993 elections.
The BJP, however, continued to display its natural
characteristic of communalising politics. Even as the nation
wasgradually overcoming the impact of the turmoil caused by
theAyodhya episode, the BJP, which was starved of an issue after
havinglost the assembly elections in three states, sought to kick up
yetanother dispute over the Hubli Idgah Maidan in Karnataka in
1994.
In fact, the one-and-a half-acre ground under the control of
theAnjuman-e-Islam society was not a historical site like
Ayodhya.Several political meetings were held there in the past, too.
The BJPhad been saying it was municipal property and the issue
had beenpending disposal in the Supreme Court.
Having no other issue to kick up a controversy to gain
politicalmileage, the BJP announced in August 1994 that it would
hoist thetricolour there on Independence Day. The party deputed
severalsenior leaders, led by Uma Bharati, to Hubli on August 14
for theflag hoisting the next day.The Congress government in
Karnataka led by Chief MinisterVeerappaMoily took it seriously.
He ordered the sealing of Hublion August 14, imposed curfew and
deployed the police and RapidAction Force personnel in the town.
Although BJP leader SikanderBakht was arrested in Bangalore, Uma
Bharati managed to sneakinto Hubli and declared that the flag will
be unfurled at any cost.
107
On August 15, violence erupted as BJP supporters tried

tomarch to the Idgah Maidan, defying curfew orders, to hoist theflag.
Uma Bharati and state BJP leader B S Yediyurappa were arrestedand
that led to communal clashes. Nine people were killed and overa
hundred injured in the police firing that followed the riots. Therewas
a large-scale destruction of properties.
The Hubli incident expectedly helped the BJP to
growpolitically in Karnataka. The party was known to adopt
suchstrategies before every election. Thus, in the assembly elections
heldin Karnataka in November and December 1994, the BJPs tally
wentup from four seats in the previous assembly to 40 seats and it
emergedas the leader of the opposition. The Congress, which had
won 178seats in 1989, faced a humiliating defeat by winning just 34
seats.
Those days, Advani and his team had no other political issueto
take up, except that of Ayodhya. His team had neither courage nor
willto fight the elections on the plank of development. That was
whythe BJP, despite realising that the Babri Masjid demolition had
nothelped it much politically, continued to rake up the issue and
use itfor its political needs.
The BJP leadership decided to fight for acquisition of the
disputed site in Ayodhya by November 1994 and conduct a five-
day MahaYagnam at the site. It clearly showed the wily thinking of
the BJP and its affiliated organisations. Apparently, the BJP predicted
that Mulayam Singh government would collapse due to internal
wrangling. At the same time, it was also hoping to cash in on
theAyodhya issue in the ensuing assembly elections to 10
statesscheduled to be held between November 1994 and March
1995.
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A. KRISHNA RAO
Indeed, there were internal discussions in the BJP on

variousother issues, apart from Ayodhya, to be taken up in the
upcomingelections. However, the BJP had no moral courage to
oppose theeconomic reforms introduced by Narasimha Rao.
Though therewas some brainstorming in the BJP on economic
reforms, the leaderscould not arrive at a consensus due to serious
differences amongthem.
As a result, at the national executive committee meeting ofthe
BJP held at Hyderabad, Advani asserted that the party wouldnot
give up its Hindutva agenda. Even a moderate leader likeVajpayee
could not defy the party stand and declared at a rally inDelhi: Hum
Ram Mandir Banayenge, Aur Bharat Mata MandirBhiBanayenge
(We shall build Ram Mandir and also Mother IndiaMandir).
RajjuBhayya, who had just taken over the reins of RSS,
cameup with a proposal that had a mix of old and new ideologies.
TheBJP leaders held confabulations at Sariska wildlife sanctuary
inRajasthan to chalk out election strategies with a coordinated effort.
In the 1991 assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh,
SamajwadiParty led by Mulayam Singh got only 30 seats, as his
governmenthad to pay a heavy penalty for firing on Kar Sevaks
going to Ayodhyain October 1990. The BJP led by Kalyan Singh,
which capitalisedon this incident, came to power with 221 seats. In
the 1993 assemblyelections held in the post-Ayodhya scenario
(following the dismissalof Kalyan Singh government), Mulayam
Singh returned to powerin alliance with Bahujan Samaj Party led
by Kanshi Ram by securing huge majority, thanks to the
consolidation of votes of OBCs, SCsand Minorities. Though BJP
109
was still the single largest party with177 seats, it could not form the
government, as SP, the second largestparty with 109 seats entered
into an alliance with BSP with 67 seatsand Janata Dal with 27 seats.
The Congress tally came down furtherfrom 50 to 28. Since 1993,
the communal politics in Uttar Pradeshhas turned into caste-based
politics, thereby changing the politicaldynamics of the state.
Indian politics would have undergone significant changes
hadthe OBCs and Dalits, who joined hands after the demolition
ofBabri Masjid, continued to display the same spirit. But the
Congressand the BJP were successful in breaking this unity by
creating awedge between Mulayam Singh and Kanshi Ram.
Obviously, themain strategy of upper-caste dominated political
parties is to seethat the lower castes do not come together.
At the same time, it was not so easy to bring about
socialintegration between Dalits and OBCs. On January 21, 1994,
aHarijan woman Shivpathi was beaten, stripped and paraded nakedin
Dauna village in Allahabad district by the Kurmi community.The
crime committed by the woman was that she and her son had stolen
some peas from the fields belonging to the community.Though
Kurmis are OBCs, they are landlords and powerful. Theyhad
allegedly grabbed Shivpathis lands long ago and nobody hadthe
power or courage to question their highhandedness.
When Kauravas were stripping Draupadi, Lord Krishna
cameforward to rescue her. But when I was stripped and paraded
nakedin the streets of my village, no Krishna could protect me,
Shivpathilamented, in an obvious reference to Mulayam Singh
Yadav, towhose community Lord Krishna belongs.
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A. KRISHNA RAO
After Kanshi Ram joined hands with Mulayam Singh,

manysuch incidents were reported from different parts of North
India.And the media highlighted them prominently. Shivpathi
incidentwas given a quiet burial in history, thanks to the money
power ofMulayam.
Kanshi Ram gradually turned out to be a tough nut to crackfor
Mulayam. He appointed Mayawati, a second-rung leader in BSPas
the party in-charge of Uttar Pradesh affairs. And she started
pokingher nose in the administrative affairs of the Mulayam
government.She declared that she would conduct a monthly-review
of MulayamSinghs policies and give him two months time to rectify
themistakes. Following the strategy of Kanshi Ram, Mayawati soon
emerged as a power centre in Uttar Pradesh politics that helped her
grab power from Mulayam at a later date.
Kanshi Ram initially joined hands with Narasimha Rao
andhelped elect a Brahmin leader like Jitendra Prasada and
nominationof industrialists like Jayant Malhotra to Rajya Sabha. But
he latertook a U-turn and declared that Narasimha Rao would be
the lastBrahmin Prime Minister. But the same Kanshi Ram took
the help of a supposedly Brahminical party like BJP to form the
coalitiongovernment with BSP in Uttar Pradesh. Along with
Mayawati, Kanshi Ram met Vajpayee and later, the BSP withdrew
its supportto Mulayam Singh government.
On June 2, 1995, some miscreants, said to be followers
ofMulayam Singh Yadav, attacked Mayawati at Meera Bai guest
housein Lucknow supposedly with the support of police. The
goondastried to assault Mayawati physically, but she managed to
111
escape from them and hide in a room. Following instructions from

L K Advanifrom Delhi, local BJP lawmaker Brahma Dutt Dwivedi
entered thescene and rescued her. After this incident, Mulayam and
Mayawatibecame permanent foes.
Narasimha Rao, too, became furious with this incident. Hegot
a report from Governor Motilal Vohra and even before
MulayamSingh called for a trust vote in the assembly, he dismissed
thegovernment. Later, there was anunderstanding between BJP
andBSP. Kanshi Ram personally went to BJP floor leader in
thelegislative council Lalji Tandon and expressed readiness to form
thegovernment with the BJP support. The understanding between
BSPand BJP was endorsed at a meeting attended by senior BJP
leadersMurali Manohar Joshi and Atal Behari Vajpayee, apart from
KanshiRam.
It was reported, quoting reliable sources, that Narasimha
Raospolitical advisor Jitendra Prasada was also present at this
meeting.Whatever may be the truth, Mayawati was sworn in as the
ChiefMinister of Uttar Pradesh with the support of BJP, on the
evening of June 3, 1995. Narasimha Rao described Mayawati as a
wonder of democracy!
It did not take much time for Kanshi Ram to realise that
therewere huge contradictions between the BJP and the Bahujan
politics.At a rally in Kanpur on September 28, 1995, Kanshi Ram
madeMayawati read out his speech, in which he declared that he
wouldstrongly oppose Gandhi as well as Lord Ram. In fact, BJP
statepresident Kalraj Mishra had already warned that his party
wonttolerate if Mayawati uttered a word against either Gandhi or
Lord Ram.
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A. KRISHNA RAO
The same year, Kanshi Ram forced Mayawati to

attendPeriyar Mela, held at Lucknow in memory of Tamil Dalit
leaderE V Ramaswamy. In an interview to a daily on October 17,
1995,Kanshi Ram made a sensational statement that if the BJP was
notinterested in supporting the government, it could as well
withdrawits support to the BSP government. This angered
Mayawati. She
reportedly confided to her close associates that Kanshi Ram
wasaiming at pulling down her government.
Kanshi Ram suspected that Mayawati was taking
decisionsindependently, without consulting him. So, he created a
situationthat compelled the BJP to withdraw its support to her
governmentwithin 137 days of her taking over as the Chief Minister.
Mayawatidid not meet her political guru for a long time after she
steppeddown.
It is a different matter that Mayawati had formed
thegovernment for a second time in 2002 with the support from
thesame BJP and became the Chief Minister. This time, the BJP
allowedher to continue in the post for more than a year, before
withdrawingits support.
It has been proved several times that Mayawati does not havean
ideological stand on the empowerment of Dalits. During theGujarat
riots in 2002, she addressed a press conference along withNarendra
Modi and Vajpayee. She declared that it was her moralduty to extend
support to Modi and all allegations against him werebaseless.
113
In 1996 elections, Kanshi Ram and Narasimha Rao

becamefriends and due to their unusual friendship, Congress and
BSP foughtthe elections together in Uttar Pradesh, But the
Congress-BSPcombine could not win more than 100 seats. Kanshi
Ram, whodescribed Narasimha Rao as the last Brahmin Prime
Minister,and Narasimha Rao, who described Mayawati as a
wonder of emocracy, addressed joint press conferences. But when
theCongress failed to return to power in 1996 general elections,
KanshiRam dumped the Congress and joined hands with another
BrahminPrime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. This is the real
wonder indemocracy.
In 2019, both Mulayam and Mayawati joined hands
togetheragain, but they failed to take on the BJP, which had by
then growninto a mighty political force not only in Uttar Pradesh,
but also inthe entire country. Even if these two parties together
gained majorityseats in the Uttar Pradesh elections, their government
would nothave survived for long, as it was pretty clear that there
was no transferof votes between the two parties.
How could the Bharatiya Janata Party, which
communalisedpolitics in the country, spread the communal hatred
by taking upthe Ram Janmabhoomi movement and became the
main cause fordemolition of Babri Masjid and Gujarat riots, get the
huge mandate from the people of the country? It reflects the change
in the thinkingof the people. In the entire process, a national party
like Congresshas been completely dwarfed.
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A. KRISHNA RAO
In the course of these events, what did the Congress party

achieve by projecting Narasimha Rao as the villain of the piece?
Ithas created an unfortunate situation for itself by failing to give
himthe due recognition, despite the fact that he was the architect
ofeconomic reforms that have changed the fortunes of the country.
Inthe process, the Congress has remained a culprit by itself at the
turnof Indian political history.
Even in Gujarat, BJP has not grown as a mighty force in asingle
day. Since 1960s, Jan Sangh, the erstwhile form of BJP, hadbeen
very active in Gujarat. In 1967, Jan Sangh won only oneassembly
seat in that state, but its tally went up to three in 1972.During the
movement against Emergency, Jan Sangh joined handswith Janata
Morcha and in the 1975 elections, this combine couldwin 18 seats.
After it transformed into BJP, it contested the electionsindependently
in 1980 and won nine seats. By 1985, the BJPsstrength went up to
11 seats.
That the BJP had grown in strength in Gujarat during theRajiv
Gandhi regime was evident from the way it bagged 67 seatsin the
1990 elections. Even before Narasimha Rao came to powerat the
Centre, the BJP, in association with Janata Dal, which hadwon 70
seats, formed the government in Gujarat and Chiman BhaiPatel
was sworn in as the Chief Minister. However, following the
developments at the Centre, Patel joined hands with
ChandraShekhar against V P Singh, as a result of which BJP
withdrew supportto his government. Rajiv Gandhi, who pulled
down the V P Singhgovernment, extended support to Chiman Bhai
Patel. The latterfloated a new regional party Janata Dal (Gujarat)
and formed thegovernment with the support of the Congress.
115
Chiman Bhai was originally a congressman, but he wasexpelled

from the party for resorting to anti-party activities in 1975.He later
formed a political outfit called Kisan Mazdoor Lok Paksha(KMLP)
and joined hands with Jana Morcha to form thegovernment.
Whatever may be the reasons, the Congress lost its independent
existence in Gujarat during the Rajiv Gandhi regime
itself.
As BJP president L K Advani was looking for a strong
andefficient leader in Gujarat where the party was gaining
groundgradually, the RSS suggested the name of Narendra Modi,
who was just 35-years-old then. Within a year of joining the BJP in
1987,he grew to the position of organising secretary of the partys
Gujaratunit. He expanded the party base in the state by taking up
Nyay Yatra and Lok Sakthi Rath Yatra. He worked out several
strategiesto attract OBCs, SCs and STs, who had till then been the
backboneof the Congress party, so that the party could win
maximum seats inGujarat in 1990 assembly elections.
Around the same time, Hindutva slogans began catching
upamong the urban middle class due to the Ram
Janmabhoomimovement in 1989-90. On September 25, 1990,
Narendra Modiflagged off the Rath Yatra of Advani from Somnath
and travelledalong with him up to Mumbai. After the success of
Advanis RathYatra, then BJP president Murali Manohar Joshi
entrusted Modi with the responsibility of conducting Ekta Yatra
from Kanyakumari to Srinagar. However, Modi could take only 67
BJP activists toSrinagar due to landslides in Kashmir.
In November 1991, Modigot elected to BJP national
executive.In the 1991 Lok Sabha elections, it was Modi who
hadencouraged Advani to contest from Gandhinagar for the first
time.In these elections, BJP had recorded a massive win by bagging
20out of 25 Lok Sabha seats with a vote share of 51 per cent.
TheCongress-Janata Dal (G) combine suffered a humiliating defeat.
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A. KRISHNA RAO
In a way, the seeds for the growth of the BJP in Gujarat

weresown much before Narasimha Rao became the Prime Minister.
Evenbefore he assumed charge, Narendra Modi emerged as a force
toreckon within Gujarat politics. Though Narendra Modi might
nothave direct acquaintance with Narasimha Rao, but it was
duringthe latters regime at the Centre, Modi could successfully
install theBJP government in Gujarat.
It is worth recalling that during Narasimha Raos tenure
in1993, Narendra Modi went to the US as part of an all-party
youthdelegation at the invitation from American Council of
YoungPolitical Leaders (ACYPL). The delegation comprised BJP
leaderlate Ananth Kumar, present Union minister G Kishan Reddy,
thenYouth Congress leaders PonguletiSudhaker Reddy, Naresh
Raval and Harishankar Gupta. This tour would not have happened
withoutthe knowledge of Narasimha Rao. Modi posed for a picture
in frontof the White House. Little did Modi expect then that 20
years downthe line, he would enter the White House in the capacity
of thePrime Minister of the largest democracy in the world.
In the March 1995 assembly elections, Narendra Modi
scriptedthe strategy for the resounding victory of BJP in Gujarat. At
a timewhen the Congress leaders of Gujarat, who were groomed
duringthe Rajiv Gandhi regime, were involved in group rivalries,
the BJP,under the leadership of Modi, put up a spirited fight with
the supportof lakhs of trained party workers and won 121 out of
182 seats inthe state. For the first time, the BJP formed the
government inGujarat and Keshubhai Patel became the first BJP
Chief Minister ofthe state.
Even after that Narendra Modi did not rest and continued
tolead the party to victory in the local body elections in the state
heldin August, 1995. The BJP won 18 out of 19 Zilla Parishads and
117
154out of 183 taluk parishads. Similarly, it also won 624 of 811

districtpanchayats and later, six municipal corporations. The entire
mediaand also the party attributed the success to Modi.
When Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel went on a foreign
tourin September 1995, another Gujarati BJP leader Shankar
SinghVaghela revolted against him. He took his group of MLAs
toKhajuraho, alleging that Modi was dominating the party
anddictating distribution of party posts and administrative affairs. As
aresult, the BJP high command forced Modi to resign from the
partypost and called him to Delhi. It appointed Suresh Mehta, in
place ofKeshubhai Patel, as the new Chief Minister.
Interestingly, L K Advani blamed Narasimha Rao for
thepolitical crisis in Gujarat. RSS chief Rajendra Singh, too, in
hisDasara speech, accused the Congress party of being responsible
forthe developments in Gujarat. There were allegations that
Unionminister V C Shukla, who was a close associate of Narasimha
Rao,was the brain behind the revolt by Vaghela. It was believed
that itwas Shukla who had spoken to the Khajuraho collector from
Raipurand made arrangements for the stay of Vaghela and MLAs of
hisgroup.
Anyway, these developments turned in favour of
NarendraModi in the subsequent years. Because of the revolt from
Vaghela,Modi had to stay in New Delhi and he started controlling
the partyaffairs in Gujarat sitting in the national capital. Ultimately,
he createda situation that compelled the party leadership to choose
him as theChief Minister of Gujarat in 2001.
So, Narendra Modis glory, which began during the
RajivGandhi regime, was enhanced during the Narasimha Rao
regime.There are no reports of both the leaders ever having a
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A. KRISHNA RAO
meeting, butthere is evidence to prove that Narendra Modi had

developedadmiration towards Narasimha Rao. While top BJP
leaders likeAdvani and Joshi were criticising Narasimha Rao in
strongest terms, Modi never uttered a word against him.
Before coming to power at the centre in 2014, Modi
addressedan election rally at Nizamabad in April, where he made
harshcomments against Sonia Gandhi and her family for not giving
duerespect to Narasimha Rao. He lashed out at the Gandhi family
fornot paying tributes to the former Prime Minister on his birth
anddeath anniversaries.
As Narsimha Rao rightly said in his book Ayodhya-
6December 1992, political and vote-earning considerations
definitely prevailed and his colleagues in the Congress Party
hadalready made up their minds that one person was to be
madehistorically responsible for the tragedy. They could loudly
proclaimlater that the Muslim vote did not come to the Congress
after thedemolition of Babri Masjid.
However, loyalists of Sonia, who never lost an opportunityto
deride Narasimha Rao holding him responsible for the
Congressparty losing power in several states, do not dare utter a
single wordabout the partys present sorry state of affairs under her
leadership.
And whom can they blame for the miserable position of the
party in the Telugu states?It remains to be seen whether the future
will vindicate me on the Ayodhya episode, Narasimha Rao hoped.
History is more kind to Narasimha Rao after his death than when
he was alive!
` ` `
119
STRATEGOES,
COUNTER - STRATEGIES
T here cannot be two power centres within a single political

party, said Indira Gandhi when she broke the syndicate in
the Congress in 1969. Two-and-a-half decades later, Prime Minister
P V Narasimha Rao followed the same dictum to control the party.
If Indira Gandhis personal charisma helped her consolidate her
power, Narasimha Rao made good use of the circumstances to sustain
his hold over the party for five years.
How was it possible for a 73-year-old man, relaxing in his
armchair at his Race Course Road residence, to gain an upper hand
over the opposition parties and remain undeterred by the turbulence
created by his rivals within the party? How could a person who had
no charismatic looks and appeared hesitant in attitude, suddenly take
lightning decisions when it mattered most?
Right from the days of AICC plenary in Tirupati, Narasimha
Rao always believed in bringing about a consensus within the party
and also among the other political parties on various crucial issues.
And whenever he failed to achieve consensus, he took every decision
very calculatedly. But his detractors within and outside the Congress
thought he was a weak leader and tried to pull the carpet from under
his feet whenever there was such an opportunity.
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A. KRISHNA RAO
However, Narasimha Rao managed to survive every time

and wriggle out of the crisis, thanks to the support extended by his
admirers and also senior leaders in the Congress who held him in
high esteem. Unfortunately, those who tried to pull him down from
power to usurp the throne had no broader outlook to understand
the historic necessity of his revolutionary and bold economic reforms
and policies.
It was no easy job for Narasimha Rao to withstand the
onslaught from his rivals within and outside the Congress and run
the minority government for a full five-year term. He had to adopt
various strategies for the survival of his government. In the 10th
Lok Sabha, his government could survive due to split in Shiv Sena,
Telugu Desam Party and Janata Dal. By the time his tenure was
coming to an end, it had the support of 260 MPs. It was not an
absolute majority; yet, his minority government could last full-term
only because of his mastermind.
Right from day one, Narasimha Rao had to face a series of
hurdles in his five-year old journey. The first hurdle was to win the
trust vote soon after taking over as the Prime Minister. He crossed
this hurdle, when his government won the trust motion on July 12,
1991. It was supported by 240 members, while only 109 members
opposed it. Leader of Opposition L K Advani made a sharp criticism
against Narasimha Rao saying he could not instil confidence among
the people with his economic and administrative decisions. But the
Prime Minister said he would take everybody along with him and
that would be his policy. He announced that he was fine tuning the
industrial policy reforms and was also overhauling the public
distribution system.
121
The second hurdle, a major one, Narasimha Rao had to

encounter was in the very first budget session of the Parliament in
February 1992, eight months after he took over as the Prime
Minister. It is customary that the President of India, as the
Constitutional head of the country, would address the joint session
of Parliament to mark the commencement of the budget session
every year. It would be followed by a discussion on the Motion of
Thanks to the Presidential address.
Normally, the opposition parties do not insist on voting at
the end of the discussion on Motion of Thanks. But they did, in the
first budget session of the Narasimha Rao government with the
sole objective of pulling it down. Soon after the discussion on Motion
of Thanks to the address of President R Venkatraman in Lok Sabha
in the first week of March, major opposition parties including
Bharatiya Janata Party, partners of National Front and even the Left
parties issued separate statements saying they would propose
amendments to the motion and dethrone Narasimha Rao.
Initially, Narasimha Rao did not take these statements seriously
but when he realised that the opposition parties were seriously
conspiring to bring down his government, he reacted quickly and
roped in his strategists to counter the opposition. Apart from issuing
whip to the Congress members, they consulted some of the
opposition members. When there was a voting on Motion of Thanks
on March 9, 1992, nine of 13 Telugu Desam Party members and
seven from Ajit Singh group in Janata Dal abstained from voting.
Members of Samajwadi Janata Party and those from north-eastern
states, besides MPs of some smaller parties extended support to the
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A. KRISHNA RAO
government. As a result, the Narasimha Rao government, which

had till then only 242 members, managed to survive by securing
272 votes.
Even when Narasimha Rao decided to field Dr Shankar Dayal
Sharma as the Presidential candidate in 1992, he had to face stiff
resistance from the opposition. National Front, Janata Dal and BJP
opposed Sharma and fielded Prof George Gilbert Swell from
Meghalaya, but Sharma won the election with a huge margin with
the support of the Left parties. Apparently, Narasimha Rao promised
to the Left and other parties that a Dalit would be nominated for the
Vice-President of India post, if they supported Sharma.
Subsequently, Narasimha Rao had to face several such hurdles from
the opposition in the form of no-confidence motions. During the
five-year tenure of Narasimha Rao, the opposition parties introduced
a non-confidence motion against him thrice.
The first no-confidence motion against the Narasimha Rao
government was moved on July 17, 1992. It was introduced by
senior BJP leader Jaswant Singh. But by then, six of the TDP
members led by Bhupatiraju Vijaya Kumar Raju defected to the
Congress party, taking its strength to 251. Besides, 19 other members
from ADMK, Muslim League, Kerala Congress, Sikkim Sangram
Parishad and other nominated members. In all, 271 members voted
against the no-confidence motion and supported the Narasimha
Rao government, thereby defeating the oppositions attempts to
dethrone him. Later, the Speaker allotted separate seats to 20 MPs
of Ajit Singh group of National Front.
123
Jaswant Singh said his party had moved the no-confidence

motion to expose the faulty economic policies of the government,
corruption, administration of home and foreign affairs that would
impact the national security and collapse of systems over the previous
one year. He observed that changes in the economy would not
yield fruits unless cancerous corruption was eradicated. Ironically,
Janata Dal leader Chandra Shekhar, during whose regime gold had
to be mortgaged to repay foreign loans, also warned that the new
economic policies of Narasimha Rao government would prove
destructive for the country.
The Prime Minister strongly defended his governments
policies. He said economic reforms had been his governments top
priority, but at the same time, he was going about handling other
subjects in a strategic manner. With regard to Ayodhya, he said it
could be resolved only through negotiations.
The second non-confidence motion moved by the opposition
parties was on December 21, 1992, two weeks after the demolition
of the historic Babri Masjid. This time, it was the turn of BJP leader
Atal Behari Vajpayee to move the motion. However, Narasimha
Rao could overcome this hurdle rather easily, as an overwhelming
number of MPs voted in favour of his government, compared to
the first no-confidence motion as many as 336 supported him and
the no-trust motion was defeated by a huge margin of 111 votes.
Vajpayee, though moved no-confidence motion against the
government, did not make the case that the Rao government should
quit. Vajpayee said the no-confidence motion was to expose the
failure of the Narasimha Rao government in protecting the law and
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A. KRISHNA RAO
order in the country, resulting in huge destruction of properties and

loss of lives post-Babri Masjid demolition. The Prime Minister gave
a fitting reply to the opposition. He said it was the responsibility of
the state governments to protect the law and order in their respective
states whenever there were incidents of communal violence. He
announced creation of a fund for repair and restoration of all places
of worship which were vandalised during the communal riots.
Human resources development minister Arjun Singh was a
bitter critic of Narasimha Rao. Yet, he defended the government.
He requested that all democratic forces in the country should come
together and face the challenges in safeguarding the unity and
integrity of the nation. CPI (M) leader Somnath Chatterjee also
extended his support to the government. Parliamentary affairs
minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said the destruction in Ayodhya had
caused a big dent to the secular image of the country. The third no-
confidence motion against the Narasimha Rao government was
moved on July 26, 1993, in the backdrop of the Harshad Mehta
scandal. This time, the motion was introduced by CPI (M) member
Ajay Mukhopadhyay. This was the most crucial test for Narasimha
Rao, who struggled to win it with a slender margin of 14 votes. As
many as 265 members voted against this no-trust motion, rescuing
his government from a collapse. This time, seven Janata Dal MPs
led by Ram Lakhan Yadav, who came out ofthe party and four
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) MPs supportedthe government.
Three MPs belonging to Mulayam Singh groupand three BSP
members abstained from voting.Ajay Mukhopadhyay said the
economic and industrial policies introduced by the government at
125
the diktats of the IMF and the World Bank and determined by these
foreign and imperial agencies led to a situation where the base of a
self-reliant economy had been seriously endangered.
The strange paradox here was that BJP leader Atal Behari
Vajpayee, too, extended support to the CPI (M) members no-
confidence motion. He said when Narasimha Rao came to power
two years ago, people were hopeful that the new government under
the leadership of an enlightened and experienced leader would lead
the nation in the right direction. The Prime Minister had proposed
to run the entire country on the basis of consensus. Efforts were
made to get rid of the economic crisis. But this situation could not
be maintained for a long time. External debts had increased. When
everybody thought, the new economic policies would lead to
abolition of unnecessary controls, they led to a stock market scandal,
Vajpayee criticised.
While CPI (M) leader Somnath Chatterjee accused the
Narasimha Rao government of losing its credibility completely, CPI
leader Indrajit Gupta said the government had lost its eligibility to
continue following the demolition of Babri Masjid at Ayodhya on
December 6, 1992.
Replying to the debate on the no-trust motion, Narasimha
Rao explained that he had taken steps to liberalise the economy
because the Indian economy had to integrate itself with the world
economy. At the same time, the government had seen to it that the
ill-effects of liberalisation that could be anticipated in advance were
effectively forestalled. A sudden jump of three times in
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A. KRISHNA RAO
ruraldevelopment, increase in the outlays on rural development up

to Rs 30,000 crore in the Eighth Five Year Plan, which perhaps
would have been normally reached in the Tenth Five Year Plan,
record production of 180.3 million tonnes of food grains,
unprecedented breakthrough in oilseeds production resulting in
complete stoppage of imports of edible oil and sharp decline in
inflation from 17 percent in 1991 to 5.4 per cent in 1993 were all
due to streamlining of economy, he explained.
He told the House that his government was taking steps to
curb the use of religion in politics. We want religion; we want
politics. But a mix of the two have no place in this country. The
mix of the two is going to be disastrous. Religion cannot be a trump
card of any political party, he said.
He announced the introduction of a comprehensive package
for electoral reforms. He claimed that his government had resolved
Bodoland and Gorkhaland issues and assured the House that he
would grant autonomy to the Jharkhand region. He refrained from
making any reference to the subject based on which the opposition
moved the no-confidence motion.
The sole objective of these forces whether they belonged to
the BJP or the non-BJP parties in moving the no-confidence
motion against the Narasimha Rao government was to weaken the
Congress. Their plan was to strengthen themselves and boost up
their own chances of grabbing power, taking advantage of the
internal wrangling in the Congress. In the event of Narasimha Rao
losing the no-confidence motion, they were ready to support Arjun
Singh who was waiting in the wings to usurp the throne.
127
CPI (M) leader Somnath Chatterjee laid a trap for the anti-
Narasimha Rao forces in the Congress. He said if there was a change
of guard in the Congress, his party was ready to support the
government. But not many Congress leaders fell into his trap. There
was no split in the Congress as anticipated by the Leftists, but there
was certainly a split in the opposition parties. The unity among the
opposition ended up as Utopian socialism.
Narasimha Rao moved his pawns cleverly ahead of the no-
confidence motion moved against his government. Congress MP
from Tirupati Chinta Mohan launched a signature campaign to
drumup support for Narasimha Rao during the Congress
ParliamentaryParty meeting. Expectedly, Sharad Pawar did not
extend wholehearted support. Arjun Singh had to beat a retreat,
when NarasimhaRao lured Ajit Singh towards his side. The
opposition ranks were vertically split, with leaders like Mulayam
Singh Yadav, Kanshi Ram, Ram Lakhan Singh Yadav and Laloo
Prasad Yadav shifting their loyalties to Narasimha Rao.
Yet, some Congress leaders were not mentally ready to admit
the victory of Narasimha Rao. Those who questioned the integrity
of Narasimha Rao in the Harshad Mehta scam had started alleging
that the Ram Lakhan Singh group had received money bags and
the corruption in the Congress party had been exposed. One of the
members G C Munda, belonging to Ram Lakhan group, came to
the Parliament in an inebriated condition and saluted everyone with
raised hands, clearly exposing that the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha
members were sold out.
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A. KRISHNA RAO
This is unfortunate and I am very much disturbed brother.

How long should this collusion with opposition parties and adoption
of a soft approach continue? There is an urgent need to change the
leadership, former Congress MP Kavuri Sambasiva Rao, who was
then in the Arjun Singh camp, said.
The opposition parties appeared to be in a state of utter chaos.
Janata Dal joined hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party in supporting
the no-confidence motion without uttering a word about its
communal politics. Dissident Congress leaders colluded with the
opposition. The Left parties which were always in their illusionary
world, too, remained blind to the fundamentalism of the BJP in
their eagerness to pull down Narasimha Rao government. In a
nutshell, this no-confidence motion nakedly exposed the bankruptcy
of ideology in the opposition parties rather than lack of values in the
Congress party.
The problems created by the suitcase for Narasimha Rao
had to be tackled with the same suitcases. Some MPs, who
innocently deposited the monies in their bank accounts, were
easily caught by the Central Bureau of Investigation later. An MP
from Odisha Anadi Charan Das raised a ruckus in the Central Hall
of Parliament lamenting that he had received lessmoney than what
was promised.
In its charge sheet later, the CBI named several leaders
including Captain Satish Sharma, Buta Singh, V Rajeshwara Rao
(Narasimha Raos close relative), M Veerapa Moiley, Bhajan Lal
and liquor baron D K Audikesavulu Naidu played behind-the-screen
129
roles in the entire scam. I cannot say these charges were incorrect,
because I happened to notice the movement of these leaders regularly
in the residence of Rajeshwara Rao.
Anyways, in the intense battle that went on till the last moment
like the One-Day International cricket match, Narasimha Rao had
the last laugh. The battle which began on June 16 with Harshad
Mehta making allegations against him ended with the voting on
no-confidence motion against the government on July 28.
Narasimha Rao fought a pitched battle with two powerful forces
for 32 days and emerged victorious.
With the Ram Lakhan Yadav group joining the Congress
party, its strength in Lok Sabha went up to 257. The opposition
parties have realised that they cannot defeat the Narasimha Rao
government in the number game, unless there was a major split in
the Congress.
Though Narasimha Rao had to face the allegations of
purchasing MPs in the JMM bribery case, there were no allegations
of corruption against him personally. I have not touched any money
for myself. But the party needs money to sustainand win the
elections. So, I used to entrust the task to somebodyelse, Narasimha
Rao told me once. After listening to his words, I did not make any
attempt to know his version of the developments related to no-
confidence motion.
The Action Taken Report (ATR) on the report of the Joint
Parliamentary Committee constituted to probe the stock market
scandal was tabled in the Parliament in its July 1994 session. And
itled to utter chaos in the House and Narasimha Rao
virtuallythreatened the opposition that he would go in for midterm
elections if they created too much trouble for him.
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A. KRISHNA RAO
The differences between Vajpayee and Advani were glaringly

exposed on the issue of boycotting the Parliament session.
BJPparliamentary party leader Vajpayee said the opposition parties
shouldset aside their politics and get ready for a meaningful discussion
fora larger benefit. But Advani openly differed with his leader
andannounced that the party would boycott the House. For
almosttwo weeks, the opposition parties boycotted the proceedings
of theParliament and Advani gradually gained hold over the party
adoptinga fundamentalist approach.
When the discussion on the ATR began, Narasimha Rao was
not there in Lok Sabha. When the opposition members were
demanding that he should be present in the House, he was holding
discussions with Ajit Singh in the Congress Parliamentary Party
office. When there was no-trust motion against Narasimha Rao, it
was Ajit Singh group which extended support to him. Later, he
floated a separate party Janata Dal (A) and subsequently, merged it
with the Congress, thereby increasing the latters strength to 266.
Ironically, Ajit Singh was in the forefront in criticising Narasimha
Rao after the demolition of Babri Masjid. He even commented
that Narasimha Rao had RSS knicker beneath his dhoti. He
imposed several conditions before merging his party with the
Congress, but Narasimha Rao forced him to join the Congress
unconditionally in the name of safeguarding secularism. Ajit Singh
joined the Central cabinet and was allotted the portfolio of Food
Processing Industries.
131
When he was in trouble, Narasimha Rao might have moved

his political pawns deftly, but most of the times, he adopted self-
defensive tactics. As a result, there was some kind of inertia both in
the party as well as the government. He did not fill up vacancies in
the Congress Working Committee, nor did he appoint
theparliamentary board. Many posts such as party general secretaries
and joint secretaries remained vacant for a long time. In many states,
the Pradesh Congress Committees and District Congress
Committees were not appointed.Even the vacancies in the
Union cabinet were filled up after a lot of dilly-dallying. There had
been a prolonged dispute betweenS B Chavan and Rajesh Pilot
over the delegation of powers in the Union ministry. It took a long
time even for the appointment of the Union home secretary. There
was no transfer of Governors in many states. The nominated posts
in Rajya Sabha, too, remained vacant. So was the post of chief of
security in the Civil Aviation Ministry. There was inordinate delay
in the appointment of chairman for several nationalised banks. The
post of Joint Intelligence Committee chairman also remained vacant
for several days, as there
was a stiff competition between Research and Analysis Wing (RAW)
and Intelligence Bureau to grab the post. Nobody, including the
newspapers and news agencies, could predict when and what
Narasimha Rao would do. On many occasions, the predictions made
by PTI and UNI on the cabinet expansion turned out to be false.
I used to meet Mainstream editor Nikhil Chakravarthy
regularly. In one of our conversations one day, I told him there was
a general perception among the people that Narasimha Rao always
132

A. KRISHNA RAO
dodged taking decisions on several important issues. I asked Nikhil

to mention the same when he meets the Prime Minister next time,
veteran journalist HK Dua told me.
During his next meeting with Narasimha Rao, Nikhil
Chakravarthy raised this issue, albeit rather subtly. He asked the
Prime Minister whether there were any specific reasons for not taking
quick decisions on important issues and wondered if he was following
the quote of a Chinese philosopher: Not taking a decision itself is
a decision.
Narasimha Rao did not say anything but he appeared to have
liked this quote. Next day, he called up Nikhil Chakravarthy to
find out who the Chinese philosopher was and where he had said.
A couple of weeks later, Narasimha Rao referred to this quote
while addressing a press conference at Talkatora Auditorium. Many
people comment that I dont take decisions on several issues instantly.
But I say not taking a decision itself is a decision, he said.
In April 1994, Union minister G Venkat Swamy hosted
Panchanga Sravanam (Listening to Telugu almanac) on the occasion
of Ugadi, the Telugu New Year Day. He invited Narasimha Rao
to the programme, where prominent Kuchipudi danseuse couple
Raja Reddy-Radha Reddy gave a wonderful performance of
Vamanavataram episode. Exactly nine days later, Arjun Singh, too,
invited Narasimha Rao to the Sri Ram Navami celebrations held at
his residence and the Prime Minister spent a lot of time there,
enjoying the Anup Jalota Bhajans. He also requested the singer to
sing his favourite Kabir Bhajan for him. Even Vajpayee attended
133
this programme. Apparently, Arjun Singh realised that it was better

to compete for the second position in the cabinet, rather than
entering into a confrontation with Narasimha Rao.
Sonia Gandhi had been sending signals that she was not
interested in active politics; yet, she gradually turned out to be a
power centre. Sonia knew about Narasimha Rao very well, right
from the days of the days of her mother-in-law Indira Gandhi, who
allotted him key portfolios in the Union cabinet and he used to
frequently visit their house. Even after Indiras death, Rajiv Gandhi
also gave a lot of value to Narasimha Rao in the cabinet. In fact,
Rajiv entrusted Narasimha Rao, apart from Mohsina Kidwai with
the responsibility of making all arrangements for Indiras funeral.
Since Narasimha Rao was non-controversial and soft in his
manners, Sonia thought he would be subservient to her, too. After
he became the Prime Minister, he maintained good equations with
Sonia through his secretary Ramu Damodaran. Those days, senior
IAS officer from Jammu and Kashmir cadre Wajahat Habibullah
was the chief executive officer of Rajiv Gandhi Foundation headed
by Sonia. Ramu Damodaran used to meet Habibullah very
frequently. After Habibullah returned to his parent cadre in Srinagar
and Damodaran went on assignment in the United Nations
Organisation, the gap between Narasimha Rao and Sonia started
widening.
In fact, the differences between Sonia and Narasimha Rao
were evident on a couple of occasions earlier. After the demolition
of Babri Masjid, Sonia Gandhi who was till then silent, strongly
resented the stand taken by Narasimha Rao. Rajiv Gandhi
Foundation led by her found fault with Narasimha Rao government
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A. KRISHNA RAO
for displaying callousness in preventing the demolition of the

mosque. There were serious discussions among the members at the
meeting of the foundation over issuing a press statement against
Narasimha Rao. Some members argued that the foundation was
not a political outfit and hence, it would be better to refrain from
making political comments. But Sonia Gandhi had the last word. In
fact, Narasimha Rao, too, was under the impression that Sonia would
keep herself away from politics and would be confined to looking
after the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation activities. In the first budget itself,
he allocated Rs 100 crore to her foundation. The opposition parties
raised a lot of hue and cry over his decision and even some of his
own cabinet colleagues criticised him for dragging Sonia into the
controversy unwarrantedly. As a result, Sonia returned the funds
saying that the foundation did not need the government support.
But she would not have returned the money, had there not been so
much controversy over the allocation of funds to the foundation.
Jawahar Bhavan where Rajiv Gandhi Foundation was
operating from actually belongs to the Congress party. The building,
located at Janpath close to Parliament, was bought for Rs 30 lakh
from the funds donated by party MPs. Chambers were the Congress
president and other office bearers of the party were also built in this
building. Later, it was handed over to the Jawahar Bhavan trust.
After Rajivs assassination, Sonia became the chairperson of the trust
and she gave a part of the trust to Rajiv Gandhi Foundation. In a
way, the Congress gave up this magnificent building for the sake of
Sonia. There was nobody to question her when shedecided to
operate the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation from this building.The
135
Congress continues to run from its old building at Akbar Road.

Though Mahila Congress operated from Jawahar Bhavan for a
fewyears, Sonia shifted it to the AICC headquarters.
Narasimha Rao appointed Sonia Gandhi as chairperson of yet
another major organisation, Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts,
which is also located at Janpath. In 1995, trustees of this organisation
resolved that Sonia would be its lifetime chairperson. However,
the present NDA government removed Sonia from this organisation,
which belongs to the ministry of cultural affairs. Initially when senior
Congress leaders who aspired for the Prime Minister post and those
who could not get any posts and positions were running around 10,
Janpath, Sonia did not entertain them. But her personal secretary
Vincent George had been nurturing high ambitions of controlling
the party affairs right from the beginning. Leaders like Arjun Singh
and Karunakaran used to pamper George to attract the attention of
Sonia.
According to a theory, George at one stage aspired for Rajya
Sabha membership. Those who were trying to play politics through
George strongly pitched for him. Narasimha Rao consulted Sonia
directly for suggestions and she told him to strictly go by political
interests and the individual talents in choosing the candidates for
Rajya Sabha seats. Narasimha Rao understood her hint. He ignored
George and gave the Rajya Sabha seat to Margaret Alva. Since then,
George had nursed a grudge against Narasimha Rao and played a
major role in creating a wedge between him and Sonia Gandhi. He
used to arrange Sonia Gandhis appointment to dissident leaders
regularly. Leaders like Arjun Singh, Karunakaran, Fotedar, Natwar
136

A. KRISHNA RAO
Singh, K N Singh and Sheila Dixit became very close to George.

Through him, they used to meet Sonia often and brainwashed her
stating that the party was suffering big damage due to Narasimha
Rao. And George too made it a point to place newspaper clippings
containing anti-Narasimha Rao reports.
Gradually, Sonia Gandhi gained some kind of attraction in
politics, thanks to regular meetings of dissident Congress leaders.
She started hitting the headlines in the media, partly due to the
respect and admiration among the Congress leaders towards the
Nehru-Indira-Rajiv Gandhi family and partly due to the impression
that she cannot keep away from the party despite her disinterest in
politics.
Narasimha Rao, too, never intended to hurt or degrade Sonia
Gandhi. After Rajiv Gandhis assassination, he gave the party ticket
for Amethi seat to Satish Sharma, a close associate of Rajiv Gandhi
and gave him a very important portfolio of Petroleum and Natural
Gas. Satish Sharma announced that he would safeguard this seat for
Sonia Gandhi, just like Bharata had done for Lord Rama in
Ramayana. As expected, after many years, Sonia Gandhi chose
Amethi to make her electoral debut.
Narasimha Rao also extended a lot of support to the activities
of Rajiv Gandhi Foundation. Even Congress Chief Ministers
Digvijay Singh, J B Patnaik and S Jameer were also contributing to
the foundation. Before every cabinet expansion, Narasimha Rao
used to meet Sonia and give her prior intimation on who he was
inducting in the cabinet. Yet, Sonia never disclosed her mind to
him. He did not even raise any objection when international leaders
137
like Yasser Arafat, Nelson Mandela and King Hussain met Sonia,
though she did not have any status or position in the government or
the party.
At the Congress Working Committee meeting held on March
22, 1993, Arjun Singh was compelled to give an explanation for his
anti-Narasimha Rao statements. He explained that his intention
was to attack the fundamentalist forces and his criticism was not
aimed at any individual. He signed the CWC resolution stating that
the country would overcome the crisis only under the leadership of
Narasimha Rao.
Yet, Arjun Singh made all out efforts to force a voting on
one-leader-one-post demand at the AICC special session held at
Surajkund on March 27 and 28, 1993. But Narasimha Raos camp
managed to get a resolution passed by voice vote stating that the
one-leader-one-post formula wont be applicable to the Prime
Minister. This led to massive protests from Arjun Singh group and
leaders like Aslam Sher Khan, Dilip Singh Bhuria and Ajit Jogi tried
to storm the dais. They were prevented by the police and also party
workers including youth Congress leader Ponguleti Sudhakar
Reddy. Later, Aslam Sher Khan, Dilip Singh Bhuria, Ajit Jogi, Sheila
Dixit, K N Singh and others staged a dharna at the main entrance of
the conference hall, raising Save Democracy slogans.
The shadow of Sonia Gandhi was very much evident behind
the dissidents camp at Surajkund AICC session. In the later years,
Ajit Jogi and Sheila Dixit became the Chief Ministers with Sonia
Gandhis blessings. Dilip Singh Bhuria became the chairman of
National Commission for SC/STs and subsequently, he defected to
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A. KRISHNA RAO
the BJP to become its vice-president. He died later as a BJP leader.

Aslam Sher Khan faded into oblivion after his continuous defeat in
all the Lok Sabha elections he had contested after 1996. He, too,
jumped the fence to join the BJP, but returned to the Congress
fold. In 2019, he even boasted that he would revive the glory of the
Congress party if he was made the AICC president instead of Rahul
Gandhi.
Initially, dissidents like Arjun Singh and Tiwari were claiming
that they had the backing of Sonia Gandhi, but there was no open
evidence to that effect. One day, Arjun Singh got the stories planted
in some newspapers stating that he was appointed as a trustee of
Jawahar Bhavan. But to his utter shock, there was a rejoinder from
the Jawahar Bhavan organisers the very next day that the
appointment of trustees was done long ago. He also propagated
thatNarasimha Rao had requested him to be the president of the
AICC,but it was denied by the official spokesman of the party.
As Narasimha Rao entered his third year in office after facing
all turbulence, his stature reached its peak both within the Congress
and in the entire country. Otherwise, too, his government received
a lot of appreciation from various quarters. The World Bank and
International Monetary Fund mentioned in their reports that India
had been playing a major role in the global economic scenario. It
was a virtual commendation to the three-year rule of Narasimha
Rao. Indian exports were growing by leaps and bounds with every
passing day. During this period, Narasimha Rao displayed a lot of
statesmanship in facing several political turmoils. The opposition
parties which had waged a relentless battle against Narasimha Rao
by moving no-confidence motion and boycotting the Parliament
over the action take report on stock market scam.
139
With Narasimha Rao establishing himself in the north as an

undaunted leader following the AICC session at Surajkund, his
political rivals started working out a new strategy to launch an attack
from his own base in the South. At the same time, Sonia Gandhi,
who had till then been showing disinterest, at least in the open, to
enter active politics, also started showing up in the party at a time
when Narasimha Rao was gaining a gradual hold over the party as
well as the government.
Her ambitions became quite evident from the day when she
attended the AICC session at Talkatora stadium in Delhi on June
10-11, 1994. Her followers tried to embarrass Narasimha Rao by
raising slogans in support of this meeting. Sonias arrival at Talkatora
stadium was a star attraction for all the Congress leaders. In fact, she
arrived at the stadium with all paraphernalia a few minutes before
Narasimha Rao entered the stage. She was given a standing ovation
by the Congress leaders and the media persons, too, stood up to
watch the grand reception being given to her when she entered the
premises, as slogans like Rajiv Gandhi amar rahen, rent the air.
All the cameras, which had been focussed on the stage, suddenly
turned towards her.
Some overenthusiastic party workers shouted in high pitch
asking the delegates sitting on the dais to move out to make way for
Sonia Gandhi. AICC general secretary Sushil Kumar Shinde and
Delhi PCC president H K L Bhagat invited Sonia on to the dais,
but she politely turned down the request with folded hands, making
her followers to cool down. It was apparent that Sonias intention
was to make her presence felt, but not dominate the show
immediately.
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A. KRISHNA RAO
Interestingly, Narasimha Rao did not enter the stadium till

the emotionally surcharged atmosphere among the delegates
subsided, though he came to the premises much earlier and hoisted
the flag. It showed his farsightedness. He thanked Sonia Gandhi for
attending the AICC session. But there were comments that
Narasimha Rao was virtually overshadowed by the charisma of Sonia
Gandhi which reflected the admiration among the party cadre for
the Nehru-Gandhi family and that he was flabbergasted with the
response she had received from the party delegates.
A senior official from Rajiv Gandhi foundation Krishna Rao
said Sonia was just trying to get out of her solitude by entering into
the broader public life. She has no intentions whatsoever to enter
politics. At the most, she might help the Prime Minister resolve
political issues as per her understanding of politics, AICC official
spokesman V N Gadgil said. I dont think Sonia will ever enter
into active politics. She came to attend the AICC session only
because of her love for the party, said Mani Shankar Aiyar, who
had close proximity with the Rajiv Gandhi family.
But history proved all their calculations wrong. Some of the
Congress leaders were seething with anger over the party leadership
for extending support to Mulayam Singh government in Uttar
Pradesh and Mulayam and Kanshi Ram cashing in on the anti-BJP
sentiment. For quite some time, these Congress leaders had been
desperate to bring Sonia Gandhi into the picture. Perhaps, she
attended the AICC session only to fulfil their ambitions.
141
Sonia Gandhi did not stop with attending the Talkatora AICC
meeting. She also attended Rajiv Gandhi memorial conventions in
Haryana, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu. But these memorial
meetings turned into virtual political rallies as they were organised
by local Congress leaders and cadres. And Sonia made her intentions
clear by waving hands to the jubilant crowds and shaking hands
with party workers. At one such meeting which was attended by
Narasimha Rao, her followers raised high-pitch slogans like: Sonia
Lao, Desh ko bachao.
Around the same time, Narasimha Raos detractors tried to
brainwash Sonia Gandhi stating that the investigation into the Rajiv
Gandhis assassination was going on at a snails pace. They made
massive propaganda over the comments made by the Jain
Commission, constituted to probe the incident, that the intelligence
agencies had not furnished confidential documents to the
commission. They also commented that Narasimha Raogovernment
had not taken any measures despite the VarmaCommission exposing
the security lapses in the assassination. Allthese developments further
widened the gap between NarasimhaRao and Sonia.
But the fact was Narasimha Rao appointed P Chidambaram,
one of the trustees of Rajiv Gandhi foundation to supervise the
progress of investigation into Rajivs assassination. He asked
Chidambaram to brief Sonia regularly on the updates of the
investigation. However, Chidambaram could not pay much
attention to the investigation as he was deeply involved in Tamil
Nadu politics. At one stage, Sonia Gandhi made Narasimha Rao to
sit beside his party rebel Bangarappa during one of the meetings of
Rajiv Gandhi Foundation.
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A. KRISHNA RAO
Yet, Narasimha Rao continued to wield his influence in the

Congress party. He had by then consolidated his position in the
party by clipping the wings of Arjun Singh and confining Sharad
Pawar to Maharashtra politics. At the cabinet meeting held on July
23, 1994, Narsimha Rao gave his cabinet ministers a thorough
dressing down by questioning the function of each and every
minister. One of the cabinet ministers said the Prime Minister had
spoken to them like a father and all the ministers nodded their heads
like studious children.
In an interview to HTV for Eyewitness programme, former
President of India R Venkataraman said Narasimha Rao was
functioning excellently in the given circumstances. Just because
he doesnt disclose his decisions and views to others, it doesnt mean
he has not decided on anything, he said.
Narasimha Rao also said not taking decisions on certain
occasions was also a decision. But he did not accept the allegationthat
he was indecisive. In an interview to an English daily after threeand
a half years, he asked whether the country would have witnessedso
many revolutionary changes had he been indecisive.
After the Congress party faced debacles in the assembly
elections in South, Narasimha Rao started facing more troubles from
his detractors. Leaders like Arjun Singh and N D Tiwari once again
started raising their heads after they came to know that Narasimha
Rao had failed to steer the party to victory in his home state of
Andhra Pradesh. But luckily, seniors like Pranab Mukherjee, Sitaram
Kesri and Moopanar stood by him. Besides, second-rung leaders
143
like his political secretary Jitendra Prasada and union ministers V C

Shukla, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Vilas Muttemwar and Bhuvaneshwar
Kalita were also backing him.
The Congress Working Committee meeting was held on
December 10, 1994 to take stock of the partys defeat in the assembly
elections in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Loyalists of Narasimha
Rao spread the messages to all PCC presidents, Congress Chief
Ministers, MPs and other important leaders, asking whether they
need Narasimha Rao or Arjun Singh at a time when the party was
in crisis. Weekend meetings were held in several MPs residences.
At the CWC meeting, the loyalists moved a resolution
expressing faith in the leadership if Narasimha Rao and Arjun Singh
strongly opposed the same. He questioned why there was any need
to move such resolutions in support of Narasimha Rao every time.
He was supported by N D Tiwari, Rajesh Pilot and others. From
Narasimha Raos home state, ambitious Congress leader Y S
Rajasekhar Reddy used to meet Rajesh Pilot regularly. In a way,
Rajesh Pilot was his godfather in Delhi. Several young Congress
leaders used to attend the dinner conclaves being held at the
residences of Sai Pratap and Rajesh Pilot. There were reports that
they were all forming a group of Young Turks to work out
common policies on populist schemes. At one such meeting held at
the residence of Salman Khurshid on December 12, 1994, more
than 50 MPs attended, including Rajesh Pilot, K P Singh Deo, P M
Sayeed, Mukul Wasnik, Tikkavarapu Venkatrami Reddy and V
Hanumantha Rao. Most of them were not actually against Narasimha
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A. KRISHNA RAO
Rao and had been waiting for cabinet berths one day or the other.
Though Narasimha Rao was taking advantage of their weakness,
he realised that he was gradually getting weakened, as party leaders
from north were waiting in wings to dethrone him.
At last, Arjun Singh resigned from the cabinet. In his seven-
page stinging resignation letter sent to the Prime Minister through
his private secretary on December 24, 1994, he said the new
economic policy should have human face, if the economic reforms
had to be implemented in tune with the peoples aspirations. He
charged Narasimha Rao with liberalisation of corruption, the failure
to prevent the demolition of the Babri Masjid, the failure to punish
the culprits in the securities scam and the poor progress in the Rajiv
Gandhi assassination investigations, among others. Narasimha Rao
took his own time in replying to this virtual Charge sheet only
after the Sankranti festival. After Arjun Singh resigned from the
cabinet, the Prime Ministers strategists held confabulations with all
the Congress Chief Ministers of various states and everyone found
fault with Arjun Singh. Regional leaders like Bhajan Lal, Chhabildas
Mehta, Beant Singh and Karunakaran described Arjun Singhs
resignation as a deep-rooted conspiracy todestabilise the party.
Several cabinet ministers, too, issued statementssaying it was a
conspiracy to split the party. Ghulam Nabi Azad saidArjun Singh
had no support of Sonia Gandhi. Sharad Pawar decidedto focus on
winning the Maharashtra elections and said it was timethe Congress
remained united and concentrated on retaining powerin
Maharashtra.
145
On January 5, 1995, Narasimha Rao appointed his close

associate Jitendra Prasada as the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee
president in place of N D Tiwari. This has stunned leaders like Arjun
Singh and Jagannath Mishra, who demanded that Tiwari should be
made the AICC president. Rajesh Pilot, who joined the dissidents
camp at the eleventh hour, though nurtured ambitions of climbing
up the ladder in the career, backtracked after displaying boldness
initially. He criticised Arjun Singh for resigning from the cabinet
post and described it as politically motivated. In fact, there were
suspicions that Narasimha Rao himself had encouraged Rajesh Pilot
indirectly and used him as a weapon to counter Arjun Singh at the
right time. After the demolition of Babri Masjid, Pilot held a huge
rally at Boats Club in Delhi. He also organised a huge Kisan
Panchayat rally and played a key role in resolving the Bodoland
issue. He also used to go to Srinagar as the envoy of Narasimha
Raoregularly.
Having gradually lost their importance in the party, Arjun
Singh and Tiwari decided to go on a nation-wide tour in the name
of conducting rallies. Arjun Singh wanted to capture the party by
gaining majority support of the members in the AICC through
Tiwari, Ahmed Patel, Antony and Shiv Charan Mathur of Rajasthan.
In Madhya Pradesh, they tried to lure Arjun Singh towards their
side. Digvijay Singh was in two minds, since at least 60 MLAs in the
Madhya Pradesh assembly were followers of Arjun Singh. Kerala
Chief Minister Karunakaran played safe by declaring Arjun Singh as
the state guest when the latter came to his state in the name of the
party rally. Yet, the invisible force that was behind all these
developments was not ready to come out in the open yet.
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A. KRISHNA RAO
At the Indian Youth Congress Committee convention held

at Akbar Road on January 15, 1995, Narasimha Rao made a satirical
comment that Arjun Singh was not his rival but a favourable
enemy. He told his critics to compare the present economic
situation in the country with the one prevailing in 1991 and
challenged them to go to the villages to review the implementation
of his pro-people schemes.
However, Narasimha Rao did not take the developments in
the party non-seriously. He was alert to the fact that Arjun Singh
and Tiwari were continuing to create ructions in the party forums
and enticing young leaders in various states to revolt against him,
while neutrals like Rajesh Pilot, A K Antony and Ahmed Patel were
taking a step forward towards rebellion. And he had no option but
to expel Arjun Singh from the party on February 1, 1995. It was
evident that he had to take the decision only to know whether Arjun
Singh had the backing of Sonia Gandhi. When party general secretary
Janardhan Pujari was announcing Arjun Singhs suspension, Uttar
Pradesh leader Jitendra Prasada, Pranab Mukherjee and Sushil Kumar
Shinde were very much beside him.
After Arjun Singhs suspension, several Congress leaders
developed a second thought on revolting against Narasimha Rao.
Those who were initially supporting Arjun Singh backtracked.
Taking advantage of the situation, Narasimha Rao expanded his
cabinet and inducted Madhava Rao Scindia, Chidambaram and
controversial leader from Assam Matang Singh, besides other loyalists
of Rajiv Gandhi. It led to the comments that had Narasimha Rao
taken up the cabinet expansion earlier, the party would not have
147
faced dissidence and backstabbing in the assembly elections in Andhra

Pradesh and Karnataka. But there were also comments that
Narasimha Rao knew when he should move his pawns.
In fact, not many people were aware of who the newly-
appointed parliamentary affairs minister Matang Singh, an MP from
Assam, was. Even newspapers made a frantic search for
hisbackground. Matang Singh got nominated to Rajya Sabha in
1992by befriending Assam Chief Minister Hiteshwar Saikia. Later,
hegot acquainted with tantrik Chandraswamy and astrologer S K
Sharma, who were claiming to be close to Narasimha Rao. When
the government was facing a no-confidence motion in 1993, Matang
Singh played a key role in mobilising MPs of north-east India
insupport of Narasimha Rao. And that was how he could get into
theUnion cabinet.
After expanding the cabinet in 19995, Narasimha Rao started
focussing on the party, too. He decided to go to the
AICCheadquarters as frequently as possible. But it did not put an
end tohis troubles within the party. Rajesh Pilot, continued to
holdconfabulations with Ahmed Patel, Antony and Aslam Sher
Khan,besides young and aspiring leaders from the states.Later, Arjun
Singh along with Tiwari, Natwar Singh and RKumara Mangalam
floated a new political outfit in the name of AllIndia Indira Congress
(Tiwari) in May 1995. At the day-longconvention held at Talkatora
stadium, these leaders castigated Narasimha Rao and his policies.
They charged him with mortgaging the economic sovereignty of
the country, denigrating the legacy of Rajiv Gandhi and functioning
as an agent of RSS. Later in the evening, Arjun Singh and Tiwari
met Sonia Gandhi.
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A. KRISHNA RAO
There were speculations those days that Bharatiya Janata Party

was behind the defection of forme Congress leader Rangarajan
Kumara Mangalam into the Tiwari camp. In April 1995, he
threatened to propose cut motions on the finance bill in April 1995.
Before leaving for Maldives on April 14, 1995, Narasimha Rao
feigned apprehensions over the strategies of his rivals in proposing
cut motions. Maybe, it might lead to midterm elections. But we
are ready, he said. But the Congress Parliamentary Party did not
approve of Kumara Mangalams plans to introduce cut motions.
Right from the beginning, Kumara Mangalam who joined as a law
minister in the Narasimha Rao cabinet, had been openly expressing
his reservations over the economic policies. He expressed concern
over growing corruption on account of the Vohra Committee
report. He wrote a letter to the President of India demanding sacking
of the Narasimha Rao government. Finally, he had to resign from
the cabinet in 1993 and later joined hands with Tiwari.
It was a strange paradox that Kumara Mangalam, son of a
prominent Communist leader like Mohan Kumara Mangalam, had
to take shelter in the BJP ultimately. At a later stage, he was inducted
into the Vajpayee cabinet as minister for energy and parliamentary
affairs. An eloquent speaker and an able leader who could get any
kind of bill passed in Parliament, Kumara Mangalam died at the age
of 48 years due to blood cancer.
Not many MPs left the Congress in support of Arjun Singh
and Tiwari immediately. But there was some commotion in the
MPs after Ahmed Patel, a close associate of Sonia Gandhi, resigned
from the party general secretary post in June 1995. As many as 70
149
MPs met Sonia Gandhi and around 120 MPs wrote a letter to her
stating that the government was deliberately delaying the
investigation into the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. But they could
not decide on the alternative leader to Narasimha Rao. As a matter
of fact, they could not even decide their spokesperson and did not
dare to put forth the demand for appointing a working president for
the party.
In the assembly elections held to the Maharashtra assembly in
February and March, 1995, Sharad Pawars position in the party
weakened. The Congress could get only 80 seats, as a result of which
the BJP-Shiv Sena combine formed the government. Since
ArjunSingh was no longer in the party, there was no question of
himemerging as an alternative leader. Rajesh Pilot, who was
expected to spearhead the revolt, also opted out at the last moment.
Heconveniently avoided meeting Sonia Gandhi along with other
MPs,stating that he could not go because he was part of the
government. That showed his vacillating attitude.
Exactly at this juncture, Narasimha Rao kicked up the debate
on Bofors scam all of a sudden. In fact, he tried to safeguard
theinterests of the Rajiv Gandhi family in the Bofors scam. A year
afterNarasimha Rao took over as the Prime Minister, he deputed
hisforeign minister Madhav Singh Solanki to Switzerland to
attendthe World Economic Forum meeting in 1992. Solanki met
Switzerland foreign minister Rene Felber and gave him a letter
seeking to close the probe. He told Felber that inquiries conducted
into the scam in India had failed to unearth any crucial evidenceand
that the request for mutual assistance was based on
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A. KRISHNA RAO
politicalconsiderations. When the issue came to light, the opposition

partiesraised a huge furore, forcing Solanki to go on the backfoot.
Heattempted to deny having given any such note to Felber, but
hecould not escape. He was forced to resign from the cabinet. There
was no way he could give the letter to the Swiss minister without
the knowledge of Narasimha Rao.
In July 1993, the Swiss authorities, following an approval from
Swiss courts, confirmed Quattrocchis name as the beneficiary of
the kickbacks from Bofors and the CBI tried to interrogate
Quattrocchi and confiscate his passport. But before the CBI entered
the scene, he fled Delhi to Kuala Lumpur on the intervening night
of July 29-30. There was a talk that the CBI deliberately delayed
inseizing his passport and waited for 72 hours, which gave
sufficienttime for Quattrocchi to flee. Had Narasimha Rao really
wished, hewould have got Quattrocchi arrested immediately.
Despite Narasimha Rao giving a lot of priority to Sonia Gandhi
and protecting her interests, he could notice her hand behind the
dissident activity in the party against him. As a result, he had no
choice but to move his pawns. The letter written by Atal Behari
Vajpayee to Narasimha Rao questioning the delay in the
investigation into Bofors scandal and the consequent meeting with
all political parties under the leadership of V C Shukla all appeared
to have taken place in a strategic and systematic way. Shukla said
the issue was caught in the legal disputes till 1993, resulting in the
delay. He further said the investigation going on in Geneva would
be completed in another six months and the names would come
out. The probe against Quattrocchi in Switzerland courts was also
in the final stages, he said.
151
Naturally, Shuklas statement angered Sonia and her followers.

One of Rajiv Gandhis loyalists S Ahluwalia questioned Shukla as
to why the government had reopened Bofors file now. Though no
names came out in the next six months, Sonias followers who were
ready to revolt against Narasimha Rao had to shut their mouths
with his master stroke.
The Prime Minister, who had hinted just two weeks before
that there was a possibility of advancing the general elections by a
few months, changed his stand and declared at the Congress
Parliamentary Party meeting held in August 1995 that there was no
question of going in for midterm elections. It shows Narasimha Rao
had worked out his plan of action on what he should do if the
outcome of the assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka
was not in favour of the party.
But gradually, Narsimha Rao started losing grip on the party.
Some leaders questioned his economic reforms, and others
demanded that he revised his economic policies and revive the Loan
Mela programmes as was done in the past. Those who appreciated
him for boldly declaring that the economic reforms were irreversible
suggested that he changed his strategy for the sake of elections. As a
result, Narasimha Rao had to constitute a high-level committee
headed by Pranab Mukherjee to look into these demands. At the
Congress Parliamentary Party meeting, Narasimha Rao found fault
with the demands for introduction of populist schemes. We can
promise the moon to the people, but we should have the capacity
to fulfil the same, he said. Maharashtra leader Sharad Pawar, MP Y
S Rajasekhar Reddy and others asked him to continue with the
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A. KRISHNA RAO
economic reforms. They also argued as to how the development

could be possible if one-fourth of the budget was spent on subsidised
rice schemes.
Sharad Pawar, too, commented after his loss in the Maharashtra
assembly elections that the Congress party had defeated itself due to
internal wrangling and backstabbing. At the CPP executive
committee meeting, home minister S B Chavan introduced a
resolution expressing complete faith in the leadership of Narasimha
Rao. Defeats were not new to the party and even during the Indira
Gandhi regime in 1977, the party had faced electoral debacle, the
resolution said.
Strategists working for Narasimha Rao used to create rumours
about cabinet reshuffle and changes in the organisation of the party
frequently. He even predicted the post-election scenario in the event
of the partys defeat and readied his core groups to face the situation.
A plan of action was kept ready well in advance for the majority of
the members to support the leadership of Narasimha Rao. The Team
A of Narasimha Rao comprised Pranab Mukherjee, V C Shukla,
Bhuvanesh Chaturvedi and G K Moopanar. This team used to
prepare the blueprint to face any kind of challenges that might surface
after the elections. Among them, Pranab Mukherjee was the most
important strategist. He was instrumental in mobilising the young
MPs in favour of Narasimha Rao, creating rumours about cabinet
expansion and appointment of working president.
Another strategist V C Shukla was the most efficient
parliamentary affairs minister who coordinated between the Prime
Minister and the opposition. He also knew the weaknesses of Arjun
Singh. He was the formal follower of Sanjay Gandhi and he could
153
embarrass the Sonia camp by reopening Bofors file. He won the

heart of Narasimha Rao by splitting Janata Dal under the leadership
of Ajit Singh. And about Tamil Nadu Chettiar G K Moopanar was
also no less effective. He had learnt political lessons from Indira
Gandhi on the lines of Pranab Mukherjee and Shukla. He had a lot
of hold on the MPs from South. Whenever he came to New Delhi,
this pan-chewing gentleman used to stay at Western Court and direct
the party activities.
Bhuvaneshwar Chaturvedi, the most loyalist of Narasimha
Rao holding the cabinet post in the Prime Ministers office, used to
bring every small development to the notice of the Prime Minister.
His job was to keep an eye on those who were working against
Narasimha Rao. Even Amarnath Varma, who was a link between
official machinery and Narasimha Rao was also a key strategist and
the most powerful bureaucrat. The Prime Minister used to leave
many decisions to Varma and all files and notes were forwarded to
Narasimha Rao only after his clearance. He was taking crucial
decisions on foreign investments worth hundreds of crores in the
country and he was the de-facto cabinet minister for the industries
department held by Narasimha Rao.
The Team B of the Prime Minister had his political secretary
Jitendra Prasada and union ministers Sitaram Kesri and Ghulam Nabi
Azad. They were all against Arjun Singh. Almost all AICC secretaries
were supporting Narasimha Rao and they used to be in regular touch
with PCC presidents and Chief Ministers of various Congress-ruled
states to seek their support to Narasimha Rao. They used to ask
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A. KRISHNA RAO
them: Do you need Narasimha Rao or Arjun Singh? The Team
C of the Prime Minister comprised MPs like Ajit Singh, Vilas
Muttemwar, Ramesh Chennithala, Chandrika Kenia and
Bhuvaneshwar Kalita etc, who were aspiring for berths in the Central
cabinet. They were discouraging dissidence statingthat it would lead
to the collapse of the party. In this manner,Narasimha Rao gained
hold over the CWC and the CPP, therebykeeping the dissidents at
bay.
In fact, Arjun Singh and Tiwari were not spotless
leaders.Everybody knows Arjun Singh was an accused in Churhat
lotteryscam. He was not the only regional leader in Madhya Pradesh.
Itwas apparent that he did not have the support of even one-third
ofthe MPs around 88 among 263 MPs of the Congress to split
theparty. Narasimha Rao knew very well that in the Congress,
politicsrevolved around posts and positions.
Similarly, Narasimha Rao was also aware of Tiwaris weakness
for women. There was a talk in Delhi circles that when Indira Gandhi
was enquiring about Tiwari, it was Narasimha Rao who tipped her
off that Tiwari could be found at a certain guest house. Yet,
Narasimha Rao nominated Tiwari to Rajya Sabha and made him
the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee president, though he had
lost 1991 general elections. But Tiwari was thankless towards
Narasimha Rao. He defied the latters orders and got a resolution
passed withdrawing the Congress support to Mulayam Singh
government. He did not tolerate Narasimha Rao encouraging
backward classes leaders like Laloo Prasad Yadav and Mulayam Singh
Yadav. He joined hands with Arjun Singh. At one stage, Narasimha
155
Rao tried to pamper Tiwari. He deputed home minister S B Chavan

and additional solicitor general Devendra Dwivedi to bargain with
Tiwari. He even agreed to withdraw support to the Mulayam Singh
government in Uttar Pradesh and appoint Tiwari as the working
president of the party. But Tiwari did not change his stand.
On the other hand, Narasimha Rao also made an attempt to
patch up with Sonia Gandhi. He brought pressure on Chidambaram
to see that the Jain Commission expedited its investigation. Chavan
told reporters in the central hall of Parliament that if certain
documents were given to the commission, it would project Sonia
family in a bad light. Apparently, the documents pertained to the
training given to Tamils in Sri Lanka. Narasimha Rao sacked the
officials who were instrumental in withdrawing security by the
Special Protection Group to Rajiv Gandhi. He forwarded the
correspondence between him and V P Singh on Rajivs assassination
to Sonia Gandhi. Yet, she was not satisfied.
In September 1995, Sonia went to Amethi and flagged off
Life Line Express, a mobile hospital on wheels of Indian Railways.
Speaking on the occasion, she said she had come from a family that
was committed to certain principles and ideals with sincerity and
integrity. But the same ideals and principles are going through a
testing time. Divisive thoughts are fast spreading across the country,
she said, as the slogans Rao Hatao, Sonia Bachao from her
supporters rent the air. Sonia did not stop them. I hope you all
love us and support us, she said.
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A. KRISHNA RAO
Union minister for mines Balaram Singh Yadav said people

were strongly wishing that Sonia entered active politics. Narasimha
Raos detractors described it as the first step of Sonia towards politics.
But she was not in a hurry and very cautious in her moves, but she
continued to send such signals now and then. She used to give
appointments to Arjun Singh very frequently.
Rajesh Pilot, who had till then been adopting a neutral stand,
also began raising his voice against Narasimha Rao. Being the union
minister of state for home, Pilot was not getting along well with his
cabinet minister S B Chavan and was complaining that he did not
have the support of the Prime Minister. At the Congress Working
Committee meeting, he blamed Narasimha Rao for the partys
debacle in the Maharashtra elections. He also criticised that the Prime
Minister was not taking adequate measures to curb corruption and
that Muslims were distancing themselves from the party because of
the governments policies. When senior ministers like Sitaram Kesri
launched a counter attack on Pilot, Narasimha Rao surprised
everybody, saying: Let him speak. There is some merit in what
Pilot is saying. He is pointing out where we have faulted. This was
a shock to even Pilot. Union home secretary Padmanabhaiah told
me that Narasimha Rao had a lot of admiration for Pilot, but was of
the view that the latter still needed time to grow in politics. Seniors
like Chavan, Veerendra Patil and Narasimha Rao were the disciples
of Swamy Ramananda Teertha.They had a lot of maturity. Rajesh
Pilot came into politics becauseof Rajiv Gandhi. So, he had a little
aggression, Padmanabhaiahsaid.
157
Gradually, the anti-Narasimha Rao camp started swelling in

numbers and his critics were holding separate meetings. On
December 12, 1995, leaders like K P Singh Deo, P M Sayeed, Mukul
Wasnik, S Krishna Kumar, Y S Rajasekhar Reddy, M Rangaiah
Naidu, A Charles, V Hanumantha Rao and Sudhir Sawant held a
dinner conclave at the residence of Salman Khurshid and discussed
the future plan of action. However, Digvijay Singh who was in the
nti-Arjun Singh camp declared that there was no threat to Narasimha
Rao. Similarly, Sharad Pawar, too, extended support to the Prime
Minister. He met Narasimha Rao thrice between December 8 and
10 and said it was time the party remained as one unit and fought
the challenges unitedly.
Braving all ups and downs in the last four years, Narasimha
Rao entered the fifth year of his regime in 1996. Despite relentless
attacks on him for months, his detractors like Arjun Singh and Tiwari
could not move him even an inch. However, Narasimha Rao had
failed to publicise much about his governments achievements,
especially in stabilising the countrys economy, but he launched a
campaign to disown the partys failure to win the assembly elections
in various states, stating that he alone was not responsible for the
defeats. At an extended CWC meeting, Narasimha Rao gave a
detailed account of how the Congress had fared in the elections to
Lok Sabha and various state assemblies during the regimes of earlier
Prime Ministers.
In the first elections held post- Emergency, the Congress had
a strength of only 154 MLAs as against 254 MPs of Janata Party in
the Lok Sabha, when Morarji Desai and Charan Singh were the
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A. KRISHNA RAO
Prime Ministers. The Congress had governments only in Andhra

Pradesh and Karnataka, whereas Janata Dal was ruling in 15 states
including Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh and other parties in
another 11 states.
In the seventh Lok Sabha, between January 1980 to December
1984, when Indira Gandhi and subsequently Rajiv Gandhi were in
power, the Congress had a strength of 353 in Lok Sabha and it
came to power in as many as 17 states. After the assassination of
Indira Gandhi, the Congress under the leadership of Rajiv Gandhi
won 405 MP seats cashing in on the sympathy wave and captured
power in 18 states. When mid-term elections were held in 1989
following the exposure of Bofors scam, the Congress lost its strength
by half, winning only 197 seats and the opposition parties under the
umbrella of National Front formed the government at the Centre,
which was first headed by V P Singh and later Chandra Shekhar. In
the states, too, the Congress was confined to only 10 states. During
the Rajiv Gandhi regime itself, the Congress lost elections in Uttar
Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan. When
Narasimha Rao became the Prime Minister in June, 1991, the
Congress party had a strength of only 232 and it went up to 266 by
1995. Even during his regime, the Congress could come to power
in 14 states. Can we say that Narasimha Rao was a weak leader?
In fact, the Congress partys loss in the elections was not
confined to any particular leadership. Opposition parties like Janata
Party, Janata Dal, BJP and even the Telugu Desam Party were not
formed during Narasimha Raos period, but during the regimes of
the party leaders who had a lot of charisma. Those who claimed
159
that minorities were in favour of the Congress party could not stall
the meteoric rise of the BJP in the country and prevent it from
coming to power in key states. What did Arjun Singh and Tiwari
do then?
In fact, Narasimha Raos government performed far better
than his predecessors in many areas, including improving the
economy of the country, establishing foreign relations and
controlling the law and order to a large extent. The foreign exchange
reserves had gone up substantially and the situation came under
control in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir.
When the computer wing in the AICC headquarters headed
by Dalbir Singh was working out on these statistics systematically
and was reeling out statistics to the media, the party leaders who
were planning to point an accusing finger at Narasimha Rao had to
remain silent.
Narasimha Rao divided his political rivals into two categories:
favourable enemies and cunning friends and used to deal with them
accordingly. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh, who
was a disciple of Arjun Singh, could not come out in the open,
though heart in hearts, he thought of supporting his guru. Before
1993 assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Kamal Nath opposed
Arjun Singh, but in the post-election scenario, he adopted a pro-
Arjun Singh stand. In fact, all the anti-Narasimha Rao forces came
together at the election rally in Chhindwara, the home constituency
of Kamal Nath.
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A. KRISHNA RAO
V P Singh made a desperate attempt to strengthen the Janata

Parivar once again but he had already lost his energies by then; as a
result, Janata Dal could not stage a recovery. It plunged into further
crisis due to the split in Uttar Pradesh. In this process, Janata Dal
leaders had no way but to explore options for their political survival
by joining either the Congress or Samajwadi Party.
The talk of mid-term elections had been going on since July-
August 1994. This compelled Narasimha Rao and the official
spokespersons of the Congress to make periodical statements,
irrespective of whether or not there was any query from any quarters,
that the party was not ready to go in for midterm elections. At the
Congress Parliamentary Party meetings, too, Narasimha Rao
announced thrice that there was no question of holding mid-term
elections to the Lok Sabha. In fact, he strategically used this talk of
mid-term elections at regular intervals. Even BJP leaders, who were
strongly hoping for midterm elections at one stage, stopped talking
about the same as the years passed by. His rivals, too, were resigned
to the fact that they would not be able to dethrone Narasimha Rao,
unless he made any major blunders.
At one of the party meetings, senior Congress leaders Sukh
Ram from Himachal Pradesh, Hari Dev Joshi from Rajasthan and
Shyam Charan Shukla from Madhya Pradesh requested Narasimha
Rao that they be made the Chief Ministers of their respective states.
He gave a broad smile at them and asked them: At a time when the
countrys social dynamics is changing, is it right for me to appoint
three Brahmins as Chief Ministers?
161
In Madhya Pradesh, he allowed the conduct of a secret ballot

and helped Digvijay Singh become the Chief Minister. He sent his
close follower Nedurumalli Janardhan Reddy as the party observer
to Madhya Pradesh to make things easy for him.
In fact, Narasimha Rao did not encourage any cronies, but at
the same time, did not ignore loyalists. Indira Gandhi had sycophants
like D K Barua, P N Haksar, D P Dhar and L N Mishra around her.
Rajiv Gandhi, too, had a bunch of such sycophants. But Narasimha
Rao did not entertain any such people and handled the situations
alone. But he formed an excellent team with old-timers of the
Congress and got the works done with close confidants among
bureaucrats.
Narasimha Rao firmly believed that it required a political
stability to implement economic reforms in letter and spirit and solve
issues like poverty that were plaguing the nation. That was precisely
why he was not unduly worried about the hurdles created in his
path and went about with his task unperturbed. He used to attract
everybody with his calmness, imperturbable mind, dignified attitude,
intellect and scholarly approach. He used to keep away from all
paraphernalia and maintain some kind of detachment towards power.
He was only focussed on fulfilling the responsibility he was entrusted
with. He never displayed any confrontationist attitude. He was trying
to bring about a consensus among all sections of people on many
issues like recognising Israel and avoiding border conflicts with
China. His prolonged discussions with the opposition parties and
individual relationships with global leaders helped him a lot during
his regime.
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A. KRISHNA RAO
Braving all rumblings in the party for nearly five years,

Narasimha Rao managed to get complete hold over the party. He
abolished the Congress Parliamentary Board and kept with himself
the power of selection of candidates for elections and appointment
of PCC chiefs. His media advisor P V R K Prasad and his security
advisor used to shortlist some names and place them before him.
On some occasions, Kotla Vijayabhaskar Reddy, too, was
assisting him as a close confidant and during important party
meetings, he used to ensure that final decisions on any issue were
left to Narasimha Rao.
The countdown for the general elections began from January
1996 itself. In the same month, the sensational hawala scam, wherein
politicians and officials taking kickbacks from Jain brothers involved
in hawala trading, surfaced triggering a political storm. Several
loyalists of Sonia Gandhi, including Lalit Suri, were caught in the
hawala scam and her camp had to go on the defensive. At the same
time, Narasimha Rao nominated S B Chavan, N K P Salve,
industrialist K Birla, Suresh Pachauri, Jayanti Patnaik and others to
Rajya Sabha to checkmate Arjun Singh and Sharad Pawar. Several
AICC leaders like Matang Singh declared that there was no threat
to Narasimha Rao.
But the euphoria in Narasimha Rao camp was short-lived.
On February 26, 1996, Shailendra Mahato who quit the Jharkhand
Mukti Morcha and joined the BJP, addressed a press conference
and threw a bombshell saying he had been paid Rs 40 lakh to bail
out Narasimha Rao government from the no-confidence motion
in 1993. The charges made by Mahato brought the budget session
163
to a grinding halt. The Congress sources described the charges as a

retaliation by the BJP against Narasimha Rao for fixing Advani in
the hawala scam.
Yet, Narasimha Rao was not unduly perturbed. Suraj Mandal
of JMM alleged that the BJP had paid Rs 2 crore to Mahato to make
false allegations against the Prime Minister. He said the BJP had
conspired to defame Narasimha Rao only to divert the peoples
attention from the hawala scam involving Advani.
Amidst all these high-voltage developments, the Election
Commission of India on March 19 announced the schedule for
general elections to be held in different phases between April 27
and May 30. During the election campaign, Narasimha Rao gave
more priority to publicising his poverty alleviation programmes and
welfare schemes, rather than economic reforms. He already realised
that economic reforms and developmental programmes would not
fetch votes in the elections.
In fact, Narasimha Rao started talking more about welfare
schemes since 1995 itself and brought down the pace of the reforms
process, especially after the controversy over Enron, the gas-based
power project of the US in Maharashtra. The way the Centre had
given the counter-guarantee to Enron, despite its parent company
in the US suffering huge losses and the Maharashtra government
did not act in a transparent manner in land acquisition and other
issues related to the project led to the talk on failure of the reforms
process.
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A. KRISHNA RAO
Moreover, internal enemies like Arjun Singh became thorns

in the flesh of Narasimha Rao and continued to trouble him by
dashing off letters on the economic reforms. They attributed even
scams like the Jain hawala scam and Harshad Mehta issue to
Narasimha Raos reforms, though these scams had been there much
before he came into power.
One day, when I was filling petrol in my two-wheeler at
Janpath, a worker at the petrol bunk told me: Your Rao is a big
corrupt fellow. He is looting the country. It was a shock for me
and it was a classic example as to how people would get carried
away by malicious propaganda. And those were the days when there
was no social media!
There was a lot of commotion in the party when Narasimha
Rao announced before the 1996 election process began that he
would give party tickets to only those with clean political records.
But he had to pacify many leaders, who were caught in one scam or
the other. He had to change his words saying everybody was
innocent as long as they were found guilty by the court of law. In
the 1996 elections, the BJP, for the first time, emerged as the single
largest party in the country with 161 seats in Lok Sabha. Compared
to 1991 elections, the partys tally went up by 41 seats. The Congress
ended up with just 140 seats, a fall of 111 seats compared to the
previous elections, though it had a strength of over 260 seats by the
time the party went to polls.
In the run-up to the general elections, some key developments
took place at the Centre. The Narasimha Rao government
promulgated two ordinances one reducing the campaign period
165
for the Lok Sabha elections from three weeks to two weeks; and the
second, extending reservations to Dalit Christians. However, both
the ordinances were rejected by President of India Shankar Dayal
Sharma, on the ground that the last session of the 10th Lok Sabha
had already concluded.
Another major development was the decision of the Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh, for the first time after Independence, decided
to rope in its activists to campaign in support of the Hindutva forces
in the general elections. RSS Sarsangh Chalak Rajendra Singh said
the decision was taken to test the ground for the popular support to
Hindutva forces in the forthcoming elections. The RSS leaders
declared that after the elections held in 1977 in the post-emergency
period, the 1996 elections would be the most crucial turning point
in Indian history. However, they suggested that the RSS activists
should take up campaign in their own methods, rather than sharing
the dais with the BJP.
BJP president Lal Krishna Advani, who announced on January
16, 1996 that he would not contest the ensuing elections since his
name was dragged into the hawala scam, intensified his campaign in
support of the party in the right earnest. He held a massive rally in
New Delhi on February 4 to kickstart the electioneering. After
getting the bail from Delhi high court in the hawala case on February
19, Advani launched a 35-day Surajya Yatra from Kochi. The rally
was flagged off by Atal Behari Vajpayee. The BJP election manifesto
gave a lot of priority to the sensitive religious issues like abolition of
Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, construction of Ram Mandir in
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A. KRISHNA RAO
Ayodhya and doing away with common civil code etc. Of course,
it also mentioned issues like formation of new states like Uttaranchal,
Vananchal, Vidarbha and Chhattisgarh, establishment of Lokpal and
formation of National Judicial Commission etc.
The third major development was the formation of an alliance
between G K Moopanar group with Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
(DMK) in Tamil Nadu on March 28, 1996. Once a trusted lieutenant
of Narasimha Rao, Moopanar broke away from the Congress in
the same month and floated his own regional outfit Tamil Maanila
Congress (TMC) in protest against Narasimha Raos decision
to ally with the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
(AIADMK). Many Congress leaders from Tamil Nadu including
Union minister P Chidambaram and Jayanthi Natarajan joined him.
Later, Chidambaram and Arunachalam, who had already resigned
from their cabinet posts, filed their nominations in the Lok Sabha
elections. Moopanar, Chidambaram and Arunachalam were expelled
from the Congress, before they floated the TMC.
In Madhya Pradesh, too, a similar development happened.
Madhava Rao Scindia also came out of the Congress to launch his
own outfit in the name of Madhya Pradesh Vikas Congress and
filed nomination from Gwalior in the Lok Sabha elections. Shailendra
Mahato, who joined the BJP earlier and made wild allegations against
Narasimha Rao, returned to the JMM fold before the elections.
On April 12, 1996, Narasimha Rao released the Congress
election manifesto. His major election promise was the formation
of Lok Pal to probe the allegations of corruption against the Prime
167
Minister and Chief Ministers. The second major promise was

restoration of democracy in Jammu and Kashmir. The party also
announced the formation of a special independent institution to
eradicate corruption, maintenance of status quo in terms of personal
laws of any religion and increase of GDP to 8-9 per cent. However,
Janata Dal official spokesman S Jaipal Reddy criticised that the
Congress manifesto had not mentioned even a single word about
taking action on the hawala scam or demolition of Babri Masjid.
The 1996 general elections attracted the attention of the entire
international media. Representatives of all the American newspapers
and electronic media, Chinese media, Reuters and Associated Press
camped in Delhi for several days and churned out a series of news
reports. In a pre-poll survey conducted by Outlook magazine in
April 1996, it was revealed that around 29 percent of people wanted
Narasimha Rao to be back in the Prime Ministers seat, while 27
percent favoured Atal Behari Vajpayee and 15 percent of people
voted for Sonia Gandhi.
The Congress suffered heavy losses due to various reasons:
party leaders themselves tried to brand the Narasimha Rao
government as corrupt, resignation of several ministers in hawala
scam, exodus of senior leaders like Arjun Singh, Tiwari, Madhava
Rao Scindia, Moopanar and Chidambaram from the party to float
their own outfits and backstabbing of Narasimha Rao by several
other leaders. Seasoned leaders like Ghulam Nabi Azad who
contested from Maharashtra, former Kerala Chief Minister
Karunakaran, Siddharth Shankar Ray and Shankaranand, besides
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A. KRISHNA RAO
film star Rajesh Khanna all had to bite the dust at the hustings.
Interestingly, Arjun Singh who created immense troubles for
Narasimha Rao also lost the elections from Satna parliamentary
constituency.
The BJP, which won 161 MP seats, was nowhere near the
absolute majority mark to form power. Though Vajpayee was
declared the Prime Ministerial candidate and RSS directly plunged
into action in support of it, the BJP could get only 31 seats morethan
what it got in 1991.
Out of 225 Lok Sabha seats in the Hindi-speaking states like
Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana
and Himachal Pradesh, the Congress could get only 35 seats. Even
in 1991, the party could get only 60 seats, which indicates that the
fall of the Congress party in these northern states had begun much
before Narasimha Rao came into power. At the same time, the BJP
which could get 88 seats in this Hindi belt in 1991, improved its
tally to 120 by 1996. It means the BJPs gradual growth in these
states had begun much earlier.
Since the BJP was the single largest party, the President of
India had to call Atal Bihari Vajpayee to form the government and
he was sworn in as the Prime Minister on May 16, 1996. However,
he could not get the support of other MPs to reach the magic figure
and he resigned as the Prime Minister on May 27, two days after the
discussion on Motion of Confidence in Lok Sabha without even
going in for the voting. Later, Narasimha Rao, too, refused to form
the government. Having no option, the President of India invited
United Front leader H D Deve Gowda to form the government
169
with the support of the Congress. There was a reason to believe

that Narasimha Rao had played a role in choosing Deve Gowda as
the Prime Minister, since he believed that Deve Gowda would
continue his policies.
The Congress-AIADMK combine could not win even a single
seat in Tamil Nadu. It was believed that the Congress would not
have faced such a situation, had Narasimha Rao roped Tamil
superstar Rajinikanth into the party. In 1993, AIADMK supremo
Jayalalithaa severed ties with the Congress, at a time when the
Congress leaders were blaming it on the DMK for the assassination
of Rajiv Gandhi. The Congress had become a loner in Tamil Nadu
Under such circumstances, a popular agency ORG-MARG
conducted a survey in Tamil Nadu before the Lok Sabha elections
and disclosed that the DMK was likely to sweep the elections and
Jayalalithaa would bite the dust. The survey also suggested that if
the Congress joined hands with Rajinikanth, it might gain a lot of
benefit. Even senior Tamil leaders like Chidambaram also told
Narasimha Rao that equations would completely change if the
Congress allies with Rajinikanth.
Rajinikanth, who was reigning supreme in Tamil film industry
those days, had been evincing interest in politics much before these
developments. He made a statement asking the people not to vote
for the AIADMK and alleged that the Jayalalitha government was
encouraging bomb culture in the state. During the August, 1995
crisis in Andhra Pradesh, too, Rajinikanth came down to Hyderabad
and resolved the internal disputes in the Telugu Desam Party. At
this stage, veteran journalist Cho Ramaswamy, M G
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A. KRISHNA RAO
Ramachandrans confidant Thirunavakkarasu and Congress leaders

G K Moopanar and Balasubrahmanyam also met Rajinikanth and
advised him to form a third front in Tamil Nadu and join hands
with the Congress. They convinced him to meet Narasimha Rao.
Rajinikanth, who was then just 46 years old, came to New Delhi to
meet the Prime Minister on November 1, 1995. He stayed in Andhra
Pradesh Bhavan. Though Narasimha Rao was busy with his hectic
schedule, he agreed to meet Rajinikanth and gave him the
appointment. For that, he even postponed a crucial meeting he had
with National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah. Narasimha Rao
spent about 30 minutes with Rajinikanth. The Tamil superstar told
him that his only objective was to pull down the AIADMK
government and requested him to take action against Jayalalithaa.
He said all his fans associations would support the Congress and
that he would campaign for the third front to be
formed by the loyalists of MGR.
Nobody knows how Narasimha Rao had responded to the
superstars suggestions. But he is learnt to have requested Rajinikanth
to enter into active politics and campaign for the Congress alliance.
After meeting the Prime Minister, Rajinikanth straightaway went
to the meditation centre in Rishikesh. There were reports that he
had met Narasimha Rao for a second time later and all of a sudden,
in March 1996, Rajinikanth surprised everybody by announcing
that he would keep away from the assembly and Lok Sabha elections.
He said he was tired of waiting for a response from the Congress
and that he would stay away from the Centre, MGR front, DMK
and AIADMK. He categorically told the front leaders not to use his
name in the electioneering.
171
Following these developments, the Congress in Tamil Nadu

split vertically and Moopanar formed the Tamil Maanila Congress.
Leaders like Chidambaram quit the Congress to join the TMC.
The main reason for Narasimha Rao not entertaining Rajinikanth
was AIADMK which evinced interest in restoring alliance with the
Congress. Maybe, Jayalalithaa objected to the entry of Rajinikanth
into politics, or Rajinikanth himself decided against it. Later,
Jayalalitha announced that her party would oppose the cut motions
introduced by the BJP against the Narasimha Rao government in
Parliament. She also attended the wedding ceremony of Narasimha
Raos grandson in Hyderabad in the first week of March.
Before parting ways with the Congress, leaders like Moopanar
and Chidambaram made a desperate attempt to convince Narasimha
Rao not to revive the alliance with AIADMK but instead, join hands
with Rajinikanth. But Narasimha Rao did not heed to their appeals.
He was not bothered even when industries minister Arunachalam
threatened to resign from the party.
The decision to restore ties with Jayalalithaa was taken by
the Congress Working Committee. It was a political decision,
Narasimha Rao said in an interview to a media house later. Maybe,
the Congress could have witnessed a turnaround in its fortunes and
returned to power at the Centre, had Narasimha Rao joined hands
with Rajinikanth.
Whatever may be the reason, the Congress could not come
back to power in 1996 and with the BJP failing to form a stable
government despite being the single largest party, Narasimha Rao
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A. KRISHNA RAO
had to support the United Front and help Deve Gowda to become
the Prime Minister with a hope that the latter would continue his
policies.
Even after losing power in May 1996, Narasimha Rao
continued to retain hold on the party till January 1997. Majority of
the party leaders could not find a strong and better leader to replace
him immediately. So, he was once again chosen as the Congress
Parliamentary Party leader. Karunakaran and Rajesh Pilot proposed
his name, but Sharad Pawar remained silent. By then, Sonia did not
come out of her shell yet. At the Congress Working Committee
meeting held on July 12, 1996, seniors like Pranab Mukherjee,
Devendra Dwivedi, R K Dhawan and Jitendra Prasada stood by
Narasimha Rao.
But Narasimha Raos hold over the party gradually weakened
as the days passed by. Those who created troubles for him even
when he was the Prime Minister, intensified their conspiracies soon
after he lost power. On September 21, 1996, Narasimha Rao was
summoned by a judge to appear before his court as an accused in
the Lakhubhai Pathak case. Pathak, a London-based pickle maker,
deposed before the court that he had paid bribes to Narasimha Rao
for helping him get newsprint and paper pulp supply contracts i
India when the former was the External Affairs Minister in 1983.
Four days after he got the summons, Narasimha Rao stepped down
from the post of AICC president. Nothing would have happened
had he not resigned from the post, but apparently, he did not want
to stand before a judge or to be arrested as a Congress president.
173
After all these developments, a revolt began surfacing in the

party against Narasimha Rao. His detractors held a meeting at the
residence of Ahmed Patel to discuss the future course of action.
While Kamal Nath wondered how long the party should bear the
burden of Narasimha Rao, Sharad Pawar demanded a complete
overhaul of the party. Rajesh Pilot, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Priyaranjan
Das Munshi, Ashok Gehlot, Tariq Anwar and Bhupender Singh
also joined the chorus. Everybody knew that Ahmed Patel is a
staunch loyalist of Sonia Gandhi; so, the meeting decided that they
should start a signature campaign in the AICC against Narasimha
Rao.
However, his loyalists tried to put their feet firmly down.
Just because someone made some comments against him, there is
no need for Narasimha Rao to step down, AICC general secretary
Devendra Dwivedi told reporters. This is the time, everybody
should rally behind our leader, Dhawan said.
But Karunakaran wrote a letter to Narasimha Rao, asking
him to relinquish his posts in a respectable manner after deciding his
successor. The letter was already signed by Sharad Pawar, Ghulam
Nabi Azad, Rajesh Pilot, Ahmed Patel and Balram Jakhar. Both
Karunakaran and Pilot were experts to change the camps as per the
needs.
After his resignation as the party president in September 1996,
Narasimha Rao convened the Congress Working Committee
Meeting at his residence 9, Motilal Nehru Marg. He announced
that the CWC had unanimously accepted Sitaram Kesri as new
Congress President. Commenting about this announcement, Pranab
Mukherjee in his book Coalition Years, said that this was a surprise
announcement for him.
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A. KRISHNA RAO
This emboldened Sonias loyalists to move their pawns

quickly, as they were aware Sitaram Kesri was too weak to handle
the party affairs. He had been under tremendous pressure to pull
down Narasimha Rao even from the CPP leader post and take over
the responsibilities of the party in Parliament as well. Finally, Kesri
was compelled to get a resolution passed in the Congress Working
Committee to that effect. As a result, Narasimha Rao resigned from
the CPP leader post also on December 19, 1996.
But even before he relinquished the CPP leader post,
Narasimha Rao was subjected to several humiliations. When he
convened the CPP meeting on November 19, 1996, it was
boycotted by Sitaram Kesri, Sharad Pawar, Balram Jakhar, Ghulam
Nabi Azad, Y S Rajasekhar Reddy and Madhava Rao Scindia. This
sent enough signals for him that his days were numbered. In the
second week of December, as many as 19 CPP executive members
served a notice demanding that he convened the executive
committee meeting. Only five MPs did not sign on this notice,
which was handed over to Narasimha Rao personally by CPP
secretary Mrutyunjay Naik. Later, the CWC met and resolved to
ask Narasimha Rao to step down as CPP leader. At the CPP meeting
held under the leadership of party president Sitaram Kesri on
December 20, 1996, Narasimha Rao said he had resigned from the
CPP leadership as per the directions of the party president. Nobody
could defy the orders of the party president and several Chief
Ministers, too, had to put in their papers in the past as per the
directions of the party president. He said whatever had happened
was between the party president and a partyworker and he had not
given importance to any other issue. Resigning from the CPP leader
post was a very small issue.
175
It happened as per the partys traditions and norms. This does

not mean I have given up politics. I will work for the party as an
ordinary activist. I dont have any groups for myself and I have
worked beyond politics. I am thankful to all of you for extending
support to me all these days. God bless you, Narasimha Rao said
with a trembling voice.
The CPP adopted a unanimous resolution appreciating
Narasimha Raos services to the nation as the Prime Minister and
the party president at a time when the country was going through
critical times. It also lauded his efforts to help the country achieve
progress in economic, industrial, agriculture and other such major
sectors.
Thus, the glorious era of Narasimha Rao in the Congress party
came to an end. After his resignation, Sitaram Kesri himself was
elected as CPP leader in 1997. Though several party seniors vied
for the CPP leadership, Sonias coterie played a major role in
installing Kesri in the post.
After capturing the twin posts of AICC president and CPP
leader, Kesri set his eyes on the Prime Ministers post as well. Though
he was the CPP leader, he was terribly upset with Prime Minister
Deve Gowda for regularly meeting Narasimha Rao to seek the
latters advice on various issues.
Narasimha Rao was disturbed with these developments. He
was not happy with the way Sitaram Kesri, whom he had believed
and appointed as the party president, was creating troubles to the
Deve Gowda government owing to his personal reasons and
prompting by Sonia coterie.
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A. KRISHNA RAO
Those days, I used to go to Narasimha Raos residence at

Motilal Nehru Marg regularly and brief him about the developments
in the party and the government. He used to express anguish over
the party leaders ignoring the national interests. But he had his own
wide network to get the information on what was happening inside
Parliament, much before I could get. Sometimes, when I went to
him with half-baked information, I had to cut a sorry figure before
him when he was shooting questions at me.
There were allegations against Sitaram Kesri that he had got
his personal physician Dr Tanwar murdered. The police found
Tanwars head at one place and torso at a different place. It was
learnt the accused had confessed to the police that they had
committed the murder at the behest of Kesri and some family disputes
were the reason for it. There were reports that inspector Sharma
who was investigating the murder case was later shifted from the
inquiry. Though the file was reopened during the Deve Gowda
regime, the investigation did not make any headway. It could be a
coincidence that Delhi police commissioner Nikhil Kumar was also
from Bihar. And Sitaram Kesri, who happened to come across asenior
official of the home ministry at Rashtrapati Bhavan one day,openly
warned that he was very much aware of what was cookingagainst
him.
In fact, Narasimha Rao himself had failed to assess Sitaram
Kesris dubious antecedents. Rajesh Pilot had confided to his close
friends at a later date that had Narasimha Rao encouraged leaders
like him, they would have stood solidly behind him and prevented
the Gandhi family from grabbing power again.
177
Expectedly, Kesri-led Congress withdrew support to the Deve

Gowda government in April 1997. In his parting address to the Lok
Sabha in the capacity as Prime Minister, Deve Gowda made ascathing
attack on Kesri for backstabbing Narasimha Rao who had made
him the Congress president. He described Kesri as an old man in a
hurry to ascend the Prime Ministers chair. He said he was regularly
meeting Narasimha Rao because he had respect for the latter. But
I dont have the perseverance to bear the insults like Narasimha
Rao. What differences does it make for a man who strived a lot to
bail the country out of a grave economic crisis? he asked. The
Sonia loyalists did not rest with dethroning Deve Gowda. They
launched an open attack on I K Gujral, ever since he replaced Deve
Gowda as the Prime Minister. They demanded that the Jain
Commission, constituted to probe the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi,
table its report. Arjun Singh dashed off letters to Gujral and home
minister Indrajit Gupta. After the internal report of the Jain
Commission was introduced in the Lok Sabha, they alleged that
DMK was hand in glove with the LTTE extremists who assassinated
Rajiv Gandhi and demanded that the DMK ministers be expelled
from the Union cabinet. In fact, Jain Commission had not made a
single comment against DMK supremo Karunanidhi in connection
with Rajiv Gandhi assassination.
Yet, the Congress led by Sitaram Kesri withdrew support to
the Gujral government in November 1997, thereby making it
inevitable for the Election Commission to hold mid-term elections
to Lok Sabha. All the 13 parties of the United Front gave it in writing
to President K R Narayanan stating that they would not extend
support to either the BJP or the Congress under any circumstances,
thereby shattering the dreams of Sitaram Kesri to become the Prime
Minister. On December 4, 1997, Narayanan dissolved the Lok
Sabha. A year after Narasimha Rao resigned from the CPP leader
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A. KRISHNA RAO
post, Sonia Gandhi formally joined the Congress party at the AICC
plenary held at Kolkata in December 1997. The general elections
to the Lok Sabha were held between February and March, 1998.
For the first time, Sonia Gandhi campaigned extensively for the
Congress party. She addressed her first election rally in Tamil Nadu.
But in spite of her charismatic campaign, the Congress could get
just 141 seats in Lok Sabha. Though the party leaders were aware
that the Congress had got the same number of seats under the
leadership of Narasimha Rao two years ago, they did not utter aword.
Kesri was sacked from the AICC chief post in the most
humiliating manner and Sonia Gandhi took over as the party
president. Though Kesri refused to step down from the party post,
nobody could come to his rescue. Such was the humiliation meted
out to Kesri that he was locked up in a toilet in the AICC office
when Sonia Gandhi entered the premises in the capacity of the party
president, apparently fearing that he might create hurdles for her
entry.
Thus, the dynasty rule of Gandhi was back in the country.
And every attempt was made to erase the name of Narasimha Rao
from the history of the Congress. In the 1998 Lok Sabha elections,
Narasimha Rao was denied the party ticket to contest. He survived
for six years after that, but in all these six years, the party leaders
completely ignored him.
The distance between Sonia Gandhis residence at 10, Janpath
and that of Narasimha Rao at Motilal Nehru was hardly two furlongs.
But his house was more or less deserted. Only a few leaders like
Maninder Singh Bitta, who Narasimha Rao had appointed the Indian
Youth Congress president and Manmohan Singh used to come to
his residence now and then. On December 23, 2004, Narasimha
Rao passed away after a brief illness. But the Congress leadership
179
did not allow his last rites to be performed in New Delhi. Senior
leaders Ahmed Patel and Ghulam Nabi Azad conveyed Sonia
Gandhis directions to Narasimha Raos family members, apart from
passing the same information through Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister
Y S Rajasekhar Reddy. Even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
remained helpless. The following day, everybody expected that his
mortal remains would be placed at the AICC headquarters for some
time before being taken to the airport to be flown to Hyderabad.
The military vehicle that was carrying Narasimha Raos body waited
outside the AICC office for about half-an-hour, but there was
nobody to open the gates. Sonia Gandhi, who paid brief tributes to
Narasimha Rao only in Delhi, did not bother to attend his funeral
conducted in Hyderabad. I wrote a detailed account of the insults
heaped on Narasimha Rao in my report in Andhra Jyothy.
I still fail to understand why Sonia Gandhi had so much hatred
towards Narasimha Rao. It still remains a mystery for me. Was she
upset with him for not giving her due importance when he was the
Prime Minister? Or were there any other personal reasons? Sonia
Gandhi, who had played behind the screen role in running the camp
of dissidents during the Narasimha Rao regime, moved her pawns
quickly to display her authority in the party after he stepped down
from all posts of the party. Soon after Sitaram Kesri took over as the
AICC president, Sonia called him and asked him to take Arjun Singh
and Tiwari back into the Congress, which indicated that they had
the backing of Sonia all these years. And after she became the party
president in 1998 by pulling down Sitaram Kesri, she invited all
those leaders like Chidambaram, Moopanar etc who revolted against
Narasimha Rao back into the Congress and gave them plum posts
in the party.
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A. KRISHNA RAO
When the Vajpayee government lost the trust motion with a

single vote in 1999, Sonia Gandhis desire to become the Prime
Minister was quite evident. She went to President K R Narayanan
and claimed that she had the support of 272 MPs. She reportedly
suggested to the President to wait for just two days. But Arjun
Singh, who was the strategist on her behalf, miserably failed to muster
the required strength by splitting the BJP camp.
When the Congress emerged as the single largest party in the
Lok Sabha elections in 2004, speculations were rife that Sonia Gandhi
would stake claim for the Prime Minister post. The party leaders
were virtually begging her to take over the reins of the country. But
she backtracked following a political backlash from unexpected
quarters on the grounds of her foreign origin.
Janata Party president Dr Subramanian Swamy created a
sensation of sorts by writing a letter to President Dr APJ Abdul
Kalam strongly opposing Sonia Gandhis candidature for the Prime
Minister post, stating that it was against Section 5 of the Indian
Citizenship Act.
The act says if a foreign national who was not born in India
has to become the Prime Minister here, the country from which he
or she hails should also have the same facility. Since Italy does not
have the provision for a foreigner to become the Prime Minister
there as per its citizenship act, the same rule applies to Sonia Gandhi
in India.
Subramanian Swamy pointed out to Kalam that Sonia had
not given up her Italian citizenship by then. In fact, a lot of politicking
was done behind his letter. There were reports those days that
Narasimha Rao had reportedly consulted legal expert and election
commissioner G V G Krishna Murthy and also with Vajpayee later.
` ` `
181
SCHEMES OR SCAMS ?
I t doesnt take much brainstorming to understand that the so-

called scams that surfaced during the Narasimha Rao
regimewere not actually scams but were part of a systematic attempt
to defame him. While thestock market scam and the Jain Hawala
scam were offshoots ofinstitutional defects and inherited by the
Narasimha Rao regimedue to corrupt deeds of the past, other
allegations of corruption incases like Lakhubhai Pathak and St Kitts
issues were made only tomalign Narasimha Rao.
Forces within the Congress made every effort to sling mud
atNarasimha Rao, the first South Indian to become the Prime
Minister,while Bharatiya Janata Party, too, sought to capitalize on
every issueto run him down. Needless to say, they were all part of
the game tograb power.
The stock market scam created by stock broker Harshad
Mehtasurfaced at a time when attempts were being made to demolish
theBabri Masjid in Ayodhya. This scam was the result of the
irregularitiesthat took place exploiting the loopholes in the banking
system. Thescamsters, with the help of some top bank officials,
created fakebank receipts, obtained big loans from them, invested
huge amountsin the stock market which resulted in abnormal
escalation in theshare values of big companies, sold the same shares
at high valueand return the money to the banks while retaining the
profits.
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A. KRISHNA RAO
Harshad Mehta had looted banks to the extent of Rs

4,000crore. When the scam broke out, it was revealed that the
bankreceipts he was holding were fake. Income Tax authorities
raidedhis offices and seized several documents and share certificates.
In1992, the CBI also conducted raids on them and finally
arrestedthem.
In fact, such fraudulent operations in the banks had been
takingplace much before Narasimha Rao came to power. The
JointParliamentary Committee constituted to investigate the
HarshadMehta scam pointed out in its report that activities like ready
forwarddealings, extensive use of bank receipts and granting
temporarypowers to the stock brokers on use of
governmentsecuritiesirrespective of their financial capabilities had
happened well before 1991. The misuse of bank receipts happened
in Andhra Bank andSyndicate Bank in October 1986 itself.
The Reserve Bank of India had a whiff of such
fraudulentactivities in the stock market long ago. In March 1992,
RBIGovernor S Venkataramanan issued circulars to all banks
alertingthem about the nefarious activities of stock brokers, but the
banksblatantly violated the RBI guidelines. Many banks launched
non-banking financial institutions through portfolio management
and diverted the temporary deposits of public sector undertakings
intothe stock market. When banks and PSUs themselves were
attractedtowards quick money, what more stock brokers wanted?
For Gujaratbroker Harshad Mehta, it was a royal way to loot the
banks.
183
As Narasimha Rao was just wriggling out the crisis in

theCongress following the demolition of Babri Masjid in
Ayodhya,Harshad Mehta came out of jail on June 16, 1993, and
held a pressconference where he made a sensational allegation that
he had paida bribe of Rs 1 crore cash to Narasimha Rao to get him
off thehook. He claimed that he had handed over a suitcase stashed
with the cash to R K Khandekar, officer on special duty in the
PMO,who in turn took him to the Prime Minister.
Khandekar was known to Narasimha Rao ever since the
latterhad contested the Lok Sabha selections from Ramtek in
Maharashtrain 1984. He was such a sincere officer that even after
NarasimhaRao became the Prime Minister in June 1991, he used
to come tothe PMO on his bicycle. It was a differentmatter that the
SpecialProtection Group raised an objection and took away his
bicycle.
During the course of investigation, claims made by Harshad
Mehtaand the evidence he had produced to buttress his claim turned
outto be hoax. On the day (November 4, 1992), when Harshad
Mehtaclaimed to have met the Prime Minister, the latter was in his
SouthBlock office and nowhere near 7, Race Course Road.
Mehta claimed that he had met the Prime Minister at 10.45am
to hand over the money. But the fact was that Narasimha Raohad
gone to Rashtrapati Bhavan at 9.56 am, attended the meetingof
Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs at 10.30 am and met
adelegation from Pakistan at 11.15 am. Obviously, he had no wingsto
fly down from PMO to his Race Course Road to accept the
cashoffered by Harshad Mehta!
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A. KRISHNA RAO
Those days, there was no currency in the denominations ofRs

500 and Rs 1000. So, how big the suitcase must have been tohold
Rs 1 crore in cash? It was a point of big debate those days.Harshad
Mehta claimed that the suitcase weighed nearly 70 kgs butit could
be impossible to carry such a huge suitcase into the residenceof the
Prime Minister, where the security staff would screen everysuitcase
and bag very carefully. No records were found to proveMehtas
meeting with Narasimha Rao.
There was a talk that Bharatiya Janata Party leaders were
behind the allegations made by Harshad Mehta against
NarasimhaRao. In fact, Advani raised the Mehta issue in the
Parliament. Inthe book Haar Nahin Manoonga, the biography
of Atal BehariVajpayee, author Vijay Trivedi mentioned that
Narasimha Rao hadonce angrily complained to Vajpayee that the
BJP leaders had forcedHarshad Mehta to make false allegations against
him but Vajpayeefeigned ignorance about the same.
Apparently, the BJP was under the impression that there
wouldbe midterm elections to Lok Sabha, if Narasimha Rao
governmentcollapsed as a fallout of the Harshad Mehta scam. But
NarasimhaRao was too tough a person to deal with. If we react to
such baselessallegations, we would be falling into their trap, he
commented.
At the Congress Working Committee meeting held at
Bhopalon June 23, 1993, the party leaders strongly stood by
NarasimhaRao and attacked the BJP. Even his die-hard critic Arjun
Singh saidthe Congress wont allow the BJP conspiracy. Sharad
Pawar, too,observed that if the BJP succeeded in its conspiracy,
there would bemidterm elections and the BJP would capture the
power.
185
In 1992 itself, the Reserve Bank of India constituted

acommittee headed by Janaki Raman to conduct a
comprehensiveprobe into the stock market scandal. In 1993,
Narasimha Raogovernment appointed a joint parliamentary
committee (JPC)headed by Ram Niwas Mirdha to investigate the
securities scam.The earlier JPC headed by Shankaranand set up to
investigate theBofors scandal might not have concluded its findings,
but the JPCchaired by Mirdha completed its investigation and
submitted itsreport within a short period of 16 months.Mirdha took
enough care to see that there were no majorcomments on the Union
finance ministers role in the scandal. He managed to pull together
29 members of nine political parties. Hiscommittee adopted the
findings of the CBI in its investigation toconclude that there was no
evidence on Harshad Mehtas allegedpay-off to the Prime Minister
and that no cognisable offence ofcorruption could be made out
against Narasimha Rao.
In the first draft report, the Mirdha committee pointed
toManmohan Singhs lapses, but in the final report, it diluted
theallegations against him and absolved him from direct and
personalresponsibility. Instead, the committee only blamed the
financeministry for inadequate supervision of the system. The
committeefeels that the responsibility and accountability of the
finance ministercannot be denied, the JPC report said.
Earlier, during a call-attention motion in Lok Sabha on April
30, 1992, Manmohan Sing said: Governments are interested inthe
healthy functioning of the stock-markets...but that does notmean
that I should lose my sleep simply because stock-markets goup one
186

A. KRISHNA RAO
day and fall the next. The JPC used his own statement as aweapon
against him. It is good to have a finance minister whodoes not lose
his sleep easily but one would wish that when such
cataclysmic changes take place all around, some alarm would ringto
disturb his slumber.
It was JPC member S Jaipal Reddy, who had
tremendouscommand over the English language, who insisted on
using the wordslumber against the finance minister. As a matter
of fact, the JPCmembers tried a lot to avoid troubling Manmohan
Singh, out oftheir respect for Narasimha Rao. Wherever they had
to refer to thefinance minister, they had to struggle to change it to
financeministry.
The JPC also removed the references made against
ManmohanSingh for allegedly misleading the committee in
appointing ManoharJ Pherwani as the chairman of National Housing
Bank. It onlyobserved, albeit reluctantly, that the finance minister
was responsibleto the Parliament.
On December 23, two days after the tabling of the JPC
reportin Parliament, Manmohan Singh went through it and was
deeplyhurt. He met the Prime Minister and offered to step down
from thecabinet. But Narasimha Rao convinced him to stay back.
SeniorCongress leaders G K Moopanar, N KSharma, Pranab
Mukherjeeand V C Shukla entered the scene to pacifyManmohan
Singh.
Congress Parliamentary Party secretary Vilas Muttemwar took
up asignature campaign requesting Manmohan Singh to withdraw
hisresignation proposal.Narasimha Rao also roped in other senior
leaders like JitendraPrasada to mobilise support in favour of
187
Manmohan Singh. Similarly,AICC official spokesperson V N

Gadgil, too, requested the financeminister to cool down. The
resignation episode came to an endafter Manmohan Singh met RBI
Governor C Rangarajan and othersenior officials on December 28.
During the discussion on the JPC report in Lok
Sabha,Congress leaders Salman Khurshid and Chidambaram
defendedManmohan Singh. Later, Narasimha Rao also came in
support ofthe finance minister. He personally requested the
Opposition leadersnot to insist on Manmohan Singhs resignation.
Jaipal Reddy had totell him that they had only suggested a change
in the style, but notthe content.
It was evident that the whole episode was only to divert
thepeoples attention from the criticism by the opposition.
NarasimhaRao made use of the debate in Parliament over the JPC
report tooverhaul the financial system in the country by taking up
large scalereforms. And at the end of the debate, Manmohan Singh
gave apowerful reply to silence the opposition.
The JPC report clearly pointed out a major lapse in the
bankingsystem: those days, there were no clear-cut guidelines for
the publicsector undertakings to make investments. Our PSUs had
investeddirectly in foreign companies. Even petroleum companies,
railways,chemicals and fertilizers companies, civil aviation and
evencooperative societies had invested in stock markets. The JPC
blamedit on the finance ministry for failing to anticipate these issues,
taking corrective measures even after the outbreak of the scam
andpunishing the accused on time.
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A. KRISHNA RAO
Anyways, Narasimha Rao claimed later that he had

emergedfrom this trial by fire in the same manner as Sita did.
Replying tothe debate on the JPC report, Manmohan Singh said
when he tookover as the finance minister, the nation was on the
verge of financialbankruptcy. Thanks to the blessings and direction
of the PrimeMinister, I could bring the economy back on
trackgradually, hesaid.
It was surprising that Manmohan Singh, who was deeply
hurtand offered to step down just because of a couple of
commentsmade by the JPC in its report, became thick-skinned and
sufferedhumiliations, after he took over as the Prime Minister under
thedirection of Sonia Gandhi in the later years.
Harshad Mehta, who claimed to have paid a bribe of Rs 1crore
to Narasimha Rao was charged with as many as 74 criminaloffences
and convicted by both the Bombay High Court and theSupreme
Court. His wife and brothers continued his legal battlesuntil
December 31, 2001, when he died in jail due to heart attack atthe
age of 47.
Like the stock market scam that had its roots spread in
thecountry much before Narasimha Rao became the Prime
Minister,the Jain hawala scam, too, had a very long background.
Corruptionwas ruling the roost in the country during the previous
Congressregimes. Thanks to the license permit raj, corruption had
spread its tentacles in every field. Inefficiency and indifference got
deeplyentrenched in the system.
189
When I entered Delhi in 1992, I witnessed corruption in

itsmonstrous form in every department. Even to obtain a
telephoneconnection or an LPG gas connection, I had to run around
MPs. Itwas surprising that the MPs had been allotted a certain quota
oftelephone and gas connections, which they used to sell in black
tomake quick money. I saw an attendant in the AICC office
bargainingwith a newly-elected woman MP for selling LPG gas
couponsallotted to her in black market; and when she entered into
anagreement with him, the attendant presented her with a brand
newMaruti car!
Similarly, representatives of several private companies
werelobbying with the MPs for new telephone connections for
theiroffices and residences.Narasimha Rao had a deep understanding
about the rampantcorruption deeply rooted in the systems for a long
time. He wasalso aware of the corrupt practices of his colleagues in
the Congress.But his focus on sustaining the minority government,
rather thancurbing the corruption in the system. Those who were
inductedinto his cabinet or the MPs surrounding him in Parliament
werenot chosen by him. They had been there in the Congress for
ages.He had no option but to run the government with the same
leadersaround him. He had no way to encourage new faces. So, he
hadlittle scope to focus on corruption.
During the Indira Gandhi regime, all the top industrialists inthe
country were pampering her younger son Sanjay Gandhi anddonated
funds to the party through him. In fact, the so-called quidpro quo
culture had entered the political system during the IndiraGandhi
period itself. A deal by state-run Indian Oil Corporation(IOC) to
190

A. KRISHNA RAO
buy 5.12 lakh tonnes of high-speed diesel oil (HSD) worthnearly

US $ 200 million from Kuo Oil Ltd of Hong Kong, kicked up a
major controversy in early 80s. The shipment of the oil, whichwas
to be imported at a future date, but at the current prices, wasbelieved
to have caused a loss of Rs 13 crore on the public
exchequer.Similarly, massive and indiscriminate corruption took
place duringthe conduct of Asian Games in 1982.
Those days, there were brokers who used to deal withministers
in working out various projects and taking kickbacks forthe same.
Among such brokers were Jain Brothers from Bhopal.They were,
in all, four brothers. Eldest among them Surendra KumarJain was
the kingpin. He had close relations with the union ministerP Shiv
Shankar and Dhirendra Brahmachary, the Swamiji who taught Yoga
Asanas to Indira Gandhi.
It was believed that Shiv Shankar could become
Unionpetroleum minister with the influence of S K Jain. Those
days, there were huge contracts worth hundreds of crores of rupees
for variousprojects in the Oil and Natural Gas Commission and Jain
madehuge money in the form of kickbacks in these contracts.
During the Indira Gandhi regime itself, there were
allegationsof irregular appointments even in the judiciary and the
CentralBureau of Investigation (CBI) being used as the secret police
of theCentre.After the death of Indira Gandhi, corruption took a
differentshape during the Rajiv Gandhi regime. Those were the
heydays forpoliticians, who found a new way of making quick
money throughagreements with foreign companies with the help
of brokers. Theyrealized that it would be more difficult to depend
on brokers forvarious projects, instead of depending on donations
from Tatas, Birlasand Ambanis.
191
Take for instance, Lalit Suri, who was closer to Rajiv

Gandhi.He would broker the contracts for export of Basmati rice
to theSoviet Union. In the last days of Indira Gandhi, Italian
businessmanOttavio Quattrocchi was calling shots in India for any
major contract.Quattrocchi, who was Indian representative ofItalian
oil and gasfirm Eni and its engineering arm Snamprogetti, bagged
all the contracts for supply of fertilisers during the Indira Gandhi
regime.Apart from two contracts pertaining to Nagarjuna
FertilisersCompany Ltd in Kakinada, another 60 projects were
bagged by hiscompany.
Those who questioned the awarding of so many contracts
toQuattrocchi had lost their jobs. Petroleum and Natural Gas
MinisterNaval Kishore Sharma was unceremoniously sacked from
the cabinetfor opposing contracts to Quattrocchi and appointed as
AICCgeneral secretary. Cabinet secretary P K Kaul was dropped
abruptlyand posted as Indian ambassador in Washington.Gas
Authority ofIndia Limited chairman H S Cheema was removed from
thepost.Secretary in the ministry of fertilisers K V Ramanathan, an
excellent and upright officer was transferred to the Planning
Commission foropposing the awarding of contract of Rashtriya
Chemicals andFertilisers plant at its Mumbai unit to Quattrocchi.
As a result, helost the opportunity to become cabinet secretary which
he wasentitled to as per seniority in 1985. Ironically, senior leader
JairamRamesh, who married Ramanathans daughter Jayashree, later
became an important team member of Sonia Gandhi.
After Rajiv Gandhi became the Prime Minister,
Quattrocchihad a field day in India. Then finance minister V P Singh
disclosedin the later years that Rajiv Gandhi had personally instructed
him tomeet Quattrocchi, whose role in Bofors contract later became
192

A. KRISHNA RAO
anopen secret. The visuals of Rajivs family and that of

Quattrocchiholidaying together could not escape the eagle eye of
the media.Who would believe Sonia Gandhi remained an unscathed
leader, after witnessing her great background?
That hawala racket was thriving in the country on a large
scale before Narasimha Rao took over as the Prime Minister
wasevident from the Jain hawala scam. Between February 1988
andApril 1991, several top political leaders had received kickbacks
fromthe four Jain brothers.
The kingpin of the scam was Surendra KumarJain. The police
received a tip off about a major scam pertaining toforeign exchange
dealings and hawala transactions at ChandniChowk in Delhi. During
the investigation, it was found that fundswere being diverted to
Kashmiri militants through Jawaharlal Nehru University student
Shahabuddin Ghauri, who was arrested in 1991.Based on the
information obtained from Ghauri, raids wereconducted on the
residences of Jain brothers. A diary seized duringthe raids revealed
that several Congress and a few BJP leaders hadreceived kickbacks
during the last days of Rajiv Gandhi regime.
In fact, the diary containing the details of hawala
transactionshad first come to the notice of former deputy inspector
general (DIG)of Central Bureau of Investigation O P Sharma, who
was supervisingthe hawala case. He did not disclose about the diary
to anybody andstarted probing into the case on his own. He started
calling up someof those whose names were mentioned in the diary
and demandingbribes from them, including the hawala dealers, to
let them off thehook.
193
On coming to know about this, top officials of the CBI

raidedSharmas house. When he knew that the CBI officials were
comingto search his house, he threw the diary from the balcony of
his houseinto a dustbin on the road. After 15 days, the CBI managed
to retrievethe diary from the dustbin, but by that time, it was badly
mutilateddue to rain. Yet, the CBI could identify some names
mentioned inthe diary, apart from through interrogation of the
accused.
The CBI did not take any action till the first half of 1993
inthe Jain hawala case. Almost all the names mentioned in the
diarywere political bigwigs, most of them being Congressmen and
loyalistsof Sonia Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. Even some
prominentopposition leaders figured in the list.
But the media carried reportson these names based on the
periodical leaks from the CBI sources.Newspapers like Jansatta Hindi
daily gave the whole story of theJain diaries. Similarly, popular
weekly Blitz carried a big exposure of the scam. This was followed
by public interest litigation filed bytwo journalists Vineet Narain
and Rajendra Puri in the SupremeCourt on October 27, 1993,
demanding a comprehensive probe.
The Supreme Court admitted the petition and served
noticeson the government on December 15, 1993 to submit its reply.
Itcriticized the CBI for inaction stating: This revealed a
gravesituation posing a serious threat even to the unity and integrity
ofthe nation. The serious threat posed to the Indian policy could
notbe under-scored.
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A. KRISHNA RAO
But nothing moved further. After 11 months, the

SupremeCourt intervened again and ordered that the CBI expedite
theinvestigation. It pulled up the CBI stating that if only petty
criminalswere punished and those who spend lakhs of rupees on
birthdayparties were let off, then the courts have to be wound up.
TheCBI is not doing the job which can be done by just an inspector
ofa police station, the Supreme Court said.
It directed that CBI director K Vijaya Rama Rao
personallyattend the hearing in the apex court. On April 18, 1995,
the SupremeCourt ordered that all the investigation agencies should
cooperatewith the CBI and Enforcement Directorate. It appreciated
the CBIraids on the residences of some of the accused and said
theinvestigating agency was going in the right direction
withoutbothering about any criticism.
Prime MinisterNarasimha Rao, finance minister Dr
Manmohan Singh and Revenue Secretary R Shivaraman agreed
with the view of Supreme Court judges JusticeJ S Verma, justice
S P Bharucha and Justice S C Sen that if actionwas taken against
those whose names figured in the Jain hawaladiaries, it would lead
to cleansing the systems.
During the interrogation by the CBI sleuths, S K Jain
disclosedseveral names. He told them that he had met Quattrocchi,
who wasthe Indian representative of Italian company Snamprogetti
in Indiaand gave further details about the case. The investigations
revealedthat several domestic and foreign companies had bagged
contractsfor various projects in Rourkela steel plant, captive power
plant forVisakhapatnam Steel, National Hydro-Power Corporation
in
195
Dulhasti in Jammu and Kashmir, another hydel power plant

in Uri,NTPC project at Kawas thermal power plant at Surat in
Gujarat,steel project in Durgapur and quite a few railway projects
onlythrough Quattrocchi. The kickbacks were transferred into
theaccounts of beneficiaries through one Amir Bhai from bank
accountsin Belgium and Switzerland.
The Jain diary and interrogation of Jain allegedly revealed
thenames of several political bigwigs. Jain also disclosed that he
hadmet Rajiv Gandhi and gave him Rs 4 crore, which he said
wasmeant for funding Jayalalithaa.Those days, there used to be a lot
of lobbying for big positionsin the Centre. In 1988, Jain allegedly
took Rs 30 lakh from P SBami, who was the director (finance) to
do lobbying with the PrimeMinisters Office for his promotion. In
June 1988, Bami becamethe chairman of NTPC and continued till
1992. During this four-year period, Jain allegedly got huge favours
from NTPC. This wasalso found in the charge-sheet of the CBI.
When Madhava Rao Scindia was the Union Minister of
Statefor Railways during 1986-89, Jain got several contracts in the
railways.Jain mentioned in his diary that he had given a bribe of Rs
75 lakhto Scindia. The CBI also found several photographs that
revealedthe proximity between Jain and Balram Jakhar and it was
mentionedin the diaries that Jain had paid Rs 83.23 lakh to Jakhar.
WhenJakhar was Union Agriculture Minister during 1980-89, he
used tobe regularly in touch with Jain on phone.
Former deputy PrimeMinister Devi Lal and his grandson Pradeep
Singh were alsomentioned in the diaries. Jain also claimed to have
provided fundsto Ravi Shankar Shukla hospital in Madhya Pradesh
built byCongress leader Vidya Charan Shukla.
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A. KRISHNA RAO
When Kalpanath Rai was the Union Energy Minister during

1987-91, Jain bagged contracts for works related to the NTPC.
Jainclaimed that he had paid Rs 71.50 lakh as kickbacks to
KalpanathRai. Similarly, he said he had paid Rs 6.50 crore to Arif
Mohammad Khan for the construction of a hospital in Bahraich in
Uttar Pradesh.
But the reports that Jain had claimed to have paid a bribe
ofRs 60 lakh to BJP president L K Advani triggered more
sensation.Jain reportedly told the investigators that he had paid
money toAdvani in three instalments towards the party fund. In
Jain diaries,the word Advani was written against 35.00 mentioned
in a fileunder the heading POE from April, 1988 to March,
1990.Similarly, the abbreviation LKA was written against 25.00
underthe heading political expenses as on April 26, 1991. However,
nosupporting evidence was produced in the form of statements
bywitnesses and no instances of concrete favours made by Advani
tothe Jains were recorded.
Names of other opposition leaders like Sharad Yadav,
MadanLal Khurana and Yashwant Sinha were also mentioned in
the diaries.Advani resigned from his Lok Sabha membership in
protest againstinclusion of his name in the Jain diaries. He declared
that he wouldnot step into Parliament till he was exonerated in the
Jain hawalacase. Sharad Yadav, too, quit his Lok Sabha membership,
whileYashwant Sinha resigned from his assembly membership in
Bihar.
197
It was under Narasimha Raos premiership, the

judiciary,particularly at the highest level, had all of a sudden become
bold andvocal. Even the functioning of the CBI was monitored by
the apexcourt. Following constant pressure from the SupremeCourt,
the CBI conducted raids on the houses of 13government officials
on November 30, 1995. TheSupreme Court told the CBI to step
up investigation asthere were many others involved in the scam and
asked it to catch the big fish. The judges also suggested thatif the
CBI didnt get permission from the government, itcould approach
the court again.
On January 16, 1996, the CBI told the court that it had
filedcharge sheets on three Union ministers and several other
politicians.The Supreme Court hearings were held completely in
camera.Revenue secretary, CBI director and ED director used to
attendthe hearings and explain to the court the progress of
investigationonce in two weeks. Chief Justice Varma made it clear
to the investigators that they didnt have to inform the government
abouttheir raids or any other action they would take. Raids
wereconducted on the residences of Arif Mohammad Khan, Lalit
Suri,Pradeep Kumar and also that of former chairpersons of NTPC
andCoal India.
Politically, too, it was very crucial for the government.
Generalelections were scheduled to be held in April and May. In
January,BJP leader Advani launched his yatra with the agenda of
nationalsecurity and fight against corruption. Narasimha Rao was
alreadycaught in the vortex of various issues like stockmarket scam
ofHarshad Mehta, allegations of corruption in sugar
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A. KRISHNA RAO
import,telecomscam, charges against Chandraswamy and JMM

bribery scam etc.But all these allegations were overshadowed by
the Jain hawala scamwhich involved leaders of various political
parties.
The Jain scam led to the impression among the people
thatnobody was above corruption in politics. In a way, there was
acampaign that Narasimha Rao had fired a big salvo at
corruption.Even Sonia Gandhi could not come to the defence of
the leaderswho got the blot of hawala scam. That way, Narasimha
Raoneutralised Sonia. Rajesh Pilot, who came to the residence of
Venkat Swamy those days, remarked that one should salute
Narasimha Rao.He hit many birds with one shot. How can anyone
expectdissidence against him? he said.
The CBI is notorious for its conspiracies, collusions,
strategiesand counter-strategies. K Vijaya Rama Rao did not know
tricks ofthe trade. He didnt know what to do following the
directions ofthe Supreme Court chief justice. He was not aware of
how to handlepressures. Wittingly or unwittingly, Narasimha Rao
made severalattempts to see that the Jain hawala scam did not flare
up much atthe eleventh hour. Though he knew that many of the
leadersinvolved in Jain hawala cases were really corrupt, he was
worriedthat if they were proved guilty, it would cause tremendous
harm tohim politically. He spoke to Vijaya Rama Rao several times
but thelatter was helpless as the Supreme Court was virtually
houndinghim. According to then Home Secretary Padmanabhaiah,
NarasimhaRao told Vijaya Rama Rao that it would be difficult to
take actions on the basis of abbreviated letters like LKA mentioned
199
in Jain Dairies. Senior Congress leader Balram Jakhar openly

commentedbefore the Telugu journalists: Aap kaa Rao barbaath
kardiya, hum sab ko jail bhagwan ki koshish kiya... (Your Rao
hasruined us completely and tried to send us to jail).
Close on the lines of the allegations made by Harshad
Mehta,who was arrested by the CBI in the stock market scam,
againstNarasimha Rao stating that he had paid kickbacks to the latter,
S KJain who was the CBI custody, too, tried to drag Narasimha
Raosname into the hawala scam. He alleged that Chandraswamy
hadtaken money from him on behalf of Narasimha Rao. He said R
KDhavan had taken him to Narasimha Rao, who demanded Rs
50lakh as party fund and Rs 5 lakh to him personally.
Jain went on to say that after Narasimha Rao became the
PrimeMinister, Satish Sharma had invited him (Jain) to a farmhouse,
wherehe had met Chandraswamy, who in turn took him to
NarasimhaRaos house. On the directions of Narasimha Rao, Jain
agreed todonate Rs 3 crore to the party and of this amount, the
Prime Ministerhad directed him to give Rs 50 lakh to
Chandraswamy. This moneywas spent on luring the MPs of other
parties into the Congress. Heconfessed that he had agreed to give
the money with the hope thathe would get the contract for
modernization of Rourkela Steel Plant.
But it appeared Jain was only parroting the statements as perthe
script prepared by somebody else. Not a single piece of evidencewas
found to substantiate these allegations against Narasimha Rao.
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A. KRISHNA RAO
Though the CBI went all out to gather evidence about the
meetingof Chandraswamy and Satish Sharma with Narasimha Rao,
itcouldnt get any clues. The claim of Jain on so-called Rourkelasteel
plant modernization contract also turned out to be a big hoax.Steel
Authority of India Limited (SAIL)s communications
managerGeorge Thomas said the modernization of the Rourkela
steel plantbegan much before Narasimha Rao came to power and
there wasno question of Jain being offered the contract.
Jain also claimed that he had met Narasimha Rao a day
beforethe Holi festival (on March 18) in 1992. But there were no
recordsto prove that Jain had met the Prime Minister. In fact, it was
AndhraPradesh Chief Minister N Janardhan Reddy who was in a
meetingwith Narasimha Rao at the time and place mentioned by
Jain. TheCBI submitted all the details including Jains statements to
theSupreme Court in March 1995. There is absolutely no case
against the Prime Minister, said Narasimha Raos media advisor P
V R KPrasad.
There was some progress in the Jain hawala case after seniorIPS
officer of Delhi Amod Kant took over as deputy inspector generalof
CBI in 1993. He was earlier an officer on special duty with
formerUnion Minister of State for Home affairs Subodh Kant
Sahai.However, after Amod Kant took over the case, there were
twogroups within the CBI: one group was keen on implicating
thePrime Minister and another was insisting on restricting the case
onlyto those whose names were mentioned in the diary.
201
As per the diary,the total money paid by Jains was Rs 65 crore,

but others arguedthat it was actually Rs 73 crore, of which Rs 3.5
crore was paid to
Narasimha Rao. Amod Kant sent a dissent note to Vijaya RamaRao
that he was not given complete freedom to probe the case.
Former joint director of CBI B R Lal, in his book Who
OwnsThe CBI, said the CBI, in fact, had not gone into the roots
of thehawala scam. Had it done so, it would have put an end to the
hawalatransactions then itself and so-called quid pro quo dealings
whichare being witnessed these days would have been exposed.
Then Union law minister H R Bharadwaj and law secretaryP
C Rao had met Narasimha Rao over the progress of the CBIprobe
into the hawala scam and the latter told him categorically thathe
would let the law take its own course. When the Congress leadersmet
him, he told them there was nothing to worry. As long as thecrime
is not proved, we are all innocents, he said to them.
Narasimha Raos comments kicked up a lot of debate for
manydays. Congress MP Ajit Jogi raised this issue during the
Congress Parliamentary Party meeting and warned that Narasimha
Rao wasriding a tiger and it would be difficult for him to get down.
Whathave I done? I have allowed the investigation agencies to do
as perthe directions of the Supreme Court, the Prime Minister
said.
The Jain hawala issue has resulted in several
significantdevelopments in the countrys politics and judiciary.
People haverealized that any top leader could be dragged to the
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A. KRISHNA RAO
courts by filingpublic interest litigation petitions. In fact, PILs and

judicial activismhad become very active only after the case surfaced.
Had it not beenfor the Jain hawala case, BJP president L K Advani
would havebeen projected as the Prime Ministerial candidate of the
party butmuch before the charge sheet was filed in the case,
Advaniannounced that he would not contest the elections.
At the BJPnational executive committee meeting held at
Mumbai in 1995,Advani himself announced that Atal Behari
Vajpayee would be thepartys Prime Ministerial candidate. In fact,
the Jain hawala case was the first hurdle in Advanis dream to ascend
to the top seat. It led tothe talk that it was Narasimha Rao who was
responsible, albeitindirectly, for the shattering of Advanis dreams.
There were alsocomments that Narasimha Rao had taken revenge
against Advani,because of whom he had to fight a tough political
battle followingthe demolition of Babri Masjid and the subsequent
developments.
Finally, the Supreme Court exonerated everybody who
wasinvolved in the case on the ground that the mere mentioning
oftheir names in the Jain diaries and other pieces of papers could
notbe accepted as witnesses. This judgement is a classic example
ofhow even crucial cases could easily get diluted ultimately in India.
Time doth create existence; time destroys this was
thephilosophical statement of Delhi chief metropolitan magistrate
PremKumar, while issuing summons to Narasimha Rao on July 9,
1996,as an accused in the Lakhubhai Pathak cheating case.
203
One doesnt know in what context and with what

intentionhad the magistrate made this comment, but it was true
that all thecases filed against Narasimha Rao were the creation of
time and atthe same time had demolished those cases.
The CBI filed a charge sheet against Lakhubhai Pathak, a UK-
based NRI pickle manufacturer and his associate Kailash
NathAgarwal on April 12, 1996, based on a complaint lodged by
Pathakhimself in 1989. He flew down to Delhi from London to
giveevidence in the case as if he was summoned by somebody. On
July5, he deposed before the Delhi chief metropolitan magistrate
statingthat Narasimha Rao, too, was among those who cheated him.
In fact, in the first complaint made by Lakhubhai Pathak
in1984, there was no mention of Narasimha Rao. In his
depositionbefore the court, however, Pathak said he had met
Chandraswamy in his room in Holorum House Hotel, Manhattan,
New York andthe latter had introduced him to Narasimha Rao,
then a Centralminister. He said Narasimha Rao had orally
promised him to
secure the contract for supply of paper pulp and newsprint to India.
According to Pathak, Narasimha Rao told him: Swamiji had
toldme everything and that my work will be done.Pathak said he
was so overwhelmed by their assurance that hebelieved whatever
they said and had paid an amount of US $1,00,000 to Chandraswamy
by two cheques on January 4, 1984outside the New York hotel.
He also claimed that he had spent an additional amount of US
$30,000 on the hospitality of Chandraswamy and others. Though
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A. KRISHNA RAO
Chandraswamy had assured Pathak thatthe contract papers would

be handed over to him by the end of January, 1984, and the supply
was supposed to be completed by April 15, 1984, he, however,
failed to secure thecontract for Pathak, in spite of repeated
approaches.
Pathaks counsel S Sharma filed a petition before the Chief
Metropolitan Magistrate Court and also Delhi high court
seekingarrest of Narasimha Rao by issuing a non-bailable warrant.
TheDelhi magistrate summoned Narasimha Rao to appear before
thecourt on July 24, 1996.
How could Narasimha Rao be arrested based on a mere
complaint from Lakhubhai Pathak without any proper
andcomprehensive investigation? Already, the CBI
arrestedChandraswamy and Agarwal. Senior advocates Shanti
Bhushan andRam Jethmalani argued that the court had every right
to order thearrest of Narasimha Rao. But the CBI felt that there
was no meaningin arresting Narasimha Rao in the case which had
no evidence. Moreover,everybody was aware there was nopossibility
of Narasimha Rao escaping from the case.
Being an External Affairs Minister, Narasimha Rao had
noauthority to grant the license for supply of newsprint by
Pathak.Moreover, the CBI also found a letter written by Pathak to
formerPrime Minister Rajiv Gandhi that Chandraswamy was using
thename of Narasimha Rao to do lobbying. Pathak could not
explainwhy he did not name Narasimha Rao in his original
complaint. And it was believed that the entire Pathak drama was
enacted only to dethrone Narasimha Rao from the AICC president
post.
205
On December 22, 2003, the special court judge Dinesh

Dayalacquitted Narasimha Rao in the case, stating that there were
several contradictions in Pathaks deposition which were not reliable
and had not been corroborated with evidences. His evidence has
been constantlychanging and there have been contradictions on vital
aspects of thecase. The prosecution has failed to explain the
inordinate delay infiling the case, the judge said.
Sadly, not a single Congress leader congratulated
NarasimhaRao for coming out clean in the Lakhubhai Pathak case.
Earlier, Narasimha Rao was exonerated in the St Kitts case,too.
The case was a sort of conspiracy against former Prime MinisterV P
Singh, who had resigned from the cabinet of Rajiv Gandhi in1989
in protest against the infamous Bofors scandal. Singh was the Finance
Minister in Rajiv Gandhi cabinet. Though the mastermind behind
the St Kitts case was RajivGandhi, efforts were made to implicate
Narasimha Rao in the case.
In a bid to take revenge against V P Singh, an attempt was
made tomalign him by creating a dubious multi-dollar off-shore
bankaccount bearing the signature of his son Ajeya Singh in First
TrustCorporation Bank in St Kitts using forged documents. A case
wasfiled against Narasimha Rao and Chandraswamy for
allegedlyfabricating the documents pertaining to fake bank accounts.
This case was struck down by the lower court in 1997 and
theSupreme Court also upheld the lower judgement. If Narasimha
Raohad no connection with these irregularities, who could be
behindthis conspiracy? Obviously, it was Rajiv Gandhi, who sought
206

A. KRISHNA RAO
tobenefit electorally by defaming V P Singh before 1991

generalelections. It was surprising why the CBI had missed this
simple logicand why the courts did not bother about the same. In
fact, Narasimha Raos counsel R K Anand raised this issue in the
court, but the CBIdid not respond to it.
Former Union home secretary Padmanabhaiah said
bothLakhubhai Pathak and St Kitts forgery cases were just bogus
andwere fabricated only to create troubles for Narasimha Rao.
Coming to the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) case in
whichNarasimha Rao faced the punishment, it was purely a political
case.One Ravindra Kumar from Rashtriya Mukti Morcha filed a
petitionin the court on February 22, 1996, alleging that bribes were
paid tothe JMM Parliament members to bail out the Narasimha
Raogovernment from the no-confidence motion. One could
understandthe motive behind this petition, which was filed three
years after the no-trust motion and months before the general
elections.
By the way, whose creation was this Rashtriya Mukti
Morcha?In 1987, it was called Bharat Mukti Morcha and it changed
its nameto RMM after Ram Jethmalani joined the government in
1989.Obviously, it led to the suspicion that the RMM had the
blessingsof Ram Jethmalani and the pro-BJP forces.
Interestingly, Ravindra Kumar filed a petition in the Delhihigh
court in 1999 challenging then President of India K RNarayanan
inviting Sonia Gandhi, despite her being a foreigner, toform the
government at the Centre. It may be noted that RavindraKumar
207
had engaged prominent lawyers like P N Lekhi and spenthuge

money on them to argue this case. It is not a mere coincidence that
P N Lekhis daughter-in-law Meenakshi Lekhi is now a BJPMP. It
is also not a point to ignore that on February 6, 1997, withinfour
days after Ravindra Kumar filed a petition in the court,Shailendra
Mahato had alleged that Narasimha Rao had paid himmoney to
vote in favour of his government. By then, Mahato hadalready joined
the BJP.
In Delhi, there are always certain individuals like
RavindraKumar and NGOs who file petitions in the courts in tune
with themoves and countermoves of various political parties. Their
addresseswould be located in the garages of MPs bungalows and
the residencesof party workers in remote corners of Delhi lanes. In
1993, an NGOcalled Janahit Abhiyan filed a petition in the Supreme
Court seekingan immediate inquiry into the allegations made by
stock brokerHarshad Mehta that he had paid a bribe of Rs 1 crore
to NarasimhaRao. But chief justice M N Venkatachalaiah refused
to entertain the petition immediately stating that the entire country
was observinghow the functioning of judiciary was being politicised.
On May 24, 1996, two weeks after Narasimha Rao
steppeddown as the Prime Minister following the defeat of the
Congress inthe general elections, the Delhi high court, which was
hearing thepetition filed by Ravindra Kumar, directed the CBI to
file an FIR.Accordingly, the CBI registered the cases in a phased
manner onthe accused. It named as many as 22 persons as accused
in the case,with Narasimha Rao as accused no. 1 (A-1) and Satish
Sharma as A-2. It charged Narasimha Rao with paying crores of
rupees tofour JMM members of Parliament for voting against the
no-confidence motion.
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A. KRISHNA RAO
On October 30, 1996, the CBI filed the first charge-

sheetagainst Narasimha Rao, Buta Singh, Satish Sharma, JMM
leadersShibu Soren, Suraj Mandal, Marandi and Mahato. On
November8, 1996, Narasimha Rao obtained anticipatory bail from
Delhi highcourt. On December 20, 1996, the CBI filed a second
charge sheetin which it named Congress leaders V Rajeshwar Rao,
H M Revanna, Ramalinga Reddy, Veerappa Moily, D K
AudikesavuluNaidu and Thimme Gowda also accused. On January
22, 1997, itfiled a supplementary charge sheet naming some more
from JanataDal (Ajit Singh group), including Ajit Singh, Ram Lakhan
Yadav,Bhajan Lal, Ram Sharan Yadav, Abhay Pratap Singh, Haji
GhulamMohammad, Roshan Lal and Anadi Charan Das as accused.
On March 17, 1997, Mahato turned an approver in the
case.On May 6, 1997, the designated lower court ordered framing
ofcharges on all the accused. On October 30, 1997, Narasimha
Rao,Bhajan Lal and Veerappa Moily knocked the doors of
SupremeCourt with a special leave petition, arguing that under
Article 105of the Constitution of India, the courts could not order
a probe into
the voting conducted in Parliament. The Supreme Court
admittedtheir petitions, but refused to stay the hearing in the lower
court.
On November 18, 1997, the Supreme Court referred
thepetitions of Narasimha Rao and others to a constitution bench.
OnApril 17, 1998, the five-judge constitution Bench ruled by
3:2majority that the briber taker MPs were entitled to protection
andimmunity under Article 105(2) of the Constitution that deals
209
withparliamentary privileges. They cannot be punished under

Preventionof Corruption Act and Indian Penal Code. Their voting
on the floor of the House could not be questioned as it was part of
theParliamentary proceedings.
The bench, however, ruled that though the MPs who
tookmoney and voted in favour of the Rao government were
immuneto prosecution, those who gave bribes were liable for
prosecution.The controversial judgement has shocked many and is
stillbeing debated as many felt it was against Constitutional logic
andpolitical morality. The MPs might have the protection under
Article105 (2) with regard to their right to speak and vote in the
House,but how can it not be a crime to accept bribes? There are
otherswho argue that Schedule 10 of the Constitution that restricts
amember to vote on the bill of his or her choice against the
partysstand itself was undemocratic and that it was nothing but
curtailingthe rights of an individuals decision making. There is a
markedcontradiction between para 2 (1) (b) of Schedule 10 and
Article105. It was evident in many instances that para 2 (1)(b) of
theConstitution cannot prevent corruption in voting by the MPs.
This judgement certainly legitimised the efforts to preventthe
fall of the Narasimha Rao government, but it did not
exonerateNarasimha Rao from the allegations levelled against him
personally.He fought a legal battle for nearly four years. On
September 29,2000, the special CBI court pronounced a landmark
judgement ofcriminal conviction of Narasimha Rao and Buta Singh,
in the JMMMPs bribery. Special CBI Judge Justice Ajit Bharihoke
foundNarasimha Rao and Buta Singh guilty of conspiracy
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A. KRISHNA RAO
andabetment in the bribery case. Nine other accused,

includingBhajan Lal, Ajit Singh and Rajeshwar Rao were acquitted
in thecase on the benefit of the doubt.
There were sensational reports in the media those days that79-
year-old Narasimha Rao would be sent to jail. Officials eventold
the media that arrangements were made in barrack no. 1 inTihar
Jail. A newspaper even carried a representative picture
showingNarasimha Rao behind the bars. But in October, Narasimha
Raoand Buta Singh challenged the lower court judgement in Delhi
highcourt.
In March 2002, Delhi high court judge R S Sodhi dismissedthe
lower court judgement and acquitted Narasimha Rao and
ButaSingh. He made it clear that there was no evidence to prove
thatNarasimha Rao himself had given bribes to the JMM MPs. He
agreedwith the arguments of senior advocate R K Anand that the
entireinvestigation was based on the statement given by Shailendra
Mahato; that he had changed his statements several times and
thatthere could be political forces behind his statements.
In spite of several internal conspiracies hatched against
him,there was a strong legal team that strived hard to bail out
NarasimhaRao out of respect for him. Senior advocates Pavani
ParameshwarRao, Kapil Sibal and R K Anand argued in favour of
NarasimhaRao effectively in several cases. Other advocates like Wasi
AhmedNomani, Niti Dixit and G Seshagiri Rao extended the
supportingrole.
211
Nomani, a prominent lawyer from Uttar Pradesh, had a lotof

command over the Quran and various other philosophicalscriptures.
He had even served as the director of India Islamic Centreand he
used to draw Muslims to his meetings in a big way. On anoccasion,
Narasimha Rao said Nomani had shouldered the entireburden of
his case. Seshagiri Rao said it surprised that NarasimhaRao had
trusted a Muslim lawyer at a time when the Congress
leadersthemselves were accusing him of being responsible for the
demolition of Babri Masjid and the Muslim lawyer, too, being
equally sincerein arguing Narasimha Rao case.
When Gopal Subrahmanyam from Tamil Nadu brought
sevento eight suitcase-loads of documents to the court in the
LakhubhaiPathak case and gotsummons issued to Narasimha Rao,
Nomanistruggled a lot in getting the cases dismissed. Sources in the
lawdepartment said while Narasimha Rao had complete faith
injudiciary, internal forces within the party and thegovernment
hadacted against him and even Union Minister of State for Law H
RBharadwaj, too, did not cooperate with him.
The appointment of Justice A M Ahmadi as Chief Justice
ofIndia during the regime of Narasimha Rao in 1994 shows
hisimpartial attitude towards judiciary. Those days, the concept
ofcollegium comprising the preceding CJI and other senior judges
ofthe Supreme Court was not in force, but the foundation for
thesame was laid during the Narasimha Rao regime.
A nine-member Constitutional bench of the Supreme
Courtjudges led by Chief Justice of India J S Varma ruled in 1993
that thegovernment cannot take up the appointments and transfers
ofSupreme Court or high court judges without consulting the
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A. KRISHNA RAO
CJIand taking his approval. It suggested a specific procedure

calledCollegium System, for the appointment and transfer of
judges inthe higher judiciary. This was referred to as Second Judges
Case,which accorded primacy to the CJI in matters of appointment
andtransfers while also ruling that the term consultation would
notdiminish the primary role of the CJI in judicial appointments.
The bench said that the recommendation for the
appointmentsand transfer of judges should be made by the CJI in
consultationwith his two senior-most colleagues, and that such
recommendationshould normally be given effect to by the executive.
Even the issueof how many judges should be there in a high court
was the issueconcerning the judiciary and the executive had no role
to play.
The Narasimha Rao government accepted there
commendations of the Constitutional bench and acknowledgedthe
autonomy of the judiciary. But in 1998, the Vajpayeegovernment
differed with the judgement of the Supreme Court.The law ministry
criticised that CJI Justice M Punchhi wasappointing judges without
consulting anybody, but the CJI said thegovernment should not
interfere in the appointment of judges.
Subsequently, following the intervention of the President
ofIndia, the Constitutional bench of the Supreme Court took up
theissue of appointment of judges once again. The Attorney
Generalsuggested that the CJI should consult four senior judges,
instead ofonly two, in selecting the judges. The Supreme Court
benchaccepted the suggestion and started following the method
ofconsulting four judges in the appointments and transfers of judges.
213
Narasimha Rao was never critical of the Collegium systemthat

empowered the judiciary to take up appointment of judges.But a
retired Supreme Court judge Justice Sudershan Reddy
saidNarasimha Rao was doubtful whether the judiciary would
reallymake right use of the powers vested in it. He was
apprehensivethat the judges might not use the powers properly and
might handover the same to the political executive ultimately,
because onlythe political system has the capability to wield any
power, he said,quoting Narasimha Rao. Going by the subsequent
developments,one would know how much foresight he had in
expressing hisapprehensions.
Yet, it was Narasimha Rao who was instrumental in
thejudiciary functioning in the most proactive manner and at
times,interfering even in the functioning of the executive. In fact,
thejudiciary became assertive in safeguarding itsautonomy, which
ithad lost after India Gandhi played havoc with the judiciary
duringthe Emergency period. Legal luminaries like Justice Y
VChandrachud, Justice P N Bhagwati and Justice Krishna Iyer
wereresponsible for restoring the autonomy of the judiciary. During
theNarasimha Rao regime, the judiciary was all the more proactive.
There is no doubt that it was only after the 1990s that judges
startedinterfering whenever the governments failed. They felt that
theyhad enjoyed the peoples faith at a time when the political
systemwas rotten and executive machinery became corrupt. They
madeevery effort to restore the faith of the people on not only the
judiciarybut also the government.
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A. KRISHNA RAO
Apart from taking up internal reforms related to

judicialadministration like establishment of collegium, the
judiciarydisplayed its activism in many issues like the Jain hawala
case, policereforms, environment and human rights, besides dealing
with severalpublic interest litigation petitions. In the sensational T
NGodavarman Thirumulpad vs Union of India case in 1996, the
Supreme Court questioned indiscriminate felling of trees in
Nilgiriforests. The case finally expanded into an overhaul of Indian
forestpolicy. The Supreme Court assumed the responsibility
forimplementing the Forest Conservation Act and declared itself
thesole administrator of the law when it came to forest matters.
Itordered that all non-forest activity like sawmills and mining to be
suspended in forest areas and stopped felling of trees. It also askedstates
to identify, demarcate and notify forest areas.
The new economic policies that replaced socialist model
andpaved the way for a free-market economy led to a new
thinkingand new questions in judiciary as well. Justice
Venkatachalaiah,Justice Ahmadi and Justice J S Varma boldly
questioned theeconomic reforms initiated by the Narasimha Rao
government. Justice Kuldeep Singh delivered several landmark
judgements onissues like environment. The judges found fault with
ministers inthe Narasimha Rao cabinet like Satish Sharma and Sheila
Kaul inthe allotment of petrol bunks and government quarters. Even
themonitoring of CBI cases by the Supreme Court began only
duringthe regime of Narasimha Rao. Justice Varma directed that
the CBIshould be answerable to the Supreme Court and not to the
political leadership.
215
It was due to intervention of the Supreme Court thatthe

monitoring of the CBI functioning was entrusted to the
CentralVigilance Commission which got the statutory status.
TheEnforcement Directorate, too, started spreading its tentacles
onlywith the support of the Supreme Court. Though his
government had to face several troubles due to direct intervention
of the courts,Narasimha Rao maintained silence keeping in view
the largerinterests of the country. There were occasions when there
was aturmoil in Parliament, Narasimha Rao quietly passed the buck
onto the judiciary saying he was only following the directions of
thecourts.
After several years, former CJI Justice Venkatachalaiah
delivered the Narasimha Rao Memorial Lecture conducted by
LokNayak Foundation at Visakhapatnam in 2017. He lauded
NarasimhaRao as a statesman and an intellectual par excellence. He
admittedthat when he was the Chief Justice of India during the
NarasimhaRao regime, the relations between them were not very
cordial. Butin the later years, they had displayed mutual respect
towards eachother.
During the dinner hosted in the honour of
JusticeVenkatachalaiah soon after he was sworn in as the CJI,
NarasimhaRao came to him and told him that he expected cordial
relationsbetween them. Justice Venkatachalaiah immediately differed
withNarasimha Rao. No, I dont expect any cordial relations
between us, he said. Narasimha Rao replied immediately with a
broad smile:Okay, let us have not only cordial relations but also
mutual respect.
216

A. KRISHNA RAO
Recalling this incident, Justice Venkatachalaih said

NarasimhaRao would stand out among the few Prime Ministers of
India whohad brought laurels to the post they had held.Narasimha
Rao made a unique attempt to bring the Chief Ministers and Chief
Justices together to evolve a suitableenvironment. His idea was to
establish definitive principles whichwould restore administration of
justice to its pristine glory and cutdown all avoidable delays in the
administration of justice.
Inaugurating the Chief Ministers and Chief Justices meeting
in NewDelhi on December 4, 1993, Narasimha Rao said the index
of thejudicial system cannot be the number of cases disposed of but
thenumber of cases decided justly.
Inaugurating the International Centre for Alternative
DisputeResolution (ICADR) in New Delhi in 1995, Narasimha
Raoobserved that while reforms in the judicial sector should
beundertaken with necessary speed, it did not appear that courts
andtribunals would be in a position to hear the entire burden of
thejustice system. It is incumbent on the government to provide a
reasonable cost for as many modes of settlement of disputes as
arenecessary to cover the variety of disputes that arise. Litigants
shouldbe encouraged to resort to alternative dispute resolution so
that thecourt system proper would be left with a smaller number of
important disputes that demand judicial attention.
Had Narasimha Rao become the Prime Minister for a
secondterm, he could have taken some key measures in that direction
so asto ensure resolution of thousands of cases piled up in the courts.
217
Infact, the process of enacting a new legislation by reviving

theArbitration Act of 1940 with certain modifications began
duringthe Narasimha Rao regime. It was passed during the regime
of DeveGowda in August 1996.
Narasimha Rao never attached importance to how
thejudiciary would behave towards him. He always felt that the
judiciaryshould function independently. Reason: Narasimha Rao
himselfwas a lawyer. He enrolled himself as a member of the
SupremeCourt Bar Association. Former Election Commissioner G
V G Krishnamurthy told me he had permitted Narasimha Rao to
use hisaddress while enrolling his name in the bar association.
Addressing a convention conducted by Indian Law
Institute,New Delhi in 1994, Narasimha Rao said judiciary was the
mostcrucial element of the socio-economic changes and
developmentin the country. Even when there were allegations
against thejudiciary, Narasimha Rao thought of upholding the
prestige of thejudiciary. The classic example is the infamous episode
of impeachment of Supreme Court judge Justice V Ramaswamy.
Justice Ramaswamy was sworn in as the chief justice of Punjab
andHaryana high court on November 12, 1987. Nearly two years
later,he became the Supreme Court judge on October 6, 1989.
Therewere reports in the newspapers those days that Ramaswamy
hadmisused his power in a big way when he was the chief justice
ofPunjab and Haryana high court. There were allegations that he
hadunauthorizedly spent Rs 20 lakh on changing furniture in his
officialresidence, replaced bedsheets, curtains and even napkins and
218

A. KRISHNA RAO
carpetedthe entire house, besides wasting money on making

innumerable phone calls. These allegations sound silly compared to
the kind ofexpenditure members of the judiciary make these days.
Secondly,Ramaswamy spent the money on the furnishings
in an officialresidence, not his personal residence. Whoever comes
in his placeafter he relinquishes office, they would have to stay in
that house.There was a chance to recover from him any avoidable
expenditurehe might have made beyond the permissible limits. But
it was decidedthat he deserved more punishment. The Supreme
Court BarAssociation resolved that he should be removed
throughimpeachment. A cover story was published against
JusticeRamaswamy in the famous law magazine The Lawyer
headed byprominent lawyer India Jai Singh.
In July 1990, then Chief Justice of India Sabyasachi
Mukherjeemade a statement in the court that he had no powers to
conduct aninquiry on the conduct of a sitting judge of the Supreme
Court.He, however, said he had advised Justice Ramaswamy not
to attendthe court proceedings till the inquiry was completed.
Accordingly,Justice Ramaswamy went on leave from July 23.The
CJI constituted a committee comprising senior judgesJustice P C
Ray, Justice Jagannatha Shetty and JusticeVenkatachalaiah to probe
into the allegations against JusticeRamaswamy. And the committee
after due inquiry gave a cleanchit to the judge. But even before
Justice Ramaswamy was taken back into the service, Chief Justice
Sabyasachi Mukherjee died of asudden heart attack. Justice
Ranganathananda, who took over asthe CJI, made an attempt to
take Justice Ramaswamy back on theboard, but senior legal experts
219
like Nani Palkhiwala stalled hisattempts. What kind of message

does the Supreme Court give tothe common people, if judges give
clean chit to themselves? theyargued.
All this happened during the tenure of Ninth Lok Sabha,
whenthe National Front led by V P Singh was in power with the
supportof Bharatiya Janata Party and the Left parties. The allegations
againstJustice Ramaswamy created tremors in the government.
AfterChandrashekar became the Prime Minister in place of V P
Singh inNovember 1990, a signature campaign started seeking to
move animpeachment motion against Justice Ramaswamy. By the
timeChandrashekhar government collapsed in 1991, as many as 108
MPshad signed the resolution for impeachment of the judge
andsubmitted the same in Lok Sabha.
However, Narasimha Rao felt it was not right to take
actionagainst a judge based on some frivolous allegations of
corruption.He thought such action would bring down the image
of the judiciaryin the eyes of the people. In March 1991, Narasimha
Rao led adelegation to Lok Sabha Speaker Rabi Ray and requested
him notto allow the impeachment motion against Justice
Ramaswamy. Thedelegation also included former law minister P
Shiv Shankar.Buton the last day of his tenure in Lok Sabha, the
Speaker referred theissue to a committee comprising Supreme Court
judge Justice P BSawant, Bombay high court chief justice P D Desai
and formerSupreme Court judge O Chinnappa Reddy.
The impeachment saga continued even after Narasimha
Raobecame the Prime Minister in June 1991. A petition was filed
in theSupreme Court seeking continuation of impeachment of
220

A. KRISHNA RAO
JusticeRamaswamy. With the Constitutional bench ruling that

theimpeachment process should be taken up in Parliament,
NarasimhaRao had no other option. Meanwhile, Justice P B
Sawantcommittee, too, submitted its report, based on the official
documentsit had collected, which confirmed that Justice
Ramaswamy hadresorted to financial irregularities and had taken
the help of peoplesrepresentatives for his personal use. Hindustan
Times Editor H KDua wrote an article: Resign my Lord, Resign,
save Parliamentfrom impeaching you.
On May 10, 1993, there was a lengthy debate on the motionof
impeachment against Justice Ramaswamy. Kapil Sibal, who wasonly
a Supreme Court lawyer then, stood in the midst of Lok Sabhaand
put up a strong argument in favour of Justice Ramaswamy. Hespoke
eloquently for over two hours anddemolished all theallegations
against the judge. Sitting in the press gallery of the LokSabha, I had
an opportunity to witness that historic moment on that day. The
same Kapil Sibal entered the Lok Sabha as a Congress MPafter a gap
of 11 years.
Finally, the impeachment motion against Justice
Ramaswamywas lost in the Lok Sabha. Many MPs from South India
abstainedfrom voting and as many as 205 MPs voted against the
motion.Justice Ramaswamy regained his lost prestige. Narasimha
Rao, whoplayed behind the screen role in the entire episode, was
very happy.
Narasimha Rao said later that the way Justice
Ramaswamyacted in the terrorist cases in Punjab also helped the
country a lot.After his retirement, Justice Ramaswamy was made
221
the chairmanof Tamil Nadu state law commission by Chief Minister

Jayalalithaa.He later entered politics and unsuccessfully contested
on AIADMKticket from Sivakasi against MDMK leader Vaiko. His
son laterbecame an MLA of AIADMK.
Narasimha Rao might have restored the prestige of Justice
VRamaswamy and also that of judiciary, but he could not come
tothe rescue of another South Indian legal luminary G
Ramaswamy,who was Attorney General of India during the regime
ofChandrashekhar. This gentleman was known for his
wittycommentsin the court halls, sending all others into peals of
laughter even duringthe hearing in serious cases.
During the investigation by the Joint ParliamentaryCommittee
into the role of banks in the stock market scam involvingHarshad
Mehta in 1992, it was found that Ramaswamy had takenRs 15 lakh
from Standard and Chartered Bank in the form ofoverdraft without
any security. Since I had taken this loan from the bank more than
a year-and-a-half before the stock market scamsurfaced, I have
nothing to do with the scam, Ramaswamy toldthe JPC.
It would have been better had he stopped with that
statement,but he went on to make intemperate comments. I would
earndouble this amount as a lawyer, if I resign from this post, he
said.He also declared that he would immediately put in his papers,
ifPrime Minister P V Narasimha Rao did not like his style
offunctioning. Yet, Narasimha Rao did not utter a word against
him.
222

A. KRISHNA RAO
On October 2, 1992, Ramaswamy went to Chennai and

madean explosive statement openly. The allegations against me
are theresult of a large-scale conspiracy by North Indians against
the SouthIndians who are in high positions, he said.
This led to loud protests from the Opposition
parties.Newspapers like Hindustan Times wrote editorials criticising
hisstatement. Even the Prime Ministers Office took this
statementseriously. It was not known what Narasimha Rao had
conveyed tohim, but Ramaswamy resigned from the post of
Attorney General.
I have resigned from the post only to avoid unnecessary
troublesfor the Prime Minister, Ramaswamy clarified. This episode
showseven a Prime Minister sometimes cannot save people
likeRamaswamy who have no control over their tongue.
Another major scandal that surfaced during the regime
ofNarasimha Rao was the telecom scam. There were allegations
thatTelecommunications Minister Sukh Ram allegedly resorted
toirregularities in awarding a telecom contract. The scam came
tolight in the last year of Narasimha Rao regime and the CBI
recovereda huge cash of Rs 3.5 crore from Sukh Rams residence.
When BJPleader Vajpayee raised the issue in Lok Sabha and
created a ruckus,Narasimha Rao suspended Sukh Ram from the
Congress. Later,Sukh Ramfloated a new regional party in the name
of HimachalVikas Congress (HVC). Ironically, the BJP entered into
an alliancewith Sukh Ram in 1998 Lok Sabha elections in Himachal
Pradeshand won majority seats; and the man who played an
223
instrumentalrole in forging the alliance was Narendra Modi, who

was then in-charge of the BJP in the state. In the 1999 Lok Sabha
elections, too,the BJP continued the alliance with HVC and won
all the Lok Sabhaseats. It was surprising that the BJP which created
a turmoil in theLok Sabha describing Sukh Ram as a corrupt leader,
did not findhim untouchable in Himachal Pradesh.
During his regime, Narasimha Rao got his Minister of Statefor
Food Kalpanath Rai arrested for importing sugar at a higher ratethan
prevailing market rate and causing a loss of Rs 650 crore to
theexchequer. When there was a criticism in Parliament that even
thecivil supplies department had an indirect connection with this
sugarimport scam, senior leader A K Antony who was holding this
portfolioalso quit his post, but Narasimha Rao did not accept it.
Information advisor to Prime Minister P V R K Prasad wrotein
his book quoting Narasimha Rao: Whether it was my
closeassociates, or relatives or even family members, they would
have toface the punishment if they commit any crime and there is
noquestion of interfering in the case.
Soon after coming to power, Narasimha Rao called his
familymembers and told them categorically that if they had any small
works,they could ask him directly but should not do any lobbying
takingadvantage of his position. An official told me that he had
metNarasimha Raos son Prabhakar Rao one day along with
abusinessman B Hanumantha Rao seeking a favour, but Prabhakar
Rao made it clear that his father warned him against taking up
anysuch lobbying.
224

A. KRISHNA RAO
During the Narasimha Rao regime in 1994, there was

yetanother scam related to espionage, related to selling of some
classifiedinformation on Indias cryogenic engine programme from
thedefence establishments in Bangalore to Russia and Pakistan.
TheKerala government entrusted the case to the CBI. There
wereallegations against two scientists of Indian Space
ResearchOrganisation (ISRO), two women from Maldives and two
traders.The Kerala police described it as one of the biggest espionage
cases,apparently to create embarrassment to the Narasimha
Raogovernment.
In fact, even CBI director Vijaya Rama Rao also suspected
itto be a major scandal. But the CBI gathered the evidence
inDecember 1994, it found that there was nothing in the case and
theentire thing was an internal conspiracy aimed at framing
certainpeople besides spoiling the relations between India and
othercountries. In May 1996, the CBI finally filed a report before
the chief judicial magistrate saying that the espionage case was false
andthat there was no evidence to back the charges. The court
acceptedthe report and discharged all the accused. The scientists
were paidhuge compensation for damaging their reputation.
Vijaya Rama Rao dealt with the entire case in a
strategicmanner. I used to go to the CBI office in Delhi regularly to
meethim and he would explain theconspiracies in detail.
The general impression everybody had was
thatChandraswamy had close relations with Narasimha Rao and
hencewieldeda lot of clout during the latters regime. But the fact
225
wasChandraswamy was very popular in Delhi much before

NarasimhaRao became the Prime Minister. It was Indira Gandhi
who hadallotted prime land to Chandraswamy at Qutub Institutional
Area in Delhi. During the Narasimha Rao regime, he built an
ashramthere. Earlier, Bharatiya Janata Party MP Pahilwan Dara Singh
giftedhim a house in Safdarjung Development Area. Former
PrimeMinister A B Vajpayee, Rajmata Vijaya Raj Scindia, Ram
NathGoenka, Hema Malini, Arun Jaitley and Rajat Sharma used to
visitthis house to meet Chandraswamy. Even former Prime
MinisterChandra Shekhar was also his disciple and had stalled the
attempts of V P Singh to take action against him. BJP leader
SubramanianSwamy, too, had close relations with Chandraswamy.
Such was the clout of Chandraswamy that he had
mesmerizedeven former Britain Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
and BruneiSultan. In 1975, Chandraswamy met Margaret Thatcher,
aConservative Party leader, and predicted that she would becomethe
Prime Minister very soon. This was mentioned by Natwar
Singh,who was then deputy high commissioner in London, in his
bookWalking with Lions Tales from a diplomatic past. He
saidThatcher had even sported a talisman given by Chandraswamy
andworn the dresses suggested by him. He recalled that he had gone
toa place at Panchsheel Park in 1976, where Chandraswamy
wasperforming a Yagam and Narasimha Rao was also present there.
Bythen, Narasimha Rao had lost his Chief Minister post in
AndhraPradesh and returned to Delhi as a Lok Sabha member.
226

A. KRISHNA RAO
In his autobiography One Life Is Not Enough, NatwarSingh

said when he was in New York in October 1985, he made adesperate
attempt to meet Bahamas Prime Minister Lynden Pindling.His
embassy officials tried for three days, but could not get
Pindlingsappointment. But the meeting was made possible after
theintervention of Chandraswamy, Natwar Singh wrote.It was
highly useful for politicians and even journalists tomaintain relations
with spiritual gurus like Chandraswamy in thenational capital.
Narasimha Rao, too, followed this path andestablished relations with
Chandraswamy and astrologers like N K Sarma.
When the Ayodhya crisis was haunting him, Narasimha
Raoutilized the services of Chandraswamy to turn the Sadhus to
hisfavour. So, there was no surprise that such powerful Swamijis
haddirect access into the residences of the Prime Minister and
otherVVIPs. Chandraswamy used to drive straight away into
NarasimhaRao in his Mercedes Benz car. Narasimha Rao, too, gave
a lot ofimportance to Chandraswamy as he was aware of the
Swamysproximity with not only Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi,
but alsoforeign leaders. In fact, Chandraswamy would not have tried
to fixV P Singhs son in St Kitts case, if not for the directions from
RajivGandhi?
Ironically, Surendra Jain and Lakhubhai Pathak had used
thename of Chandraswamy to implicate Narasimha Rao in
theirrespective scams.Apparently, they felt that everybody would
believeit if they said they had met Narasimha Rao along
withChandraswamy. Prime Ministers information advisor P V R
KPrasad wrote in his book that Narasimha Rao did not stop
227
Chandraswamy from using the Prime Ministers name for hispersonal

benefits. And former Union home secretaryPadmanabhaiah, too,
endorsed this observation.
Prasad wrote thatwhen Narasimha Rao had gone to the US,
Chandraswamy hadplayed a major role in holding a meeting of top
industrialists withhim in Houston, besides arranging a dinner
conclave with HillaryClinton in White House. He said
Chandraswamy had enjoyed somuch close relations with top officials
of the US that he could takeup the task which was not possible even
for the Indian Embassy inthe US.
Yet, Narasimha Rao did not go out of the way to
encourageChandraswamy but at the same time did not prevent him
fromcoming to him frequently. He did not entertain the works
referredto him by Chandraswamy. We have come to power to do
somegood thing for the country, but not to benefit ourselves, wrote
PV R K Prasad, quoting the Prime Minister, in his book. Narasimha
Rao used Chandraswamy only to the extent of what was needed
for the government.
In July 1995, then internal security minister Rajesh
Pilotordered that investigating agency probe into the complaint of
aBangkok-based businessman Somchai Chaisri Chawla
thatChandraswamy had duped him of Rs one crore. Somchai said
in hiscomplaint that Narasimha Rao had indulged in various shady
dealsthrough Chandraswamy. He also alleged that a Telugu
computeroperator by name Reddy would hand over letterheads of
Narasimha Rao to Chandraswamy and the latter would forge the
signatures ofNarasimha Rao to do lobbying for various works.
228

A. KRISHNA RAO
Rajesh Pilot quickly reacted to the letter from Somchai

andasked Home Secretary Padmanabhaiah to take steps for the arrest
ofChandraswamy as per the law. But Padmanabhaiah told Pilot that
itwas not possible to arrest the godman based on a letter and
moreproof was required for the arrest. He said he would get the
complaintinquired into.
Later, Padmanabhaih met Narasimha Rao and explained the
wholescenario. He suggested that there was a need to rein
inChandraswamy and even going by the security reasons, it was
notcorrect to allow his car directly entering the Prime
Ministersresidence. Padmanabhaiah spoke to then Special
Protection Groupchief Saranyan in this regard. He also passed on
the informationabout the computer operator Reddy. But Narasimha
Rao expressedhis helplessness. I cannot talk to Chandraswamy
directly, MrPadmanabhaiah. It is better you tell him to stop coming
to the PMOfrequently, he said.
With regard to the computer operator, Narasimha Rao saidhe
had no doubts over him, as he was a gentleman and had comefrom
his constituency. Later, Padmanabhaiah went straight away
toChandraswamy ashram at Qutub Institutional Area and was
waitingto meet the godman. Suddenly, Reddy, the computer
operator inNarasimha Raos residence came out and greeted
Padmanabhaiah.
Who are you, gentleman? he asked and Reddy told him
that hewas working as a computer in the Prime Ministers
residence.Padmanabhaih realized that whatever was stated in the
complaintreceived by Rajesh Pilot was true.
229
Chandraswamy agreed to Padmanabhaiahs suggestion that

itwas not advisable for him to enter the Prime Ministers
residencestraightway due to security reasons. Later, Padmanabhaiah
conveyedto Narasimha Rao that he had met Reddy in
Chandraswamysashram; and within no time, Reddy was sacked.
A senior official said the letter from Somchai could be
afabrication by Rajesh Pilot himself by adding whatever
informationhe had about Chandraswamy and his links in the PMO
only toembarrass Narasimha Rao after coming to know that he
would beshifted from the cabinet because of his frequent skirmishes
withCabinet minister S B Chavan. But Narasimha Rao did not stall
theinquiry ordered against Chandraswamy. But a couple of days
later,Rajesh Pilot was shunted out of the Home Ministry and shifted
tothe Ministry of Environment and Forests.
Even after the change of his portfolio, Rajesh Pilot did notstop
targeting Chandraswamy. He ordered an inquiry into theviolation
of forest rules by Chandraswamy in conducting a Yagnain the forest
area of Southern Delhi. There were also severalallegations against
the godman like violation of Foreign ExchangeRegulation Act
(FERA) and Income Tax Act. But the investigatingagencies like
the CBI could not do anything against him. He continued to enjoy
Y category security at the cost of state exchequer.
Narasimha Raos brother P V Manohar Rao told me that
theformer was not very much interested in performing pujas, but
wasspiritual-oriented. There were no instances of my brother
prayingto the god even when he was going out, he said.
230

A. KRISHNA RAO
But at the same time, Narasimha Rao did not denounce

pujasand rituals. Though he enjoyed close relations with
Chandraswamy,he never performed any special prayers or conducted
Yagnas. WhenP V R K Prasad suggested to him to conduct special
prayers towriggle out the crisis and safeguard hisposition, Narasimha
Raohad laughed it off. What special prayers did I do to get this
PrimeMinister post? If I am destined to step down from the post,
can I stop it even if I perform yagnas and rituals? Prasad quoted
him assaying in his book Asalem Jarigindante (What actually
happened).
Narasimha Rao reminded Prasad that Indira Gandhi had
lostthe elections even after performing several prayers, homams
andYagams. He said in fact, such blind beliefs in such pujas and
prayerswere found more in North India than in South; and that he
had notevinced any interest when three or four ministers came to
him andoffered to perform pujas. He told Prasad that in Delhi
politics, therewere many leaders who patronize the families of several
pundits;and that was precisely why many leaders of various parties
wouldrun around Chandraswamy.
If Narasimha Rao had so much faith in these pujas and
rituals,he would have definitely opted for them in the last days of
his stintto safeguard his post. By then, Chandraswamy was still alive.
` ` `
231
DARING DECISION
WITH AND OUTSIDE
N arasimha Rao, who achieved trem endous success in

theimplementation of economic policies and
foreignrelations, which his predecessors failed to do, made significant
effortsto resolve several internal crises created during the previous
regimes.
By the time he took over as the Prime Minister, India did not
havecordial relations with many countries, including the USA and
China.Though Narasimha Rao had served as the External Affairs
Ministerin the cabinets of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi for a
few years,he did not have much to experiment with, as their
individualdecisions dictated the countrys foreign policy. There were
clearinstances of India failing to react to the fast changing economic
and political scenarios across the world.
Soon after assuming the charge as the Prime Minister,
Narasimha Rao began taking steps in tune with the
changinginternational political and economic atmosphere.
Especially, he madeefforts to turn the attention of the entire world
towards India bytaking up sweeping economic reforms, which
helped improve Indiasrelations with the other countries and change
their attitude towardsthe country. Against the backdrop of ending
the cold war, he feltthere was a need to strengthen the relations
232

A. KRISHNA RAO
with the USA. At thesame time, he extended a friendly hand towards

China. He adoptedthe Look East policy to establish strong
relations with ASEANcountries. He began efforts in the direction
of building India into apowerful force by strengthening its atomic
and missile programmes.
He initiated measures to launch SAPTA (SAARC
PreferentialTrading Agreement) to encourage mutual trade among
the SouthAsian countries. He signed the historic Mahakali agreement
withNepal for an integrated development of barrage, dams
andhydropower for mutual cooperation of the two countries
bymanaging the water resources.
With Narasimha Rao government implementing
economicreforms in a big way taking up overhauling of industrial
policies andtaking up liberalisation in all major sectors, India attracted
theattention of the entire world. Before Narasimha Rao went to
theUSA in May 1994, there were secret discussions in London
betweenthe two countries over the Nuclear Non-proliferation
Treaty (NPT)as part of restoring the Indo-US relations. When the
matter of secret talks between the two countries was leaked, the
Opposition partiespulled up the government. A retired diplomat
Natarajan Krishnan,who led the Indian delegation in talks, initially
denied holding anydiscussions with the US on NPT, but was later
compelled to acceptit later. But the opposition parties did not succeed
in cornering thegovernment because there was enough majority in
Lok Sabha andSpeaker Shivraj Patil, who used all his experience to
wither the storm raised by BJP member Jaswant Singh.
233
In Rajya Sabha,however, the opposition created a big ruckus.

Political stalwarts inthe opposition like Janata Dal leaders S Jaipal
Reddy and I K Gujraland BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi stalled
the proceedings in theUpperHouse. They were not convinced with
the statement of External Affairs Minister R L Bhatia that the talks
that went on in London were not secret but were only an extension
of the ongoingdiscussions between the two countries. It was a virtual
showdownin Rajya Sabha and the Congress with lesser strength
had a toughtime to overcome the crisis.
In 1994, Robin Rafael, head of the South Asian wing in theUS
government came to India, followed by US Deputy Secretary of
State for External Affairs Strobe Talbott. Robin Rafael was an
expertin French, Persian and Urdu languages and was an analyst of
SouthAsian affairs in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). During
hertour to India, she held secret confabulations with Jammu and
KashmirLiberation Front commander-in-chief Javed Mir at
Hazratbal, ahideout of Kashmiri militants. It was believed that she
was responsiblefor the formation of Hurriyat Conference, which
had given a politicalstructure to the Kashmiri militancy.
Rafaels visit helped clear themisunderstandings between India
and the US, the visit of StrobeTalbot created a congenial atmosphere
for talks between the twocountries. Talbott met Narasimha Rao at
the latters Race CourseRoad residence and extended an invitation
to Narasimha Rao onbehalf of the US President Bill Clinton for
touring his country.
234

A. KRISHNA RAO
Against this backdrop, the discussions between the

twocountries held in London laid the foundation for a formula to
holdnegotiations when Narasimha Rao toured the US on May
19.According to this formula, both the countries displayed a give-
and-take approach on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
Itwas only after Narasimha Rao became the Prime Minister did
India and the US began joint naval exercises for the first time in
1991.
The visit of Rafael and Talbott resulted in thawing of
relationsbetween India and the US. It was evident that the US was
trying tobring pressure on India to stall at least its missile programme.
External Affairs Minister Bhatia made it clear in the Parliament itself
statingthat the US had proposed to India not to include its Prithvi
missilesin the Indian armoury. He said it was, however, agreed upon
duringthe visit of Talbot that there should be no compromise on
thecountrys security and there should be thorough discussion.
Thiswould mean the discussions in London on April 27 and
28 heldafter Talbotts visit to India were held only to continue
furtherdiscussions on the issue. It was the time when the US just
startedmaking serious comments condemning the terrorist activities
beingperpetrated by Pakistan. And India felt if it could improve
therelations with the US, it would not only help the country
whichwas implementing its first stage of liberalised economic
policies, butalso help isolate Pakistan. In fact, the US had already
been in favourof supplying F-16 fighter aircraft to Pakistan.
235
Whatever it might be, Narasimha Raos six-day tour of theUS

turned out to be a major success, without any hype and publicity.The
US media gave a lot of prominence to his tour, stating that ithad
brought about considerable changes in the relations betweenthe two
countries and resolved mutual interests. They were all praisefor
Clinton and Narasimha Rao for showing how issues could be
resolved in contemporary history. They said Narasimha Rao
hadbehaved like an efficient salesman and displayed experience,
maturityand talent in every step.
Following suggestions from Talbott, India deferred its testing
ofPrithvi missile and unveiling of its new telecom policy days
beforeNarasimha Raos US tour to make way for negotiations with
theUS multinational telecom giants like AT&T, US West
andMotorola.
Before touching down in Washington, Narasimha Rao helda
series of back-to-back meetings with heads of prominentcompanies
belonging to Fortune 500 in New York, Houston andBoston. He
made it clear to them that the economic reforms initiatedby his
government in India were irreversible. The delegation ofIndian
industrialists like R P Goenka, Singhania, Jamshed Irani, CK Birla
and Manu Chhabria, which accompanied the Prime Ministerto the
US, also held parallel dialogues with the US industrial giants.
It was a perfect plan of action by Narasimha Rao to showcase
Indias huge potential for investment from the US.Efficiency is
the key concept that informs our attitude towardsbusiness and
industry today. We are pursuing further reforms in thefinancial
sector. It is against this background that I have come hereto invite
236

A. KRISHNA RAO
you, in person, to invest in India and be honoured partners in Indias

development, Narasimha Rao said in his speech at theluncheon
hosted by Greater Houston Partnership, Houston on May16, 1994.
There were quite a few leaders of American Industrypresent
in the meeting including American Chemical and OilCompany,
Enron, Texas Instruments, Epic Kellogg, JCPenney, DellComputers
and Pennzoil.Forbes, the most influential business magazine of the
US, inits May 23 issue, did a special feature on Indias vast
economicpotential as its cover story.Similar views were expressed
by anotherpopular journal The International Economy.
Narasimha Raos historic speech in the US Congress beforehe
met Clinton in Washington was a big hit, reflecting his
oratoricalskills. We are in the closing years of a century ravaged by
war.Now, there is a need for us to turn swords into ploughshares,
hesaid.
During his speech, he also sent an indirect message to
theAmericans by making a subtle but clear reference to the
Kashmirissue. He reminded that in 1845, Texas had joined the
Union andthe US Supreme Court termed the accession as complete
and final,and the same formula would apply to Kashmirs accession
to Indiaas well. He asserted that democracy and development were
the onlyissues to be bothered by the world in future. He explained
howauthor Henry David Thoreau and civil rights activist Martin
LutherKing were influenced by Mahatma Gandhi.
Referring to Dr Manmohan Singh who was part of his
delegationto the US, Narasimha Rao said in a lighter vein: When
he getsinto political trouble, I bail him out, and when I get into
economictrouble, he bails me out.
237
Narasimha Rao delivered a brilliant lecture at

HarvardUniversity, Boston, USA on May 17, 1994, where he
explainedthe Indian thought process. India has never looked at
progress as asingle, unidirectional straight and narrow path. It has
always beencyclical in its outlook. For every assertion, there is a
negation, forevery postulate, there is a counter-postulate. There
can never beonly one. If there is zero (shunya), there is also infinity
(poorna). Inbetween, if there is one, there must be another.
Therefore, onesociety cannot completely be replicated in another;
each has tofashion its own way for itself, Narasimha Rao said.
Clinton appeared to have been charmed by Narasimha
Raoseloquence and diplomatic abilities. After the completion of
talks,Clinton came out of the White House with his arms
aroundNarasimha Raos shoulders. A journalist asked Narasimha
Raowhether his arm was twisted. Narasimha Rao shrugged his
shouldersand said: See, my arm is intact, evoking laughter in the
media. When I recalled this incident at a later date, Narasimha Rao
feltvery happy and remembered those days.
India tested Prithvi-1 missile in February 1993. Exactly a year
later,it also conducted tests on the Agni missile. While the Prithvi
missilegave us the capacity to attack Islamabad, the Agni missile had
therange to target even China. In 1994, India also acquired fully
testedMirage fighter aircraft, which empowered India to carry out
nuclearweapons through aircraft and missiles.
During the meeting with Clinton, Narasimha Rao
defendedIndias missile programme by pointing out the threat
perception tothe country from China. When India conducted its
238

A. KRISHNA RAO
first nuclear testat Pokhran in 1974, it declared that it was only meant
for peacefulpurposes. Similarly, it claimed the testing of Agni and
Prithvi missilesonly as a symbol of our technical expertise.Later,
Narasimha Rao prepared the ground for the conductof the second
nuclear test in December 1995, but when the USAgot a hint of it,
he conveniently deferred the tests and handed overthe responsibility
to Vajpayee.
In an article, former director ofInstitute of Defence Studies
and Kargil Committee chairman KSubrahmanyam revealed that
Narasimha Rao had told him abouthis plans to conduct the nuclear
tests if he became the PrimeMinisterfor a second term. But since
Narasimha Rao could not return topower again, he had briefed his
entire plant to Vajpayee.Subrahmanyam said Narasimha Rao had
told him how he hadprepared the blueprint not only to conduct the
nuclear tests but alsoto acquire the capability to use the nuclear
weapons. He, however,admitted that he had removed the annexure
on the issue only todeny the credit to the Congress on the countrys
nuclearprogramme.
It clearly shows how Narasimha Rao played a major role
insecuring the power for India to acquire a nuclear weapon and
thecapacity to use long-range missiles. The way he got the nation
readyfor nuclear tests and dodged on signing the Comprehensive
TestBan Treaty (CTBT) by engaging the USA in talks till the last
minuteshows his diplomatic acumen.
Speaking at a function held at Andhra Pradesh Bhavan
inSeptember 1995, Narasimha Rao referred to Bhagavad Gita,
whilestressing on the importance of the atomic bomb. Divi
239
SuryaShasraasya Bhavedyuga Paduddhithaa., he said, quoting from

thesloka from Bhagavad Gita which meant an atom containing
theenergy of tens of thousands of suns.
An atomic bomb is not aweapon. A weapon is the one which
defeats the enemy. But theatomic bomb does not fetch victory but
leads to destruction. That iswhy leaders across the world are
concerned about the atomic bombs. It is not important which
country has how many atomic bombs. Ifone atomic bomb is used,
nothing will be left for using it again.Therefore, nuclear disarmament
is the need of the hour, he said.
Paying tributes to Narasimha Rao after his death, former
PrimeMinister Vajpayee disclosed that the entire credit for the
nucleartests conducted in the name of Shakthi on May 11, 1998
would goto Narasimha Rao. The true father of Indias nuclear
programmewas Narasimha Rao. He made everything ready for the
explosionof the nuclear bomb and told me: Samagri tayyar
hai(material is ready). You can go ahead, Vajpayee said.
Even former Prime Minister A P J Abdul Kalam also confirmed
what Vajpayee said. In May 1996, before leaving for Tirupati,
Narasimha Raocalled Abdul Kalam. You and your nuclear energy
team of theDefence Research and Development Organisation
(DRDO) willbe ready for nuclear tests. But wait, till I give the nod,
Kalam quotedNarasimha Rao as saying, while delivering the 7th K
N Raomemorial lecture organised by Research and Analysis Wing
on June25, 2013.Kalam was then the scientific advisor to the Ministry
of Defence during the Narasimha Rao regime. Two days after he
spoke to Kalam, the results of the general elections were declared
and the Congress lost power.
240

A. KRISHNA RAO
In the World Development Report released a few days

afterIndia conducted the missile tests, the World Bank lavished
praiseon India for implementing the economic reforms in tune with
theglobal economic formulae and said they were going in the
rightdirection. It subtly suggested that the privatisation process
shouldbe expedited. By the end of 1995, Indias trade with the USA
reached7.5 billion dollars and Indias exchequer was filled with huge
foreign exchange reserves.
With Narasimha Rao establishing friendly relations with
theUS and several other countries and conducting missile tests,
henaturally got international recognition as one of the strongest
PrimeMinisters of the country. This was not digested by the
oppositionparties. While Financial Times of Britain declared
Narasimha Raoas the Man of the Year along with Chinese premier
DengXiaoping, another journal Christian Science Monitor of the
USAlauded him for rewriting the policies of Nehru.Germany, too,
was all praise for Narasimha Raos foreignpolicy and economic
reforms.
In September 1991, Narasimha Raovisited Germany to
inaugurate the Festival of India on his firstoverseas tour in his new
capacity. German chancellor Helmut Kohlsaid Narasimha Rao
might not have the charm of Rajiv Gandhi. But India now needs
essence rather than appearance, he said.
Kohlsaw in Narasimha Rao a man who could deliver. The
result was a series of actionsand decisions that gave a real surge to
bilateral relations. Narasimha Rao and Helmut Kohl had penchant
for letting issues resolvethemselves, said Kishan S Rana, former
Ambassador to Germanyin his book 21st Century Diplomacy, A
Practitioners guide.
241
After voting against the formation of Israel in the

UnitedNations Organisation in 1947, India never had full-
fledgeddiplomatic relations with that country. Israel had a small
embassy inMumbai, but India didnt even have any existence in
Israel. ButNarasimha Rao changed the situation. Before establishing
diplomaticrelations with Israel, he invited Palestine leader Yasser
Arafat to Indiain January, 1992. Arafat was overwhelmed by the
huge receptionhe had received in India. While returning, he
surprised everybodyby asking: What is wrong in India establishing
relations with Israel?This paved away for the thawing of relations
that were missingbetween India and Israel for 43 years.
The Look East policy adopted by Narasimha Rao
alsoyielded wonderful results, as he restored the relations with
SouthAsian countries like Singapore and Japan.
In 1990, East Germany and West Germany got united.
In1991, the United Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR)
disintegratedinto several republics which declared independence.
Though Russiastill remained a big country, it had lost the power it
had till then.The USA emerged as the only major force in the world.
Aroundthe same time, several countries across the world started
witnessingeconomic reforms. These countries began removing their
trade barriers. Many countries which had mutual commercial
interestsstarted forming into different groups. It was inevitable for
India tobecome part of some of such groups. Since sea trade picked
up in abig way, India established trade relations with countries like
Australiaand South Africa in the Indian Ocean.
242

A. KRISHNA RAO
Even with China, Narasimha Rao wanted to establish

cordialrelations. While Chinese premier Li Peng came to India in
1991,Narasimha Rao went to China in 1993. They came to
anunderstanding on the border dispute. For the first time during
theNarasimha Rao regime, India and China signed an agreement
torestore peace on the borders. This agreement led to the
establishmentof peace on the borders in the coming years. At the
same time,there was an exchange of economic, technological and
culturalrelations between the two countries. Even the Kendra
SahityaAkademi invited writers from China and involved them in
literarydiscussions. Similarly, Indian writers and artists, too, went
to China.
The same policy was continued by subsequent Prime
Ministersincluding Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh. After
Narasimha Raostour to China, two land routes were opened for
exchange of trade.In the later years, China gave the same reception
to Manmohan Singh, who was the Finance Minister during the
Narasimha Rao regime. In 2013, I was part of the media
delegationthat accompanied Manmohan Singh to China. Both the
countriessigned several agreements. The Communist Party of China
invitedManmohan Singh to the Central School and felicitated him.
It wasa rarity that any foreign leader was invited to address the
membersof the Communist Party of China in this school, where
they learnthe Communist philosophy. All the Chinese premiers had
trainedin this school.
243
India established a new relationship with Russia, too,

duringthe Narasimha Rao regime. In 1993, Russian President Boris
Yeltsincame to India in 1993 and the following year, Narasimha
Rao wenton a four-day tour in Russia. At the end of his tour, Yeltsin
told thereporters that a smooth machinery had been worked out
betweenhim and Narasimha Rao. Both the countries had signed
agreementsin mutually strategic fields like defence, commerce and
technology.As part of the agreement, Hindustan Aeronautics
Limited got the benefit of transfer of defence technology and
equipment from Russia.
Narasimha Rao also established relations with countries
likeKazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan,
theerstwhile Russian republics.
The way Narasimha Rao used Bharatiya Janata Party, the
mainopposition party, in pre-empting Pakistan from raising Kashmir
issueon international forums, reflects his shrewd strategy. He sent
amessage to the neighbouring country that when it comes
tointernational forums, the ruling party and the opposition would
getunited. He also wanted to prove a point that he would take
theopposition parties into confidence on crucial issues.
Before sending Atal Bihari Vajpayee to the USA in 1994
tocounter Pakistans attempts to raise Kashmir issue in the
UnitedNations Organisation, Narasimha Rao sent BJPs floor leader
inLok Sabha L K Advani and Congress leader Mani Shankar Iyer
tothe convention held by European Parliament in Austria in 1991.He
took this decision on specific information that Pakistan wassending
adelegation to this convention to raise the Kashmir issue.
244

A. KRISHNA RAO
As expected, a 10-member delegation of Pakistan led by its

nationalassembly speaker, raised the Kashmir issue, albeit indirectly.
Thedelegation sought to project that India was ruthlessly crushing
theaspirations of the Kashmiris for a self-rule in their own land.
Advani did not hesitate to counter this campaign in the
mosteffective manner. We wont tolerate the very thought of
everylanguage and every religion seeking self-determination. If it
happens,all our efforts which we had made since 1947 would become
futileand it would lead to the division. I would like to pose one
questionto my friends in Pakistan, before they talk about the issue
of self-determination of Kashmiris. What would they say if people
of Sindhprovince also seek self-determination? Setting aside the
consequencesof such a decision, do they see any opportunity for
Pakistan, whichwas broken into two pieces following liberation of
Bangladesh, tobecome united again?
Soon after Advanis return from the European
Parliamentconvention, Narasimha Rao complimented Advani. It
is a differentmatter that the friendship between the two did not last
long.
Narasimha Rao sent diplomat L M Singhvi to the UN
conventionon human rights held at Vienna in 1993. He also
includedPadmanabhaiah, the then home secretary in the Union
government,as one of the members of the delegation led by Singhvi.
Both ofthem stalled Pakistan from raising the Kashmir issue in
theconvention. Later, Narasimha Rao appointed Singhvi as the
highcommissioner of St James Royal Court in Britain.
245
In 1994, Narasimha Rao sent BJP leader Atal Behari

Vajpayeeas the representative of an Indian delegation to take part in
theconvention of the United Nations Commission for Human
Rightsheld in Geneva. National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah
andUnion minister of State for External Affairs Salman
Khurshidrepresented the modern Indian Muslim community from
India.Finance Minister Manmohan Singh was also sent as a special
guest.
Before the commencement of this convention, NarasimhaRao
took several key decisions. The arrest of Jammu and
KashmirLiberation Front chief Javed Mir was a big moral blow to
theKashmiri militants. Narasimha Rao entrusted Hamid Ansari,
whowas then Indias permanent representative in the UNO in
NewYork (he later became the Vice President of India), with
certainkey responsibilities related to Geneva convention. Ansari,
who couldspeak eloquently in Persian and Urdu languages, earlier
served asIndian ambassador in Iran and Afghanistan. Similarly,
Prakash Jha,who was Indian ambassador in Tokyo, was also called
to the Genevaconference, as he had earlier been the ambassador in
Geneva.
In this human rights convention, India and Pakistan vied
witheach other to rope in NGOs in support of their respective stand
onKashmir. Organisations like All India Womens Forum and
Instituteof Non-Afghan Studies were also brought in at the
convention.On March 7, Khurshid held discussions with
representatives of theEuropean Union.
246

A. KRISHNA RAO
Pakistan received a rude jolt at the Geneva convention,

withIndonesia and Libya refusing to support its stand on Kashmir.
Iran,too, backtracked on extending support to Pakistan.
Iranianrepresentative Sirous Naseri asked Pakistan to withdraw its
resolutionon Kashmir and requested the chairman to defer voting
on thesubject. Finally, on the evening of March 9, leader
ofPakistandelegation Iqbal Akhund announced that he was
withdrawing the resolution on Kashmir. Iranian representative made
it clear to himthat he wanted Pakistan not to make any such moves
on this issueeven in future.Batsman refused to play, announced
Hamid Ansari.
Interestingly, even China made a similar request with
Pakistan.Thanks to Narasimha Rao, the situation turned in favour
of India,after it voted in support of Beijing on the resolution in
human rightsin November in the previous year and Indian External
Affairs MinisterDinesh Singh held talks with the foreign ministers
of Iran and China.Narasimha Raos friendly relations with Iran
Foreign Minister AliAkbar Velayati also helped Indias cause. During
his tour to Iran,Narasimha Rao brought to the notice of Iran
supremo AyatollahKhomeini that India had a lot of regards for Sufi
Islam, which enteredthe country from Persia. But after the Iranian
revolution, haveyou noticed that Islam gained a violent form? he
asked Khomeini.
Narasimha Rao sent a clear message that India would
improveits friendly relations with Iran, if the latter gave up its stand
onKashmir. India helped Iran in supplying batteries to Iran
missiles,repairs to Iran ports and export of other defence equipment.
247
Despitethe objections from the USA, Iran supported India in the

Genevaconvention. Foreign secretary R L Srinivasan, minister in
thePrimeMinisters Office Bhuvanesh Chaturvedi, principal
secretary A NVarma and officials like Savitri Kunadi and Bhadra
Kumar played akey role in successfully turning the situation in Indias
favour. Duringthis period, Union home secretary Vohra took
stringent measuresto see that there were no violent incidents in
Kashmir.
Had Pakistan been successful in the UNHCR in
highlightingthe Kashmir issue, it would have given a lot of moral
courage to themilitants in the valley. Later, it would have come up
for discussionat the United Nations Socio-Economic Council and
even in theGeneral Assembly. Indias morale would have taken a
big beating.
Narasimha Raos victories were not confined only toeconomic
and diplomatic fields. When he took over as the PrimeMinister,
India was struggling with several internal security issues.In 1991,
general elections were held in the entire country, exceptin Punjab
and Jammu and Kashmir. When I came to Delhi for thefirst time in
1991, I noticed sand bags at every vantage point with
alert armed security forces standing behind them. There
werefrequent bomb explosions.
Before 1991, the law-and-order situation in Kashmir
washorrendous. In 1987, the Jammu and Kashmir witnessed
assemblyelections, but with thegovernment itself indulging in rigging
makingthe entire election process a big farce, militancy reached its
248

A. KRISHNA RAO
peak inthe state, forcing the centre to impose Presidents Rule. The
situationwas so bad that India had almost given up Kashmir. There
used tobe fundraising openly in Pakistan in support of the liberation
ofKashmir. There were advertisements in the Pakistan media about
the sale of plots in Srinagar. Several leaders including Chief
MinisterFarooq Abdulla were forced to be in exile in other countries.
In the initial days of Narasimha Rao coming to power,terrorists
killed 100 Indian soldiers in July 1991 and another 30 inAugust.
There were reports of deaths of soldiers in the hands ofterrorists
almost every month.
Under these circumstances, BJPpresident Murli Manohar Joshi
launched his Ekta Yatra saying thathe would unfurl the national flag
in Srinagar on January 26, 1992. Ultimately, he managed to fulfil
his objective by unfurling thetricolour at Lal Chowk in the presence
of 67 BJP workers whoraised slogans in support of India. The entire
programme wascompleted within 12 minutes. He hoisted the
national flag given bythe security forces as the flagpole brought by
Narendra Modi, whowas the convenor of the Ekta Yatra, was found
broken. At the sametime, there were bomb explosions in the police
headquarters inSrinagar. After this incident, militant activities were
intensified inJammu and Kashmir.
After Narasimha Rao appointed General K V Krishna Rao
asthe Governor of Jammu and Kashmir in March 1993, the
armedforces got complete freedom to weed out the extremists.
ThoughKrishna Rao was the Governor of Jammu and Kashmir for
sometime 1989, too, he could not get enough resources from the
Centrerequired to crush the militancy. But Narasimha Rao gave
himcomplete freedom and powers. During Krishna Raos regime,
Indianarmy regained its hold on the valley and crushed the terrorism.
249
Those days, I used to regularly go to the Jammu and

Kashmirinformation centre at Prithviraj Road in Delhi. Senior
officialRammohan Rao from Karnataka, who was the information
officer, was briefing the media on the number of terrorists killed
every day. He was in touch with General K V Krishna Rao and
disclosing thefigures tentatively.
Narasimha Rao told me on an occasion that 65 percent
ofKashmiris wanted to be part of India. He said Kashmiris as
suchwere not fundamentalists, but those who sneaked in from
Pakistanwere instigating them. After initially focussing on
implementingeconomic reforms, Narasimha Rao first focussed his
attention onrestoring normalcy in Punjab and then on Kashmir.
After appointingPadmanabhaiah as the home secretary, the Prime
Minister beganthe political process in Kashmir. He wanted to change
theinternational opinion on Kashmir by sending the diplomats of
theUS, the UK and European Union by sending them to Kashmir.
Behind the screen, too, Narasimha Rao spoke to those
whomattered, including several Kashmiri leaders who came to Delhi.
AKashmiri leader had been provided accommodation in Sabari
blockof Andhra Pradesh Bhavan for several months.In fact,
Narasimha Rao prepared the ground to conductelections in Jammu
and Kashmir during his regime. Had the Charar-e-Sharif incident
not taken place, elections in Kashmir would havebeen held during
his tenure. But he was in a tricky situation withUnion Minister of
State for Home Rajesh Pilot regularly going toKashmir and talking
about the possibility of holding a plebiscite andentering into a
confrontation with cabinet minister S B Chavan.
250

A. KRISHNA RAO
As a result, Narasimha Rao created a separate wing for

Jammuand Kashmir affairs within the Prime Ministers Office and
kept itunder his control. He instructed home secretary
Padmanabhaiahnot to disclose to anybody what was happening in
this wing. In aninterview, he told me that Chavan and Pilot used to
ask him almostevery day as to what was happening in the J&K wing,
but he evaded answering their queries.
After Narasimha Rao decided to begin the political processin
Kashmir, there was a discussion on whether it was necessary
tocontinue General K V Krishna Rao as the Governor of Jammu
andKashmir. There was a sort ofcommunication gap between him
andthe Union home ministry.
During the winter of 1994, a terroristleader Mast Gul from
Pakistan, along with his squad, entered Indiaand occupied Charar-
e-Sharif, a prominent Sufi mandir in Budgamdistrict in Kashmir.
Though he was there in the mandir for nearlysix months, Gen K V
Krishna Rao hesitated to take military actionagainst him. During
this period, the terrorists planted bombs all overthe mosque. With
the security forces setting up bunkers all over thetown, locals had to
migrate to different parts of Kashmir. Finally, inthe month of May,
soldiers surrounded the mosque and sealed allthe routes. However,
Mast Gul managed to escape after explodingthe mosque and landed
in Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir.
Padmanabhaiah said it was only after this episode, did
thegovernment think of changing the Governor. Initially,
NarasimhaRao considered the name of Abid Hussain, former Indian
ambassadorin the US, but he was a little hesitant after coming to
251
know thatHussain was closer to 10, Janpath. Later, senior Congress

leaderVasanth Sathe was considered for the post and he, too, accepted
theproposal, but Narasimha Rao could not take a call immediately.
A few days after the Charar-e-Sharif incident, on July 4,
1995,another Islamic fundamentalist group from Kashmir Al
Farankidnapped six foreign tourists, including two British tourists,
twoAmericans, a German and a Norwegian. The militant outfit
declaredthat it was fighting against anti-Islamic forces.Western
countriesare anti-Islam, and America is the biggest enemy of Islam,
it said.The kidnappers demanded the release of Pakistani
terroristleader Maulana Masood Azhar and 20 others, who had been
imprisoned by India. Azhar was arrested by security forces in
January,1994, during the Narasimha Rao regime. At the time of his
arrest,Azhar raised slogans stating that India would get a befitting
replythrough rocket launchers. (In 1999, the Vajpayee government
hadto release Masood Azhar and three others, after the Pakistan
terroristshijacked an Indian flight. Later, Azhar openly addressed a
rally inKarachi, which was attended by over 10,000 people).
A few days later, one of the tourists, an American, managedto
escape and was rescued four days later. Another tourist fromNorway
was beheaded by the abductors. The FBI agents interrogatedMasood
Azhar in jail, but to no avail. As a last resort, the USgovernment
called Fazlur Rahman, president of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam from
Pakistan, to mediate for talks. Representatives of severalnational and
international organisations came to Kashmir and triedfor the release
of tourists, but they did not work out.
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A. KRISHNA RAO
Padmanabhaiah, who used to be in touch with the

ambassadorsof the respective countries, said the whereabouts of the
remainingtourists had not been found and they were presumed to
have beenkilled. In December 1995, the kidnappers left a note that
they wereno longer holding the men in hostage.Padmanabhaiah
said till the kidnapping incident took place, the USA and other
countries had not believed that Kashmir wasreeling under terrorism
and they used to describe it as a liberationstruggle.
He said during the 1993 bomb explosions in Mumbai,grenades
hurled by the terrorists were found with the label of Madein
Pakistan, and that anAustrian company had a factory in Pakistanto
make such grenades.When I brought it to the notice of US
ambassador in India,he brazenly dismissed it saying: this is not
terrorism. I was very muchagitated. I told him that it was difficult to
wake up people whopretend to be sleeping, Padmanabhaiah said.
The former home secretary said it was only after the abductions
by Al Faran did the USA and other countries begin believing
thatKashmir was plagued by terrorism and it was being sponsored
byPakistan. It was then that Narasimha Rao decided to set the
stagefor the conduct of elections in Jammu and Kashmir, he said.
On Narasimha Raos directions, Padmanabhaiah
helddiscussions with some surrendered militants, including folk
singerMohammad Yousuf Parry, also known as Kuka Parry, who
washeading a militant outfit Ikhwan-ul-Muslimeen. Intelligence
officialAjit Doval, who was then working in Kashmir, played
aninstrumental role in the surrender of Yousuf Parry. With his
help,the armed forces stepped up eliminating pro-Pakistani terrorists.
253
On November 2, 1995, the Prime Minister left for

BurkinaFaso to attend the G-15 summit. Answering queries from
the mediathere, he said his government would take all steps to
restoredemocracy in Jammu and Kashmir. Skys the limit, he said.
On November 30, the US foreign secretary Henry
Kissingersaid in an interview that India was many times more
powerful thanPakistan; and that India and the US had a joint
responsibility tocounter the Islamic fundamentalism.
Narasimha Rao contemplated conducting the
assemblyelections in Jammu and Kashmir, much before the general
electionsscheduled to be held in May 1996. Kashmiri separatist
leaders likeShabbir Shah, Sayyed Ali Shah Gilani, Abdul Ghani Lone
and YasinMalik were released from jail. However, in October 1995,
militantsattacked a government office and burnt the voters list.
The Prime Minister even announced an attractive package
for thedevelopmentof Kashmir and monitored its implementation
through hissecretaryK R Venugopal. Padmanabhaiah went all the
way to London todiscuss with Farooq Abdullah on the conduct of
elections. NarasimhaRao, too, spoke to Farooq Abdullah. He made
an attempt to join hands with ShabbirShah, president of Jammu and
Kashmir Democratic Party, who was fighting for the liberation of
Kashmir. Through Shabbir, the PrimeMinister planned to win over
the people of Kashmir.
In spite of thegoodwill gestures from Narasimha Rao, Shabbir
Shah did not believehim. As a result, he had to depend on the
National Conference forrestoration of democracy in Kashmir. Had
Shabbir Shah joined handswith Narasimha Rao, he would have
254

A. KRISHNA RAO
become the ChiefMinister ofJammu and Kashmir and found solution

to many problemsconfronting Kashmir. And there would not have
been so muchturbulence in the region, which it is witnessing at
present.
Padmanabhaiah assured Narasimha Rao that if the
electionswere held in Kashmir, he would ensure that there would
be at least30 per cent polling. But Narasimha Rao was apprehensive
that therecould be killings and large-scale violence during the
elections inKashmir and it would have an adverse impact on the
Congressprospects in the general elections in the country. So, let
us holdthe elections in Kashmir, as soon as we come back to power,
hetold the home secretary.
Narasimha Rao did not come back to power. But the
DeveGowda government which was formed with the support
ofNarasimha Rao in 1996, conducted elections in Jammu and
Kashmirin 1996. Farooq Abdullah, who was afraid of entering the
battleinitially, changed his mind. He not only contested the elections
butalso came to power.
Thus, it has been recorded in history that Narasimha Rao had
amajor role to play in the conduct of nuclear tests by Vajpayee andthe
elections in Jammu and Kashmir by Deve Gowda.
Narasimha Rao had a lot of clarity on the Kashmir issue.
Hemade it clear several times that Kashmiris had come to India
muchbefore August 15, 1947 and so, Kashmir was very much an
integralpart of India. He brushed aside the argument of Pakistan
that sinceMuslims were in majority in Kashmir, it should join
Pakistan.
255
If aregion dominated by Muslims is handed over to Pakistan,

whatshould we do with the regions dominated by Christians?
Whereshould they be sent? India is a secular country inhabited by
all sectionsof people including Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Parsis
etc. Peopleof all religious faiths live in India. We cannot send people
of differentreligions to different countries and retain people of only
one religion.That is not my ideology. It might happen in Pakistan
but that is notmy concern, Narasimha Rao said in an article written
in a bookedited by international journalist Keith Phillips.
Coming to Punjab, Narasimha Rao successfully crushed
theextremism by appointing senior IPS officer K P S Gill as the
policecommissioner. In September 1992, when the municipal
electionswere conducted, 71 per cent of voters exercised their
franchise.This led to the restoration of peace in Punjab. Though
Punjabterrorists killed then Chief Minister Beant Singh through a
bombexplosion in August 1995, there was not much disturbance
and the situation returned to normalcy quickly, thanks to the steps
taken byNarasimha Rao.
` ` `
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A. KRISHNA RAO
POLITICS OF HOME STATE
I n politics, friendship or relationship does not matter much.But

Telugu Desam Party president and former Chief Minister of
Andhra Pradesh N T Rama Rao preferred self-respect and pride of
Telugus to pettypolitics. He had complete clarity on his stand. It
was evident fromthe way he maintained a relationship with Prime
Minister P VNarasimha Rao.
When Narasimha Rao contested the by-elections held to
Nandyal parliamentary seat in 1991, NTR openly supported
hiscandidature. In fact, even before Narasimha Rao decided as to
whichLok Sabha constituency he should contest from, NTR
announcedon July 20, 1991, that the TDP would not field its
candidate againstthe Prime Minister wherever he contested. Though
several partiesopposed his decision at the coordination committee
meeting of theNational Front and the Left parties, NTR did not
change his stand.Heasserted that self-respect of Telugus was more
important forhim than winning a Lok Sabha seat. There were reports
that therewere serious arguments between NTR and senior CPI
(M) leaderMakineni Basavapunnaiah.
257
Soon after winning the by-election fromNandyal with a huge

majority, Narasimha Rao first called up NTRand profusely thanked
him.
However, NTR did not continue the same bonhomie
withNarasimha Rao later. He gave strict instructions to the TDP
MPsto play the role of a strongopposition party in Parliament in
tunewith the policies of National Front.When nine TDP MPs led
byparliamentary party leader Bhupatiraju Vijaya Kumar Raju
abstainedfrom voting on the Motion of Thanks to the Presidential
address inParliament, thereby saving the Narasimha Rao government
from falling, NTR became furious.
In fact, Vijaya Kumar Raju was an ardent fan of
NarasimhaRao. He even offered to resign from his Narasapuram
parliamentaryseat to enable Narasimha Rao to contest, but the TDP
did not agreefor the same. After saving the Congress government
in Parliament,Vijaya Kumar Raju and others held a press conference
and defendedtheir decision to abstain from voting. They, however,
said theywould not quit the party. But the TDP leadership decided
to takeaction against some of these MPs by invoking the Anti-
DefectionLaw.
As a result, these nine MPs held a meeting at the residence
ofThota Subba Rao on March 11 to discuss their future course
ofaction. Finally, Vijaya Kumar Raju, K P Reddaiah, A Indra
KaranReddy, G Ganga Reddy, Bolla Bulli Ramaiah, G M C
Balayogi,Thota Subba Rao and K V R Chowdary decided to split
theparliamentary party and convey their decision to Lok Sabha
258

A. KRISHNA RAO
SpeakerShiv Raj Patil. By the time they went to the Speakers

residence,Bulli Ramaiah quietly withdrew from the scene. The
Speaker askedthe remaining MPs to come to his office the next day
to sign ontheir representation in his presence. The following day,
when theywent to the Speakers chamber, Balayogi also backtracked.
Finally,only six rebel TDP MPs were left and they signed the papers
in thepresence of the Speaker stating that they were splitting the
parliamentary party. On March 13, the Speaker acknowledged them
as a special group in Lok Sabha. Later, they joined the Congressparty.
NTR suspected the hand of Rajya Sabha member P
Upendrabehind the entire episode of the split in the TD
parliamentary party.He expelled Upendra and six others from the
party for a period ofsix years for resorting to anti-party activities.
On March 18, RajyaSabha chairman announced that Upendra
would be an independentmember of the House. Later, Upendra
became a close confidant ofNarasimha Rao. In Rajya Sabha, he
formed a small group with 15 independents and a few others from
smaller parties and continuedto come to the rescue of Narasimha
Rao government wheneverthere was a crisis.
During the 1984 August crisis in Andhra Pradesh,
thenGovernor Shankar Dayal Sharma played a key role in
reinstatingNTR as the Chief Minister. But when Sharma was
nominated bythe Congress as its candidate for the Presidential
elections, the TDPopposed him in line with the policies of the
National Front. A TDPmember said NTR was feeling bad for
opposing Sharma despitethe latter doing him a favour.
259
Perhaps that was the reason why hereadily supported the

candidature of K R Narayanan for the Vice-President post proposed
by the Congress. NTR was extremely happywhen Narasimha Rao
called him directly and sought his partyssupport for Narayanan.
On July 28, 1992, NTR met NarasimhaRao along with Janata Dal
leaders V P Singh and S R Bommai.They agreed to the Prime
Ministers request to support thecandidature of Narayanan.
Interestingly, even before the rulingCongress made any
announcement, NTR showed overenthusiasmin officially declaring
that he was proposing the name of K RNarayanan for the Vice
President post. Naturally, the oppositionannouncing the same name
that was supposed to be officiallyannounced by the ruling party
became the talk of the town.
Though NTR was the opposition party leader in AndhraPradesh,
he used to accord rousing welcome to Narasimha Raowhenever he
came to the home state. On an Ugadi day, NTR heldNarasimha
Raos hand and took him on to the dais and even invitedhim to the
dinner. Ironically, at an election rally held a day before,NTR accused
Narasimha Rao of betraying the cause of Telugus!
Narasimha Rao had a lot of affinity towards his
relativeVodithela Rajeshwar Rao, better known as Singapuram
RajeshwaraRao, rather than his own children and siblings Madhava
Rao andManohar Rao. In fact, Singapuram Rajeshwara Rao is
our verydistant relative. There is no close relationship between our
familyand that of Rajeshwara Rao, Manohar Rao told me once.
260

A. KRISHNA RAO
Singapuram is a few kilometres away from Narasimha

Raosnative village Vangara in Karimnagar district. But Rajeshwar
Rao,somehow, became a close associate of Narasimha Rao by
takingcare of the latters election campaign and arranging political
meetingsright from the beginning. Even when Narasimha Rao
contestedthe by-elections from Nandyal parliamentary seat after
becomingthe Prime Minister, it was Rajeshwar Rao who handled
the entire election campaign and fund management. Manohar Rao
said his brother had never done any favours toanybody. He recalled
that when he went to Narasimha Rao duringthe latters tenure as
the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh to get afile cleared, he had
not entertained the request despite repeatedreminders.
But Narasimha Rao had to take the help of Rajeshwar Raoto
handle some activities on his behalf and nominated him to
RajyaSabha. A friendly and non-controversial person besides being
a goodhost, Rajeshwar Rao quickly established relations with
severalimportant people in Delhi within no time. He used to resolve
anyproblem Narasimha Rao was facing. He had a VIP suite
permanentlyreserved for him in Swarna Mukhi block in Andhra
Pradesh Bhavan.He did not vacate this suite in A P Bhavan, though
he was allocatedan MP bungalow in Caning Road. The Centre
Point Hotel nearbywas buzzing with hectic activity in the evenings
with RajeshwarRao spending time with many of his friends playing
cards and holdingpolitical meetings. And the nights at his official
bungalow were quiteentertaining.
261
Soon after finishing my office work, I used to go to

hisresidence, relax in a sofa and observe the activities going on
there.When there was a report in an English daily that his residence
hadbecome a de facto power centre, Rajeshwar Rao sought my
help tocall the reporters of the daily to the bungalow. He had a
hearty talkwith them, offered them sweets and felicitated them with
shawls,which made them more than happy.
When Narasimha Rao faced the first confidence motion inLok
Sabha, it was Rajeshwar Rao who made all out efforts to savethe
government. He took the help of Audikesavulu Naidu andMagunta
Subbarami Reddy from Andhra Pradesh and Matang Singhfrom
Assam. He also managed to lure Jharkhand Mukti MorchaMPs.
One day, Rajeshwar Rao appeared very much agitated
onreturning from Narasimha Raos residence. When Magunta
askedhim what had happened, he quoted Narasimha Rao as saying:
Dontgive a single paisa to those fellows. Let the government
collapse. But Rajeshwar Rao did what he wanted to do save the
NarasimhaRao government.
Narasimha Rao wanted to sack Karnataka ChiefMinister S
Bangarappa in 1992, but Rajeshwar Rao delayed the implementation
of the decision for nearly a month. WhenI was working in Udayam
daily, our newspaper chairman MaguntaSubbarami Reddy was very
close to Rajeshwar Rao. When both ofthem were going to meet
Narasimha Rao, I used to accompanythem along with our
photographer.
262

A. KRISHNA RAO
Not only this, several other important events took place

inRajeshwar Raos residence. He played a very key role in
pullingdown Nedurumalli Janardhan Reddy from Andhra Pradesh
ChiefMinister post in 1992. When the state high court gave a
judgementstating that there were several irregularities in granting
approvals to20 engineering and medical colleges in the private sector.
RajeshwarRao was instrumental in several ministers taking up
signature campaign against Nedurumalli and submitting a
representation to
Narasimha Rao.
Senior minister D L Ravindra Reddy and otherswere regularly
meeting Rajeshwar Rao in AP Bhavan. Seniorjournalist Kalyani
Shankar, who was said to be close to NarasimhaRao, also became a
pawn in this political game. She wrote an articlein Hindustan Times
stating Narasimha Rao was of the view that Nedurumalli should
step down as the Chief Minister on moralgrounds.
Initially, Rajeshwar Rao supported the candidature of Y
SRajasekhar Reddy as the successor of Nedurumalli. Every day,
inthe early hours, YSR used to come to Rajeshwar Raos suite
inSwarnamukhi block in AP Bhavan. All the other leaders of the
anti-Nedurumalli group used to go to Rajeshwar Raos official
bungalowand do lobbying. But in the subsequent days, Kotla
Vijayabhaskar Reddy entered the scene and turned the tide in his
favour.
263
The fast-unto-death launched by Mudragada Padmanabhamin

Andhra Pradesh led to a tense atmosphere in the state. NarasimhaRao
sought the help of YSR and Dronamraju Satyanarayana to seethat
Mudragada called off his fast.
On July 14, 1994, Narasimha Rao held a huge rally in
NewDelhi to highlight his governments achievements on the
completionof his three-year tenure. More than 10 lakh people were
mobilisedfor this rally from different states. Ongole MP Magunta
SubbaramiReddy spent lakhs of rupees in supplying chicken and
vegetablebiryani packets to the people and proved his abilities. With
this rally, Narasimha Rao strengthened his hold over the party.
Two days before Dasara festival in October 1994, a
CongressMP who met Narasimha Rao the previous night, said the
PrimeMinister was a little disturbed and was in deep thoughts for
unknownreasons. For the last two days, he had been meeting
everybody fromAndhra Pradesh who came to see him. He had a
hearty andaffectionate talk with everybody. Some of them sought
tickets forthemselves to contest the assembly elections in the state
and someothers lobbied for tickets for others. Some others submitted
representations that explained their strengths. All those who met
the Prime Minister appeared very jubilant.
Narasimha Rao was also on cloud nine on seeing the
massivecrowds at his public meeting held at Warangal. Even at the
publicmeeting held at Eluru, lakhs of people turned up, leading to
trafficjams for several kilometres. He used to talk affectionately with
everyTelugu person who came to Delhi and during his visit to his
264

A. KRISHNA RAO
homestate during the electioneering, he was quite happy meeting

peoplein the places of his home state, which he had toured during
hischildhood. The man, who virtually pleaded the voters of
Anantapurto vote for the Congress, was very jubilant in the Warangal
meeting.
After returning to Hyderabad, he told reporters at a press
conferencethat the Congress would achieve a big victory in the
elections. Themost important point emphasised by Narasimha Rao
during hiselectioneering in Andhra Pradesh was that the entire world
waskeenly watching the assembly elections in Andhra. Of course,
therewere some sections who ridiculed him and wondered how
the worldwas interested in Andhra elections.
But it is an undeniable fact that the Andhra Pradesh
electionshave left Narasimha Rao totally shattered. The entire world
wascurious to know whether Narasimha Rao, who had won
accoladesacross the globe, would be able to conquer his own home
state. Itwas believed that intelligence reports had warned of a sabotage
byinternal and external forces to defeat Narasimha Rao by
defeatingthe Congress in Andhra Pradesh elections.
As expected, the Congress suffered a humiliating defeat inthe
state assembly elections held in December 1994. The strategiesof
his detractors to deal a strong blow on Narasimha Rao from hisown
state succeeded. The Congress, which contested all the 294assembly
seats in Andhra Pradesh could get with a meagre 26 seats,while the
Telugu Desam Party won 216 out of 251 seats it hadcontested. The
Congress drew blank in as many as 11 districts.Though Narasimha
Rao tried to play the son of the soil card, itdid not work out. He
made every effort to avoid the humiliation ofthe Congress party
losing in his home state.
265
Narasimha Rao strongly believed that backstabbing by his

ownparty leaders was one of the reasons for the partys defeat in
AndhraPradesh. Despite making efforts to achieve a caste balance
in thedistribution of tickets in the elections, it was of no use. In
fact,Bahujan Samaj Party led by Kanshi Ram also entered the fray
in theAndhra elections, which led to the talk that the Congress
hadcolluded with the BSP to split the opposition votes. But the
BSP could make little impact in these elections, despite the
consolidationof Dalit Bahujan votes after the Karamchedu and
Tsunduru incidents.In the 1994 elections in Andhra, the BSP could
get only 1.3 percent of votes and it lost deposits in all the
constituencies, except intwo places.
In fact, Narasimha Rao made all out efforts to win the elections
inAndhra Pradesh. The All-India Congress Committee was
totallycomputerised by then and every election-related issue
wasthoroughly analysed. Party observers were sent to all parts of
thestate. Intelligence reports were obtained. Right from landlords
toordinary party workers everybody landed in Andhra Bhavan
andlobbied for the party tickets. Going by the craze for the party
tickets,there was an impression among the political observers that
the people were still in favour of the Congress. But the election
outcome hasproved that there was in fact a yawning communication
gap betweenthe Congress and the people.
Surprisingly, the Congress leaders in Narasimha Raos
homestate didnt cooperate with him wholeheartedly. Though
majorityof the party tickets had gone to the group of Kotla
VijayabhaskarReddy, several seniors including Y S Rajasekhar
266

A. KRISHNA RAO
Reddy, tried tomeet the expectations of Narasimha Rao. Yet, some

forces soughtto sabotage him on the lines of the forces who had
played a key rolein pulling him down from the Chief Ministers
post in 70s.
Whatevermight be the reasons, NTR returned to power with
a massivemandate. Intelligence reports indicated that the Congress
had lostpower in Andhra Pradesh, not only because of mistakes in
theselection of candidates but also due to internal sabotage.
NarasimhaRao disclosed this to me after he stepped down as the
Prime Ministertwo years later.
Those days, when there were hardly any visitors to 10,
Janpath,Y S Rajasekhar Reddy used to go there frequently and
discuss variousissues with Sonia Gandhi. He used to complain to
her againstNarasimha Rao. Obviously, he was angry with Narasimha
Rao fornot making him the Chief Minister and trusting Kotla more
thanhim. Every alternate day, he used to call Sonias secretary
Georgeand seek her appointment. In fact, he had a lot of affinity
towardsRajesh Pilot. After Narasimha Rao stepped down as the
CongressParliamentary Party leader, YSR, along with many other
MPs,lobbied for the election of Rajesh Pilot as the CPP leader. He
toldme in an interview those days that all the young Congress
MPswere supporting Pilots candidature.
After Narasimha Rao lost power, I asked him one day whyhe
hadnt made YSR as the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh,instead
of Kotla Vijayabhaskar Reddy. YSR would have ensuredthat the
Congress would win the Andhra Pradesh assembly elections.What
267
do you say, sir? I asked him. Narasimha Rao quietly said: Itis true
that YSR had leadership qualities. But I was under tremendous
pressure from Kotla. Even the media stood by him.
I was shocked to listen to his words, because I was also part
ofthe same media which lobbied for Kotla. Keep meeting
Kotlaregularly and report what he says, was the instruction given
to meby our Udayam daily newspaper chairman Magunta Subba
RamiReddy. Kotla, who was the Union law minister then, was
staying ata bungalow in Sunehri Bagh Road in Delhi. Former
Election Commissioner G V G Krishna Murthy, who was then in
the LawCommission, was very close to Kotla. He used to tell me
that hewas a classmate of Kotla in Osmania Law College.So, I used
to meet Kotla at his regularly as per my chairmansinstructions.
One day, Kotla told me that there was a lot of pressurefrom
the Congress leaders in Andhra Pradesh that he should becomethe
Chief Minister. I wrote an article in Udayam daily with thecaption:
Pressure mounting on Kotla, which was carried as abanner story
of the day. I was told Kotla showed the article toNarasimha Rao
and influenced his decision.
In fact, those days, young YSR was pretty confident that
hewould become the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. He
wassupported by seniors like Dronamraju Satyanarayana,
KonathalaRamakrishna and KanithiVishwanatham. On the other
hand, GVGKrishna Murthy and A V R Krishnamurthy used to
support Kotla.
268

A. KRISHNA RAO
At one stage, there were clear indications that Narasimha

Raowas favouring YSR as the Chief Minister. One day, he met
thePrime Minister and returned to his flat in Baba Kharag Singh
Margin a jubilant mood. I happened to meet him there and asked
him asto what had transpired between him and Narasimha Rao. He
toldme the situation was more or less favourable to him and the
chancesof him becoming the Chief Minister were very bright.
I asked him: Sir, in that case, you should give me a
promise,sir. Anything. What do you want? he asked me.
I told him:You must give me the first interview as the Chief
Minister. Hewas surprised and pressed my hand affectionately
saying: Done.
But things did not happen as he expected. Kotla group joined
handswith Nedurumalli Janardhan Reddy group and dashed YSRs
hopes.Though many MLAs were in favour of YSR, he could not
succeedin his efforts.
For young journalists like me, YSR was the most
daringpolitician, compared to old timers like Kotla and Nedurumalli.
SinceI was also an uncompromising reporter, irrespective of the
mediaorganisation I worked in, YSR used to like me very much.
At onestage, Narasimha Rao, who was caught between Kotla and
YSRgroups, thought of a middle path by appointing Patlola
Ramachandra Reddy as the Chief Minister. But he finally
succumbed to pressurefrom Kotla and appointed him as the Chief
Minister. Kotlasproximity with veterans like R K Dhawan and
Sharad Pawar alsohelped him to ascend the throne.
269
Before anointing Kotla as the Chief Minister, Narasimha

Raospoke to both Kotla and YSR. He got an assurance from Kotla
thatthe latter would accommodate a good number of YSR
supportersin the cabinet. But it did not happen, leading to rivalry
between thetwo.
One day, YSR came to Delhi. I called him and he picked
upthe phone. I asked them about the latest developments
includingany possibility of changes in the Pradesh Congress
Committee.Why do you ask me, Krishna Rao? Go and ask that
Lamboo (sixfeet man), YSR said, indirectly referring to Kotla. Next
day, I wrote a news report with the headline: Ask that six-feet
man,quoting YSR.
Apparently, it led to further confrontation between YSR
andKotla. Around the same time, Kotla came to Delhi and
checkedinto Andhra Pradesh Bhavan. Mahila Congress leader
NannapaneniRajakumari, who used to maintain cordial relationship
with anybodyin the CMs seat, showed my news report to Kotla
and the latterdistributed the copies of the daily to his followers. This
furtheraggravated the situation. It was the time when YSR was
lobbying for the cabinet berths to his followers.
I was told YSR was very angry with me for writing the
newsreport. Dronamraju Satyanarayana advised me that it would
be betterif I did not face YSR for a few days. But two days later,
when I wasspeaking to Dronamraju, YSR entered his house in his
typical white-and-white attire. On seeing him, Dronamraju made
me sit besidehim with a hand on my shoulder.YSR, who looked
agitated on seeing me, softened a bit afterrealising that I was very
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A. KRISHNA RAO
close to Dronamraju. Yet, he asked me:What Krishna Rao, what

was that report? How can you write likethat? Even before I
answered, Dronamraju came to my rescue and said: You are a
hero, YSR. The news report has, in fact, enhancedyour stature. I,
too, quietly told YSR: It is necessary to recordcertain incidents in
history, sir. YSR was convinced and a smileappeared on his face.
After that, YSRs camp gradually gained strength. And
heemerged as the only alternative leader in the Congress party
afterKotla.
At a public meeting attended by Narasimha Rao at Kadapa
in1994, some Congress workers hurled footwear at Chief
MinisterKotla Vijayabhaskar Reddy who was addressing the
gathering. Anagitated Kotla, who suspected it to be the handiwork
of Y SRajasekhar Reddy, brought pressure on Narasimha Rao to
expelYSR from the party. He even threatened to resign from the
ChiefMinisters post, if YSR was not sacked.
But Narasimha Rao did not succumb to the pressures. Thevery
next day, there were reports in some newspapers that the
PrimeMinister was ready to appoint another leader in place of Kotla,
ifthe latter quit the Chief Minister post. Narasimha Raos
informationadvisor P V R K Prasad later wrote in his memoirs that
he hadplanted the story in the media on the formers suggestion.
Thisincident reinforced Narasimha Raos liking for YSR. Senior
Congress leader M V Mysoora Reddy told me later that some
forcesin the party tried to fuel the differences between Kotla and
YSR, sothat the YSR could be expelled from the party subsequently.
271
In fact, soon after Narasimha Rao became the Prime

Minister,YSR invited him to contest from Kadapa, where elections,
scheduledto be held in May 1991, were countermanded due to the
death ofan independent candidate. But Kotla influenced Narasimha
Raoand made him contest from Nandyal. Newly-elected MP
fromNandyal Gangula Pratap Reddy resigned from his seat to make
way for Narasimha Rao, who contested from there and won with a
hugemajority of over 5 lakh votes, which entered into Guinness
Book ofWorld Records. Later, Gangula was nominated to Rajya
Sabha.
Even during the 1996 Lok Sabha elections, Narasimha Raohad
a lot of hopes on Andhra Pradesh. Just before the elections, hewent
to Visakhapatnam. At the airport, he took VisakhapatnamMayor
Sabbam Hari along with him in the car. On their way to theguest
house, Narasimha Rao asked Sabbam Hari as to who wouldbe the
right choice for the Visakhapatnam MP seat. Sabbamsuggested two
names: T Subbarami Reddy and D V Subba Rao.He told the Prime
Minister that Subbarami Reddy had introducedseveral populist
schemes such as distribution of mangal sutras to poorbrides in villages
and mandals and restoration of old temples etc.Though Subba Rao,
too, is a good choice, his influence is confinedto urban voters, he
said.
Since other seniors like G Venkat Swamy and V
HanumanthaRao, too, favoured Subbarami Reddy, Narasimha Rao
gave theticket to the latter. But when the counting of votes was
going on,Subbarami Reddy was lagging behind his nearest rival by
a big marginat one stage. A worried Narasimha Rao asked his OSD
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A. KRISHNA RAO
AVR KrishnaMurthy to immediately call up Sabbam Hari.What

sir, you suggested Subbarami Reddys name, but itappears he is
losing, AVR asked him. Please wait till the nextmorning and then
call again, Sabbam told AVR, who put downthe phone grumbling:
I am not sure of the victory.
But the following morning, the situation changed
completelyand Subbarami Reddy won the Visakhapatnam seat with
acomfortable margin. This episode shows how much Narasimha
Raowas concerned about the party in his home state. The results in
the1996 Lok Sabha elections in Andhra Pradesh were entirely in
contrastto the partys poor show in 1994 assembly elections. Out of
42 seatsin Andhra Pradesh, the Congress won 22 seats. Narasimha
Raos son P V Rajeshwar Rao, too, emerged victorious from
Secunderabadparliamentary constituency. However, the Congress
put up a dismalshow in other states.
Narasimha Rao had very cordial relations with all the leadersin
the state, irrespective of their party affiliations. When TeluguDesam
Party MP Yalamanchili Sivaji was fighting for funds for theexport
of tobacco from the state, Narasimha Rao released Rs 100crore for
the export of tobacco to Russia. When there was adiscussion on the
subject in Parliament, Sivaji commented that thefunds had benefited
only exporters but not the farmers, much tothe surprise of the Prime
Minister. Hereafter, I will think twicebefore releasing funds, he
said.
Narasimha Rao realised that he was indirectly responsible
forthe expulsion of P Upendra from the Telugu Desam Party but
aswas his wont, he dodged in admitting Upendra into the
273
Congress.Having no option, Upendra joined the BJP but he did

not feelcomfortable there and within no time, he came out of the
saffronparty. This time, Narasimha Rao admitted him as an associate
member of the Congress. In 1996, he asked Upendra to contestfrom
Eluru but the latter requested for Vijayawada parliamentaryseat,
which he obliged. Upendra won from Vijayawada, but he didnot
get the recognition in the party after Sonia Gandhi took overthe
reins.
Narasimha Rao had a lot of clarity on the smaller states.
Thatdid not mean he was against the smaller states. He already had
bitterexperiences from the Separate Telangana and Separate
Andhramovements during the Indira Gandhi regime. The BJP had
alreadytaken a stand on smaller states like Jharkhand, Uttaranchal
andChhattisgarh. But after becoming the Prime Minister,
NarasimhaRao felt it was not the right time to concentrate on smaller
states,since his focus was entirely on transforming the countrys
economy.
During the discussion on the no-confidence motion moved
againsthis government on July 28, 1993, Narasimha Rao said: For
now,I am against the formation of smaller states. He was replying
to aquery from Vajpayee about the formation of Uttarakhand
andJharkhand states.
Though the Uttarakhand movement began several
decadesago, it gained momentum during the Narasimha Rao regime.
InAugust 1991 itself, the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh adopted
274

A. KRISHNA RAO
aresolution in the state assembly on the formation of Uttaranchalstate

and forwarded it to the Centre. The movement took up aserious
turn in 1994, when the Mulayam Singh Yadav governmentused
brutal force to crush the agitators for separate state. As a result,the
Mulayam government, too, adopted a resolution in August 1994in
favour of Uttaranchal. On September 27, 1994, Union Minister of
Statefor Home Rajesh Pilot held talks with the leaders of
Uttaranchalmovement. It ultimately led to the announcement by
Deve Gowda,who succeeded Narasimha Rao as the Prime Minister,
from theramparts of Red Fort that his government would form a
separateUttaranchal state.
Narasimha Rao had to bear the brunt of the separate
Jharkhandmovement, too. In December 1991, Union Home
Minister S B Chavan said the Central government was not averse to
formation ofJharkhand state, if other states like Bihar, Odisha, West
Bengal andMadhya Pradesh agree for the same. Later, he held a
meeting withhome secretaries of these states. In 1993, Jharkhand
Mukthi Morchaand All India Jharkhand Students Union held an
economic blockadepreventing transport of minerals from the
Jharkhand area. This agitation went on for 73 days and it was only
after that, NarasimhaRao directly entered the scene and began efforts
to resolve this long-pending issue personally. He held talks directly
with Jharkhandleaders Shibu Soren and Suraj Mandal. As a result of
these efforts,an autonomous council with limited powers was formed
forJharkhand.
275
The movement for separate Chhattisgarh state, too, had

beengoing on for a quite long time. During the Narasimha Rao
regime,the movement picked up the pace. In its manifesto for the
1993assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, the Congress promised
theformation of a separate Chhattisgarh state. In 1994, the
MadhyaPradesh assembly passed a unanimous resolution
seekingformationof Chhattisgarh. One cannot ignore the fact that
thesedevelopmentshad taken place during the Narasimha Rao
regime.
The demand for separate Telangana state, however,
wasrevived after Narasimha Rao stepped down as the Prime
Ministerin 1996. Telangana protagonist and Mahabubnagar MP
DrMallikarjun, who was the Union Minister of Railways and
Defence duringthe Narasimha Rao government, took up the
separate Telanganacause again after he became the PCC president
in 1996. When DeveGowda made a promise on the formation of
Uttarakhand state inhis Independence Day speech in August 1996,
Mallikarjun put forththe demand for formation of Telangana state.
He proposed that theCentre constitute a second state reorganisation
committee to lookinto the demands for smaller states.
Mallikarjun, in an interview in March 1997, told me that itwas
only after Deve Gowdas statement that the demands forJharkhand
and Vidarbha had surfaced again. With regard to separateTelangana,
too, the movement picked up pace only after the deathof Narasimha
Rao. As a result, there was no scope for recording theopinions of
Narasimha Rao on Telangana in the wake of changingscenarios
across the country.
276

A. KRISHNA RAO
With regard to the state politics, Narasimha Rao did not

takeany daring decisions. All the three PCC chiefs appointed by
him Majji Tulasi Das, Kamaluddin, Konijeti Rosaiah and
Mallikarjunwere not very aggressive leaders. Whenever he came to
AndhraPradesh Bhavan, Majji Tulasi Das used to offer us a mixture
ofSambar and butter milk and we were forced to have
it.Kamaluddinused to operate the PCC from Delhi itself. After the
Congress lost power, he joined the BJP. Even Mallikarjun used to
spend most ofhis time in Delhi. Whenever I called his residence, he
himself usedto lift the phone, but say: Saab Nahi Hain.
When Narasimha Rao was in power, many Congress
leaderswho were loyal to him landed in a state of confusion when
he steppeddown both as the AICC chief and the Congress
Parliamentary Partyleader. Narasimha Rao was aware that the leaders
would run afteronly those in power. So, it was no surprise that the
Congress leadersfrom Andhra Pradesh also deserted him and in fact,
joined differentgroups much before he stepped down.
Visakhapatnam MP T Subbarami Reddy was among the CPP
executive members whosigned the representation on December 17,
1997, demanding thatNarasimha Rao resign as the CPP chief post.
At one stage, seniors like G Venkatswamy and
KotlaVijayabhaskar Reddy also vied for the CPP leader post. Kotla
metRajesh Pilot and Sharad Pawar and sought their support,
whileVenkatswamy met Meira Kumar and Sitaram Kesri. But
277
whenSitaram Kesri himself entered the fray, Venkatswamy dropped

out of the race. He told me in an interview on December 25, 1997
thatKesri would get elected as the CPP leader unanimously. He
said hehad met Kesri and many other MPs were also consulting
him.
Though Sharad Pawar and Rajesh Pilot were also lobbying
for thepost, they wouldnt be in the fray in the end and Kesri would
becomethe CPP leader unanimously.Narasimha Rao did not make
me either Cabinet minister or Congress Working Committee
member. In fact, I was senior toKotla Vijayabhaskar Reddy. But I
remained loyal to Narasimha Raodespite the injustice meted out to
me. But soon after he lost power,Kotla deserted him, Venkata
Swamy told me.
The interview created a sensation in the party. Kotla calledme
and asked whether Venkatswamy had really made the comments.I
said: Yes. The next day, Venkatswamy held a press conferenceon
the lawns of his bungalow near Jantar Mantar. He saw me andasked
why I had written verbatim whatever he had told me. Kotlapulled
me up, he said.
But I also wrote in the report about how Kotla, Gangula
PratapReddy, former ministers M V Mysoora Reddy and D K
SamarasimhaReddy also had met Sitaram Kesri, and also Sharad
Pawar andKarunakaran on December 17, 1997.
278

A. KRISHNA RAO
At the same time, several other leaders like Y S

RajasekharReddy, Dronamraju Satyanarayana, Atmacharan Reddy,
K M Khan,V Rajeshwar Rao and P V Rajeshwar Rao openly
revolted againstSitaram Kesris candidature. They demanded that
the CPP leadershould be elected through a secret ballot method.
But there werestatements from the AICC that many other MPs
including MaguntaParvathamma from Ongole were opposing the
secret ballot demand.
When I spoke to YSR on January 4, 1998, he told me that as
manyas 52 MPs remained united and they were fighting for
internaldemocracy. He said Rajesh Pilot had already proved that he
had allthe qualities, including courage and straightforwardness to
becomethe CPP leader.
Though Kesri ultimately became the CPP leader, he did
notcontinue in the post for long. He gave up the post as he was
unableto withstand the pressures of Sonias loyalists. It is a different
matterthat all the Congress leaders had no option but to prostrate
beforeSonia later.
` ` `
279
REVOLUTIONARY SAGE
A dormant night.
He woke up from slumber,
stretched his arms, opened his eyes
and got up with a loud yawn;
Walking through deep woods
Spouting bitter darkness
He spewed fire of hunger in his belly
that engulfed the sky
Not many people know that this poem, originally written
in Telugu, was written by former Prime Minister P V
NarasimhaRao. He read out this poem at the stroke of midnight of
August 15,1972 in the Andhra Pradesh state assembly on the occasion
of silver jubileeof Indian Independence.
It is a long poem, reflecting the feelings of a common Indian
when the country attained Independence on the midnight of August
15, 1947.Who was the man in the poem who woke up at
midnight?Narasimha Rao himself explained:
For ages, he had been silently
bearing injustice with a smile,
Now, he is seething with anger
with redness of dusk
reflecting on his face;
He is a revolutionary sage!
280

A. KRISHNA RAO
It was evident that the Indian described by Narasimha

Raowas a common man, with hunger stirring his belly; and that he
raiseda banner of revolt against the injustice meted out to him. Thus,
thecommon man turned into a revolutionary sage.
How can a revolutionary become a sage? Revolutionary
Sageis a paradox. Such a visualisation was possible only for
NarasimhaRao.He went on explaining in the poem about the
common man:
He has a withering body.
He bears the burden of millions of people
deprived of food.
Has the common man been meted out justice 25 years
afterIndia attaining Independence? No, said Narasimha Rao. He
evenfound fault with the partition of India.
All through this quarter of the century,
the divide between the rulersand
the downtrodden has only widened,
lives of the people turned miserable;
Abundance on one side, plight on the other;
Growth on one side, pathos on the other
One rose to the sky, many sunk into the soil
Trustees turned looters of the booty
It requires a lot of courage for a person, being in the
positionof a Chief Minister, to take a dig at the ruling class. It shows
howmuch Narasimha Rao was anguished in saying that millions of
peoplelanguished in poverty with wealth being concentrated in the
handsof a few individuals and the rulers, who were supposed to
take careof the people, were more focussed on making money.
281
He questioned whether there was any scope for a change

inthis situation or whether it would become a futile search for waterin
a dreary desert.
Will these explosive thoughts
emerging in this dormant night,
and in this quietly flowing wind
show him the light?
Can it generate any hope?
Will this thirsty wayfarer
continue to run after mirages
or ever find some chilled water
to quench his thirst?
Narasimha Rao clarified that his thoughts were explosive.
Hewas worried that the earth had become a haven for demons.
Thispoem ends with a wonderful line on an optimistic note. He
describedhimself as a flow of consciousness.
Why is the little ocean wave worried
about the shore being still far away?
Why should there be any doubt
about the spirit reaching the eternal soul?
I am a flow of consciousness
I am a moving fragment of progress
My penance is to wake up this world
and make it glow like a beam
of light on this dormant night
Its my pledge!
282

A. KRISHNA RAO
This one poem is enough to prove that Narasimha Rao

hadnot only knowledge and command over the language but
alsoemotions required for an enlightened poet. Maybe, because of
thisemotional thinking about the downtrodden that he had
introducedland reforms in Andhra Pradesh and lost the Chief
Minister post.
Many years later, when he became the Prime Minister,
Narasimha Rao suddenly remembered the poem he had written.He
asked his OSD A V R Krishna Murthy to call up popular Telugupoet
Nagnamuni (Kesava Rao), who was working in the
assemblysecretariat and find out whether it was possible to get a
copy of thepoem which he had read on the midnight of August 15,
1972.
Nagnamuni searched the assembly records thoroughly, but
in vain.Finally, he could find it in a newspaper Andhra Janata
which wasin circulation those days and sent it to Narasimha Rao.
Nagnamunitold me about this episode in later days.
Though Narasimha Rao was a politician, literature had been
flowing in his veins. He was influenced by various socialmovements
during his life.Renowned litterateur from WarangalKovela
Suprasannacharya said in 1950s, Narasimha Rao was underthe
influence of the literary works of Jnanpith awardee
VishwanathaSatyanarayana and his traditional outlook. At the same
time, he wasalso influenced by socialistic thoughts. He, along with
PamulaparthiSadasiva Rao, used to run a literary magazine called
Kakatiya.Inthe name of Kakatiya Kala Samithi, they used to
conduct literaryconventions and music concerts every year. Both
of them had beenclassmates since sixth standard and they had a lot
of aptitude formusic.
283
Garlapati Raghava Reddy from Warangal, who

gotrecognition as thephilosophical poet of Telangana and a guru
ofKaloji Narayana Rao, introduced the beauty of romanticism in
Hindiliterature to Narasimha Rao and Sadasiva Rao.
Once, Vishwanatha Satyanarayana came to Warangal
toparticipate in a meeting in 1955. Narasimha Rao, who was an
ardentadmirer of Vishwanathas literary works, met him and got
hispermission to translate his magnum opus Veyi Padagalu
(ThousandHoods) into Hindi.
One of the main reasons for Narasimha Raos admiration
forVishwanatha was the latters revolt against cultural imperialism.
Hisbrother Manohar Rao told me once that at a literary meeting
heldin Karimnagar under the auspices of Vanamamalai
Varadacharyulu,Narasimha Rao spoke eloquently on seven of
Vishwanathas bestnovels right from Ekavira to Terachi Raju.
Vishwanatha waspresent on the dais of the meeting, Manohar
Rao said.
One could find signs of rebellion in Narasimha Rao at
everystage of his life, simply because, as a politician, he witnessed
evils all around him. In a way, he was a quintessential rebel. He was
a strong admirer of 15th century Telugupoet Bammera Pothana,
who had vowed not to sell his poetry toany of the devilish emperors.
Similarly, he was also fond of the poetryof contemporary poets like
Kaloji Narayana Rao and Dasarathi, whorevolted against the
prevailing system. When he was the External Affairs Minister in
1982, Narasimha Rao extended a helping hand tothe Andhra
Pradesh government for conducting the 500th yearcelebrations of
Pothana Bhagavatham in Warangal.
284

A. KRISHNA RAO
It is heartening to note that the celebrations are being heldin

Warangal, a city which has always displayed its social, culturaland
political consciousness. It is essential to go through history. At atime
when emperors were revered in high esteem, Pothana calledthem
the worst exploiters. Warangal continues to show thisrebellious
nature, which was evident from the writings of Kaloji
and Dasarathi, he said, while participating in the 500th
yearcelebrations of Pothana.
The rebellious character had been deeply rooted in the soil
ofWarangal and naturally, it was flowing in the blood of
NarasimhaRao, who grew up in that atmosphere. Though he settled
in NewDelhi, he did not forget Kaloji and his poems. Even at the
conferenceof industrialists, he used to quote the poems of Kaloji.
He showedhis admiration towards Kaloji by conferring Padma
Bhushan on him.
Narasimha Raos three books Insider,Golla Ramavva
and Mangaiah Adrushtam, were a sort of critical analysis
oncontemporary social and political developments. Golla Ramavva
isthe story of a patriotic woman who gives shelter to a warrior
duringthe anti-Nizam struggle. This story sends a powerful message
thatno revolution would be a success without the involvement
ofcommon people. The old woman, who comes to know that the
young man who she had given shelter to had killed two persons,tells
him that still two more are left to be killed. This shows
therevolutionary thinking of Narasimha Rao. Having taken part in
theanti-Nizam struggle, he portrayed the feelings of the common
peoplein an excellent style in this story.
285
His second short-novel Mangaiah Adrustam

(Mangaiahsluck) is about gods in heaven, who divide into two
groups to opposethe hegemony of Lord Brahma. They fight to prove
their supremacyover each other by taking the help of Mangaiah, a
politician.
His novel Insider deals with the social, political
andeconomic developments in India between 1950 and 1980. It
narrateshow politics in the country is plagued by opportunism,
conspiracies,backstabbing for posts and positions and swindling of
public money.It depicts the inner turmoil in a sincere politician and
his internalrevolt. One can also find his anguish over the way Chief
Ministersof the states have become subservient to Delhi.
We think we have taken only sounds from
ancientvocabulary. But along with words, ancient thoughts also flow
in us.Thus, monarchy and reverence and loyalty towards the king
alsoget ingrained in our collective consciousness, Narasimha
Raoobserved in Insider. These comments have a deeper meaning
withstrong relevance. India now appears to be travelling in the path
of ideological bankruptcy.
In Narasimha Raos view, India is not just a
geographicalentity, but is a thought. When I talk about India, it is
not about ageographical map of India that we see in the World
Atlas. India ismuch bigger and broader. It represents a culture. It
represents aphilosophy. It says the entire world is one and the entire
universe isone. In Indias viewpoint, peace does not mean no war;
absolutepeace is what happens when everything in the universe is at
peace with one another. This is what the sloka Shanti eva Shanti
286

A. KRISHNA RAO
means.When we go to Malaysia, we can realise that Hinduism

flourishedmuch before idol worship began. There, you can find
thoughts ofHinduism but not idols. Here, there are beautiful idols
of gods, butthere are no thoughts. That is the difference, Narasimha
Rao said,while addressing the convention of Sarvartha Samkshema
Samithiin the capacity of Prime Minister at Andhra Pradesh Bhavan
in Delhiin September 1995. One can understand how lofty his ideals
were,if one reads the text of his speech.
When he was External Affairs Minister, Narasimha
Raodelivered several lectures abroad, explaining Indias
culturalsuperiority with some classic examples. Addressing a
gathering at anAustrian college on June 19, 1983, he spoke about
the impact ofIndian culture on the Western Europe right from the
days of theRomantic Era. He explained about the greatness of
Sanskrit literary works like Abhignana Sakuntalam and Megha
Sandesham written by Kalidasa.
Quoting American author Will Durant, he said
Indiasgreatness lies in its civilisation and tolerance. He mentioned
thenames of several writers in Europe who became scholars after
readingIndian literature. He read out the verses written by Goswami
Tulsidaswho said Lord Hanuman flung the demons away with his
tail soforcefully that they had fallen into another orbit in space and
couldnot return. Several writers like Friedrich Nietzsche,
FyodorDostoevsky, T S Eliot and H G Wells were deeply influenced
byancient Indian literature, he said.
287
Delivering the convocation address at Kakatiya University

onMarch 1, 1981, Narasimha Rao explained in detail about
theimportance of protests, dissidence and revolt. He
rememberedancient poets like Bammera Pothana, Rudrama Devi
andVidyaranya, apart from modern poet Kaloji Narayana
Rao.Describing Kaloji as an embodiment of rebellion, he said
nobodycould escape from his wrath. Protest comes naturally to
the peopleof Warangal, he said.
At a meeting of Bharatiya Sanskrit Parishad on August
11,1980, Narasimha Rao spoke in Hindi on literary giant
MunshiPremchand. He spoke eloquently on the books of
Premchand anddescribed him as a historic necessity, much to the
awe of several Hindi litterateurs.
While presenting the Jnanpith award to Punjabi poet
AmritaPritam on April 16, 1983, Narasimha Rao extensively quoted
herpoems. Similarly, while presenting Jnanpith award to another
greatpoet Mahadevi Varma on November 23, 1983, too, he went
onreading out her poems, as if he was thoroughly immersed himself
intheir flow. He explained the mysticism in her poems and said
hewould never forget some of her verses. He said her poems had
drivenaway uncertainty in him.
When he presented the Jnanpith award to famous Telugu
poetDr C Narayana Reddy in 1988, Narasimha Rao was the
chairmanof the award committee. But in 1995, while presenting
the awardto U R Ananta Murthy, he announced that he was stepping
downfrom the post of award committee chairman. He said in a
lightervein that people might misunderstand that Jnanpith could be
part of the Prime Ministers Office.
288

A. KRISHNA RAO
In 1992, Narasimha Rao released a compilation of

modernIndian literature edited by K M George under the auspices
of SahityaAcademy. Speaking on the occasion, he gave an in-
depthpresentation on romanticism and Sufism in Hindi poetry. He
alsoexplained how a translation should not kill the spirit of its
originalliterary work. He observed that the compilation made by
SahityaAcademy had ignored the spirit of Indian literature. He
pointed outthat the domestic literature and folk literature were
hundred timesmore powerful than the scholarly literature.
Where are the songs which we used to hum in our
villagesand our homes 150 years ago? he asked and commented
thatBhojpuri people were now singing film songs more than
theiroriginal folklore. He suggested that not just building new roads
andnew buildings; one should refine the literature, too, from time
totime.
On complexity in translations, Narasimha Rao observed
thatno other language could carry the fragrance of Shakespeare and
JohnKeats poems. He wondered why romanticism which had
dominatedHindu, Bengali and Odiya literature 70-80 years ago was
notwitnessed as a movement in South Indian languages.We listen
toRamayana and Mahabharata everywhere, but we need to know
why a particular literary movement has not spread in all the
languages.Why are we not able to see Sufism in the South? Why
has it notestablished itself as a movement here? he asked.
He said there wasa lot of difference between Kabir and
Vemana. He suggested thatSahitya Academy should ponder over
all these issues and come up with new ideas.
289
While presenting the Jnanpith award to popular

Kannadawriter U R Ananta Murthy on March 25, 1995, Narasimha
Raospoke extensively on Kannada literature. He was all praise for
AnantaMurthy for combining story-telling with poetry and poetry
withreality. Ananta Murthy excellently depicted the conflict
amongthe characters in the fast-changing society. It is difficult to
explainwhether he is a poet, critic or a novelist. He belongs to the
breed of K V Puttappa, Bendre, Shivram Karant, Masti
VenkateshwaraIyengar and V K Gokak, Narasimha Rao said and
read out thefamous poem Footwear of Gandhi, written by Ananta
Murthy.
In 2000, I met Narasimha Rao along with Rajya
Sabhamember Yarlagadda Lakshmi Prasad. I requested him to write
theforeword for Yarlagaddas book on History of Hindi Literature.
Hereadily agreed for the same. Almost a month later, Narasimha
Raowrote a 36-page foreword for the 362-page book of Yarlagadda.
One would know from this foreword how much
commandNarasimha Rao had on Hindi literature.The history of
Indian linguistics and literature is inextricablylinked to the history
of Indians. Both have attained a near visual appearance. The reason
for this is the comprehensive nature of theliterature of the day. Right
from the beginning, Indian literary worksoriginated from the
peoples lives, he emphasised in the foreword.
He analysed it further: Literature has flown from song
topoem, poetry to prose and from common people to scholars.
Theoryoriginated from a thesis. Sufism, debate over amorphous
devotionand societal traditions, process of political transformation
and impactof nationalism played their own role in Hindi literature.
290

A. KRISHNA RAO
Narasimha Rao said though Islamic scholars propounded

thatSufism was an offshoot of Holy Quran, it attained a new
structureand shape after it reached India. It is significant to compare
therelationship between human being and the god with the
onebetween a man and his lover, which is a universal
phenomenon.Sufi poets amalgamated this philosophy with musical
lyrics to createQawwali literature, he observed.
He pointed out that Sufi poetry was closer to Sakhi
traditionof Hinduism. The Islamic traditions being followed by
Kashmiriswas unparalleled and that was the true Kashmiriyat, he
said. Statingthat Sufi philosophy had been there in India for centuries,
NarasimhaRao said instead of looking down upon it as a hybrid
path, it wouldbe ideal for the people to understand its principle of
coexistence,desire for coordination and spiritual importance.
Narasimha Rao said among the Hindi poets, there were
quitea few who belonged to lower castes and were uneducated.
But theywere extraordinarily talented, social reformists and
opponents ofvile religious rituals. He referred to the works of some
such poetslike Kabir, Namdev, Gora, Narahari and Kanhopatra.
Similarqualities could be witnessed in some of the writings of poets
likePothana, Sur Das and Nanda Das, but Hindi poets had laid a
new path in works like Uddhav-Gopika Samvadam and
BhramaraGeethi. He explained how they narrated the Saguna-
Nirgunadispute in a beautiful and fascinating manner. He even
translatedsome of the verses of these poems into Telugu and quoted
them.
291
Narasimha Rao said the movement of Romanticism was

anunprecedented success in modern Hindi literature. Apart from
itssimplistic expression, the depth of emotions, intuitive
nature,narrative expertise and mysterious feeling had brought
uniquenessto Romanticism. Just like a dumb guy eating a candy,
some peoplecan feel the poetry but lack the ability to express, he
said.
He explained how Mahadevi Varma, who earned a
uniqueplace among the Romantic poets, expressed feminine
delicacy,depiction of multiple dualities, pleasant description of nature
andmelancholy in Buddhist literature. He translated some of her
poemsand quoted them in his foreword.
After stepping down as the Prime Minister, Narasimha
Raoreleased the book Yayathi, written by Vishnu
SakharamKhandekar and translated into Telugu by Yarlagadda, at
SahityaAcademy auditorium. He went on explaining about the
history ofMarathi literature and the best writings in that language.
He evenpointed out the typos in the translated version of Yayati
and softly reprimanded the academy for the same. He suggested
that theacademy should take enough care in avoiding such mistakes
in thepublication of such best books. The very next day, Sahitya
Academysecretary Sachidanandan gave a dressing down for the
academy stafffor the lapses.
Narasimha Rao also translated Marathi writer Hari
NarayanAptes novel Pan Lakshat Kon Gheto into Telugu with
the titleAbala Jeevitham. This was also published by Sahitya
292

A. KRISHNA RAO
Academy. Itis a story of the tragic life of a woman Yamuna, who

struggled atevery stage from childhood to death due to
superstitions andchild marriages in the society and faced tortures.
Anyone who readsthis novel would definitely be moved. Narasimha
Rao, too, might have been moved by reading this book and hence
decided to translateit.
After seeing this translation, Sahitya Academy realised
howmuch command Narasimha Rao had on Marathi literature. It
startedsending him scripts of Marathi literature translated into
Hindi,Telugu and English. Despite being a Union minister,
NarasimhaRao was pleased to make corrections in the scripts and
promptlyreturn them to the academy.
After reading the English version of One Hundred Years
ofSolitude, written by Spanish writer Gabriel Garcia
Marquez,Narasimha Rao got its original Spanish version and read
itthoroughly. Later, he also read Marquezs other book Love in
thetime of cholera. We will be mesmerised to read his books in
Spanishlanguage, rather than in English, he said.
Being a poet, novelist, story writer, translator, literary
criticand a polyglot, Narasimha Rao would have written more
bookshad he got enough time amidst his hectic political life. But
had heconcentrated only on literature, we would not have witnessed
thesocio-political transformation which we are experiencing in
Indianow!
` ` `
293
REFERENCES
1. India Unbound: from Independence to the Global

Information age,Gurcharan, 2015, Penguin Books India
2. The Post-Cold War World, Keith Philip Lepor, 1995,
University of Texas Press.
3. One Life is not Enough: An Autobiography, Natwar
Singh, 2014. Rupa and Co
4. On My Terms: From the Grassroots to the Corridors of
Power, Sharad Power, 2015, Speaking Tiger Publishing
Private Limited
5. Ayodhya, 6th December, 1992. P.V. Narasimha Rao,
2019, Penguin
6. The Kao boys of R&AW - Down the Memory Lane.
B.Raman, 2012, Lancer.
7. Coalition Years, Pranab Mukherjee, 2017. Rupa
Publications India
8. Har Nahi Manoonga, Ek Atal Jeevan Gatha, Vijay
Trivedi, 2016, Harper Collins Publishers India
9. Who Owns The CBI, The Naked Truth, B.R. Lall, 2005,
Manas Publications
10. Asalem Jarigindante, PVRK Prasad, 2015, EMESCO
Books, Hyderabad.
294

A. KRISHNA RAO
11. 21st Century Diplomacy, A Practitioners guide., Kishan

Rana, 2011, Bllomsbury Publishing
12. Walking with Lions: Tales from A Diplomatic Past,
Natwar Singh, 2012, Harper Collins Publishers India.
13. The Cultural Costs of a Globalized Economy for
India,Satya P Sharma, (Dialectical Anthropology, 1996,
The University of Saskatchewan, Canada)
14. An Indian Resurgence: Economic Reforms in
ADemocratic Society, P.V. Narasimha Rao, 1995, The
Herald International Review.
15. Narasimha Rao and the Bomb, K. Subrahmaniam,
Strategic Analyses, 2004, Manohar Parikkar Institute of
Defence Studies.
16. Jawaharlal Nehru: A Biography (Set of 3 Volumes)
SARVEPALLI GOPAL,1976, Oxford
17. P.V. Narasimha Rao Selected speeches, (4 volumes),
Publication Division, Ministry of Information and Broad
casting.
18. To the Brink and Back: Indias 1991 Story, Jairam
Ramesh, 2015, Rupa Publications India.
19. 1991: How P. V. Narasimha Rao Made History, Sanjaya
Baru, 2016, Aleph Book Company.
20. Half - Lion: How P.V Narasimha Rao TransformedIndia,
Vinay Sitapati,206, Penguin Books Limited
295
21. Globalization on the Ground New Media and the

Transformation of Culture, Class, and Gender in India.
22.. Hindi Sahitya Charitra, Yarlagadda Lakshmi Prasad,

2002,Vignan Publishers, Guntur.
23. Yayati, Marathi Original by Vishnu Sakharam

Khandekar,Translated into Telugu by Yarlagadda
Lakshmi Prasad,2018, Sahitya Academy
24. P.V. Narasimha Rao vs State(Cbi/Spe) 17 April, 1998

(https://indiankanoon.org/doc/45852197)
25. https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/a-look-at-
the-independence-day-speeches-made-by-prime-
ministers-since-1991/story-W06QQX6jl
T9mAQAn8Dk9HI.html
26. https://www.businesstoday.in/current/economy-politics/
rupee devaluation-in-1991-was-ordered-via-hand-
written-says-manmohan-singh/story/302250.html
27. The Court has grown stronger in keeping with the needof
the times: Justice J.S. Verma, India Today,(https://
www.indiatoday.in/magazine/cover-story/story/
19960315 -the-court-has-grown-stronger-in-keeping-
with-the-need-of-the-times-justice-j.s.-verma-
833082-1996-03-15)
296

A. KRISHNA RAO
28. Interview with former Prime Minister Narasimha Rao,

MD Nalapat, March, 2019 (https://www.pgurus.com/
interview-with-former-prime-minister-p-v-narasimha-
rao)
29. Jainhawala scam: The charge-sheets against politicians.

India Today archives(https://www. indiatoday.in/
magazine/cover-story/story/19960215-jain-hawala-
scam-the-charge-sheets-against-politicians-833021-
1996-02-15)
30. The Cabinet Secretary India Lost. But KVR Proved,

YetAgain, TJS George, The New Indian Express(https:/
/www.newindianexpress.com/opinions/columns/t-j-s
george/2015/dec/06/The-Cabinet-Secretary-India-
Lost.-But-KVR-Proved-Yet-Again-That-Honesty-
Was-the-Best-Policy-852340.html)
` ` `
297

The Quintessential Rebel

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The Quintessential Rebel

Translated from Telugu by  A.Srinivasa Rao

When I talk about India, it is not about a geographical map

A young plant requires nurturing, and that, in this stage,

If a region dominated by Muslims is handed over to

P.V. Narasimha Rao

(Latha) 1st Proof (4.1.22)

2. Ayodhya- From UP to Gujarat

5. Daring Decisions  Within and Outside

6. Politics of Home State

I am delighted to see that The Quintessential Rebel, the

(Latha) 1st Proof (4.1.22)

He writes in great detail about how Rao tackled tricky

History will record Narasimha Raos tenure in office as an

(Latha) 1st Proof (4.1.22)

Once I asked Rao how Mrs Gandhi conducted her cabinet

I happened to be at the press meet. I stood up and asked Rajiv:

(Latha) 1st Proof (4.1.22)

That evening, I went to his residence with a request that he

I travelled with Rao on several of his official foreign visits as

(Latha) 1st Proof (4.1.22)

I t was one of those summer days in 2003. The time was

(Latha) 1st Proof (4.1.22)

Minister on certain occasions, I got more opportunities to spend

scenario. I closely observed how Narasimha Rao, who was preparing

(Latha) 1st Proof (4.1.22)

Former President of India APJ Abdul Kalam rightly observed

path by keeping his mind under control, despite having thoughts of

(Latha) 1st Proof (4.1.22)

I also used to interact with Prime Ministers OSD A V R

(Latha) 1st Proof (4.1.22)

Recording histories of fake leaders and burying histories of

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A Krishna Rao is a senior journalist from Telangana based

(Latha) 1st Proof (4.1.22)

Besides being a prolific writer, Krishna Rao has also been a

Translated award-winning book of Dogri poet Padma Sachdev

(Latha) 1st Proof (4.1.22)

ABOUT THE TRANSILATOR

S rinivasa Rao Apparasu is a senior journalist based out of

I t is a success story which has not been recorded in history...

(Latha) 1st Proof (11.1.22)

Vishwanath Pratap Singh, who succeeded Rajiv Gandhi in

As a result, the current account deficit worsened, while

(Latha) 1st Proof (11.1.22)

India plunged into a pathetic financial position following

(Latha) 1st Proof (11.1.22)

(Latha) 1st Proof (11.1.22)

Therefore, the reforms process initiated by Narasimha Rao

Stating that one should try to strike a balance between

(Latha) 1st Proof (11.1.22)

ports. This immediate need makes it inevitable to follow the present

He was of the view that there is a close relationship between

(Latha) 1st Proof (11.1.22)

conveniently ignored the fact that Manmohan Singh was only a

to suggest a couple of names. Initially, he thought of appointing

(Latha) 1st Proof (11.1.22)

By then, it had been just 24 hours since Manmohan Singh

Act (FERA), amendments in Monopolies and Restrictive Trade

(Latha) 1st Proof (11.1.22)

Stating that he was against privatisation of the public sector,

Manmohan Singh told Chidambaram firmly: Take a decision

(Latha) 1st Proof (11.1.22)

Addressing the Congress Parliamentary Party on July 9,

Translated from Telugu by A.Srinivasa Rao

When I talk about India, it is not about a geographical map

A young plant requires nurturing, and that, in this stage,

If a region dominated by Muslims is handed over to

5. Daring Decisions Within and Outside

I am delighted to see that The Quintessential Rebel, the

History will record Narasimha Raos tenure in office as an

I t was one of those summer days in 2003. The time was

I also used to interact with Prime Ministers OSD A V R

A Krishna Rao is a senior journalist from Telangana based

S rinivasa Rao Apparasu is a senior journalist based out of

I t is a success story which has not been recorded in history...

ports. This immediate need makes it inevitable to follow the present

Manmohan Singh told Chidambaram firmly: Take a decision

We have no other choice but to take hard decisions, he

Self-Reliance is not a mere slogan for me. It means the ability

Reacting to the CPI members argument that resources which

But what is sovereignty? Sovereignty does not consist in not

Economic Reforms in A Democratic Society, he explained why

Releasing his book Changing India in December 2018,

The British foreign office took Narasimha Raos request

This is particularly true in developing countries. Where

Narasimha Rao observed how Rajiv Gandhis decisions had

R ight from the day one of assuming power, Narasimha Rao