Forgotten hero

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Forgotten hero

We are accustomed to forgetting persons who have done a lot for us. The political parties are front runners in this bad quality. The best example can be given of former prime minister late P V Narsimhrao, who is considered as a pioneer of starting economic reforms in the country which changed the fortune of India. Narsimha Rao the only third prime minister from Congress but non-Gandhi dynasty(for some days Gulzarilal Nanda was made PM after the death of Pundit Nehru and Lalbahadur Shastri whose death in Russia is still a mystery) who was an unsung hero for Congress. Congress is so much angered with Rao can be seen from the fact that, on Monday 28 June, on the day of his birthday, no Congressman even paid tribute to him. The fear is that Sonia or Rahul Gandhi would be angry with paying tribute to Rao.  But Rao has been the pioneer of economic reforms in India and opening the doors of the country to liberalization. Because of Rao, we now instill a strong position. His decision gave rise to neo middle class who later on ruled America for some time by working in Silicon Valley. Because of Rao, our economic position saw a change upside down and the country saw exodus of our engineers and architects abroad. Due to this workforce, our foreign reserve has become so strong today. Not only that, our huge markets were a big temptation for international companies which resulted in our two girls Aishwarya Rai and Sushmita Sen were crowned as Miss India. If our rising markets were not the attraction, it is very difficult to gauge whether they were crowned. Now, India’s markets are not that much attractive for international companies and so after that none of our girls was selected as the winner of the pageant. Rao changed India’s fortune by opening up doors for globalization which word had not been heard till then by anybody.  It was Rao who initiated our entry into international markets and which made our neo middle class extremely rich so that, in the US, Indians are in a strong political position to decide US president. Of course, Rao was not remotely concerned with Gandhi's dynasty and so he had to face the wrath of Sonia and pariwar.  He was harassed for nothing and was faced humiliation in the party. But, he was extremely clever and he had shown how to run a minority government for five years. Some people give credit for economic reforms to Man Mohan Singh which is absolutely untrue.  Singh was not the original choice of Rao for the finance ministry. After the denial of IG Patel, he was chosen by Rao for the historical job.  The economic condition of the country was such a grave that first, we had the challenge to bring back our seventy-tonne gold kept as a mortgage in the Bank of London.  Rao changed all this and paid the price for it with the wrath of Gandhi dynasty.  Rao had never given his due credit for his good deeds. Congress was planting landmines in his career throughout his PM tenure.  It is not that, Rao was not flawed. He had made many mistakes as his role in Anti Sikh riots was dubious and in his tenure, Babri Mosque was devastated. Because of his inept handling of the Ayodhya issue, the minorities went away from Congress forever. But, Congress was so angry with Rao that his relatives were denied permission to cremate at Delhi after his death. His body was taken to Hyderabad at his ancestral village for a funeral.  No Congressman remembered him on his birthday. Rao met such humiliation after death also tells his sad story. He is a forgotten hero of our country for which he played a historical role in changing fate.