P. V. Narasimha Rao

Pamulaparthi Venkata Narasimha Rao (28 June 1921 – 23 December 2004), popularly known as P. V. Narasimha Rao, was an Indian lawyer, statesman and politician who served as the 9th prime minister of India from 1991 to 1996.

He is known for introducing various liberal reforms to India's economy.

P. V. Narasimha Rao was born on 28 June 1921 in a Telugu Niyogi Brahmin family in the village of Laknepalli village of Narsampet mandal, Warangal district of present-day Telangana (then part of Hyderabad State).

His father Sitarama Rao and mother Rukma Bai hailed from agrarian families.

Later, he was adopted by Pamulaparthi Ranga Rao and Rukminamma and brought to Vangara, a village in Bheemadevarpalle mandal of present-day Hanamkonda district in Telangana when he was three years old.

Popularly known as P. V., he completed part of his primary education in Katkuru village of Bheemdevarapalli mandal in Hanamkonda district by staying in his relative Gabbeta Radhakishan Rao's house and studying for his bachelor's degree in the Arts college at the Osmania University.

He was part of Vande Mataram movement in the late 1930s in the Hyderabad State.

He later went on to Hislop College, now under Nagpur University, where he completed a master's degree in law.

He completed his law from Fergusson College in Pune of the University of Bombay (now Mumbai).

Along with his distant cousin Pamulaparthi Sadasiva Rao, Ch.

Raja Narendra and Devulapalli Damodar Rao, P. V. edited a Telugu weekly magazine called Kakatiya Patrika in the 1940s.

Both P. V. and Sadasiva Rao contributed articles under the pen-name Jaya-Vijaya.

He served as an elected representative for Andhra Pradesh State Assembly from 1957 to 1977.

He served in various ministerial positions in Andhra government from 1962 to 1973.

He served as the Chairman of the Telugu Academy in Andhra Pradesh from 1968 to 1974.

He had wide interests in a variety of subjects (other than politics) such as literature and computer software (including computer programming).

He spoke 17 languages.

He became the Chief minister of Andhra Pradesh in 1971 and implemented land reforms and land ceiling acts strictly.

He secured reservation for lower castes in politics during his tenure.

In 1991, Rao employed Manmohan Singh as his finance minister to embark on important economic transition.

With Rao's mandate, Manmohan Singh launched India's globalisation angle of the reforms that implemented the International Monetary Fund (IMF) policies to rescue the almost bankrupt nation from economic collapse.

Rao was also referred to as Chanakya for his ability to steer economic and political legislation through the parliament at a time when he headed a minority government.

His achievements include steering India through the 1991 economic crisis, completing a tenure with a minority government, establishing diplomatic relations with Israel, starting India's Look East policy, rekindling India's nuclear programme, defeating the 1994 United Nations resolution against India, effectively handling and crushing insurgency in Punjab, tough policy against terrorism in Kashmir, and opening partial diplomatic relations with Taiwan.

The current Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, announced, on 9 February 2024, that P.V. Narasimha Rao would be posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award.

Rao was an active freedom fighter during the Indian Independence movement and joined full-time politics after independence as a member of the Indian National Congress.

Kalam acknowledged that Rao, had in fact, asked him to get ready for testing nuclear weapons in 1996, but they were not carried out, due to the change of government pursuant to the

1996 Indian general election.

The Vajpayee-led NDA government later conducted the nuclear tests in 1998.

It emerged later, that Rao had briefed Vajpayee on the state of readiness for nuclear tests, paving the way for this decision.

Rao's years as prime minister also saw the emergence of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a major right-wing party, as an alternative to the Indian National Congress which had been governing India for most of its post-independence history.

Future prime ministers, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh, continued the economic reform policies pioneered by Rao's government.

Although he was also criticised during his tenure and even sidelined later by his own party, retrospective evaluations have been kinder, even positioning him as one of the best prime ministers of India in various polls and analyses.

Rao died in 2004 of a heart attack in New Delhi.

He was cremated in Hyderabad.

His ascendancy to the prime ministership was politically significant because he was the first from South India (United Andhra Pradesh).

He is also the second holder of this office from a non-Hindi-speaking region (Telugu).

He led an important administration, overseeing a major economic transformation and several home incidents affecting national security of India.

Rao, who held the Industries portfolio, was personally responsible for the dismantling of the Licence Raj, as this came under the purview of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, reversing the economic policies of Rajiv Gandhi's government.

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described Rao as the true father of economic reforms in India.

The11th president of India, APJ Abdul Kalam described Rao as a "patriotic statesman who believed that the nation is bigger than the political system".