PV Narasimha Rao underplayed his personality: Justice PS Narasimha

Hyderabad: Supreme Court Judge Justice PS Narasimha on Saturday said that former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao was master in underplaying his personality and he had developed a character that he did not touch upon others on what he was but leaves behind what he had done.

Narasimha was speaking after releasing a book 'The Quintessential Rebel' a political biography of former Prime Minister of India PV Narasimha Rao written by senior journalist A Krishna Rao here on Saturday. Justice Narasimha said PV Narasimha Rao's mind was a generation ahead of all. He was a master in underplaying his personality. "He had developed his character in such a way that he didn't touch upon others on what he was but left behind what he had done and that is the reason why it took so long for everybody to recount the enormous reforms he had brought," said Justice Narasimha.

Justice Narasimha further said that PV Narasimha Rao was a great patriot and unless one is deeply religious and highly patriot, these ideas can't be implemented overnight. "Manmohan Singh had said, he is a sage..., he can't be reinterpreted to say he knew what is to remain ultimately and what is not to remain ultimately. His personality was not to remain but the reforms which were to be brought about were," he said.

Justice L Nageswara Rao said that PV, a person who should have been talked a lot, was not talked about at all and was completely ignored. "A person who had to really toil hard all his life and a person who became a Prime Minister after so many viscidities, which were there to stop him becoming the Prime Minister. The trouble he had for heading a minority government for five years without any problems as an astute politician. A person who had changed the history of India," said Nageswara Rao.

He further added that there were events in history which had really changed the track of where the country should go. People and persons like PV shifted the course of the country. A situation from a deficit of 2 billion dollars in early 1991 but now IMF says 5.6 trillion dollars economy by 2027 and all this was due to the one person that was PV Narasimha Rao.

He said that Krishna Rao was frank in this book, wherever there was wrong at that point of time. He recalled an interaction of PV with the then Chief Justice of India Venkatachaliah. "When PV said we were going to be good friends, Venkatachalaih said we were never going to be friends and after this, PV responded saying we would work together," Justice Nageswara Rao recalled. Senior editor Venkat Narayan, senior journalist Maa Sharma were also present.