- Saturday, November 23, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
Prime minister Narendra Modi on Monday (28) paid rich tributes to his predecessor and India’s ninth prime minister P V Narasimha Rao on his 100th birth anniversary. He said the country remembers his extensive contributions to national development.
Rao, a Congress leader, became the prime minister in June 1991 after Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated during the election campaign that year and led a minority government for five years.
He, along with his finance minister Manmohan Singh, who also went on to become the prime minister later, is credited with liberalising the Indian economy that brought transformational changes. It was also during his term that the Babri Masjid’s demolition had taken place in Ayodhya in the North Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.
In a tweet, Modi said: “Tributes to former PM Shri PV Narasimha Rao Ji on his 100th birth anniversary. India remembers his extensive contributions to national development. He was blessed with remarkable knowledge and intellect.” He also shared a clip of his radio broadcast ‘Mann Ki Baat’ of last year in which he had paid tributes to the late prime minister.
Vice president Venkaiah Naidu remembers Rao
Vice president M Venkaiah Naidu also paid tributes to Rao, calling him an “undisputed torchbearer” of economic reforms in India. He said Rao will always be remembered for his undeterred commitment to national development.
“My humble tributes to Shri PV Narasimha Rao, an astute administrator, statesman, visionary and the undisputed torchbearer of economic reforms in India on his hundredth birth anniversary,” the Vice President secretariat tweeted, quoting Naidu.
Rao, who was born on June 28, 1921, in the current-day Telangana, was a polyglot and a distinguished man of letters. An active freedom fighter during the colonial period, Rao had become a member of the legislative Assembly of the then undivided Andhra Pradesh and also served as its chief minister in 1971-73.
He had also been a member of the Parliament in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s and held key portfolios in the governments of Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and himself. He passed away in New Delhi at the age of 83 in December 2004.
