Is the Congress too late in trying to reclaim Narasimha Rao’s legacy?

Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi’s praise of former Prime Minister late PV Narasimha Rao has been heralded as a significant departure by the Congress leader from her past position and, perhaps, a course correction to do justice to one of the most reformist Prime Ministers who shaped the economy to what it is today.

Is it because Sonia Gandhi has belatedly realised the pitfalls of ignoring the contributions of Rao, which could be an attempt to win over some sections of voters? There is nothing to show that Sonia Gandhi and her family or top Congress leaders have done a reassessment of the importance of Rao’s legacy for revival of the party.

However, what is clear is that in the absence of any respect shown towards Rao’s memory among the present generation of the Congress leaders, other political parties, particularly the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), have not hesitated to honour the late leader, who had his share of ups and downs while he was Prime Minister from 1991 to 1996.

What we do know is that the immediate reason for Sonia Gandhi and her son and former Congress President Rahul Gandhi to issue statements honouring Rao — 15 years after his death — has had a lot to do with a desperate SOS sent by Telangana Congress Chief Uttam Kumar Reddy.

Struggling as he is with the task to revive the Congress in the state, Reddy cautioned his bosses in Delhi about their political rivals out to completely appropriate the name, fame and legacy of Rao, who is considered a great son of the soil in both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

Hence, the inauguration of the year-long centenary celebrations of Rao organised by the Congress’ Telangana unit — in competition with the TRS — was a perfect foil to send the right signal.

Besides, July 24 marked the 29th anniversary of the epoch-making 1991 budget, presented by Manmohan Singh, who was then the finance minister in Rao’s government. The 1991 budget is hailed as the harbinger of liberalisation in India.

Since 2014, the Congress has been at its wits’ end in Telangana after it ceded ground to TRS leader and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR). KCR has taken full credit for the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh into Telangana and a smaller Andhra Pradesh, when the bifurcation was actually done by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in the hope that it will enable the Congress win the 2014 assembly polls in both the states. However, KCR walked away with the cake.

KCR has kicked off the year-long centenary celebrations of Rao by demanding India’s highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna, be conferred on the former PM. The local Congressmen have also seen KCR trying to woo the Rao family by promising an MLC seat for one of them. The BJP too has not been far behind in this regard. In 2014, Rao's grandson NV Subhash had joined the BJP. Last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi chided the Congress for having ignored Rao's contribution.

Given this scenario, can the Congress afford to lose the battle for a slice of Rao’s legacy, at least in Telangana? Yet these statements by Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in praise of Rao do not give the impression of a change of heart. It’s more like water off the duck’s back.

Over the past 15 years, Rao’s contributions have remained obliterated by the Congress. This is not because Sonia Gandhi cannot forgive Rao’s past acts as Prime Minister that did little to improve their personal equations or salvage the pro-Muslim credentials of the Congress in the wake of demolition of the Babri masjid in Ayodhya in 1992. In addition to this, Rao was the Union home minister in 1984 when the anti-Sikh riots took place after the assassination of Indira Gandhi.

Those were low points for Rao and he was blamed for the Congress losing its ‘secular’ plank after his government failed to protect the 1992 demolition at Ayodhya. This meant that Rao was relegated to the margins of the party, even banished of sorts. Therefore, Rao cannot be the ultimate selling point for the Congress in north India.

More importantly, there is no love lost for him. Sonia Gandhi may have chosen Rao as Prime Minister after the Congress secured enough numbers to form government after the 1991 elections. However, Rao was not the first choice. Being reluctant to take charge herself, Sonia Gandhi’s first choice was Shankar Dayal Sharma, who was then Vice President, but his failing health did not fit the bill.

Rao was not moulded as a Congressman who thought it necessary to genuflect at 10 Janpath. As years rolled by, Rao’s interactions with Sonia Gandhi began to drop even as the former’s detractors added fear and bitterness to their growing distance between the two.
These detractors fed Sonia Gandhi with stories about Rao’s alleged plot to destabilise her, and about the possibility that investigations into the Bofors scam would be reopened.

Sonia Gandhi forayed into politics only in 1998 after Sitaram Kesri had cleared the stables for her. Ironically, Rao had chosen Kesri to succeed him as Congress Chief, but the latter lost no time to downsize Rao. Rao later admitted to this author that he had made a mistake in giving up the post of Congress Chief. Finally, Kesri was himself shown the door.

As expected, Rao did not find a place in Sonia Gandhi -led Congress Working Committee (CWC) despite him having been a former Prime Minister. Once she took full charge, Rao had to pay even a heavy price and faced humiliation on many occasions — until his death in 2004 by which time Sonia Gandhi had led the party back to power by forming the UPA.

History is witness that a day after his death, Rao mortal remains was not allowed inside the AICC headquarters at 24 Akbar Road in New Delhi — it’s an honour given to Congress leaders, and Rao was denied that even though he was a Prime Minister. Rao was cremated in Hyderabad, and it is alleged that Sonia Gandhi’s close aides were behind these moves. However, in 2015, Rao got a memorial at Ekta Sthal, in Delhi.

Shekhar Iyer is former senior associate editor of Hindustan Times and political editor of Deccan Herald. Views are personal.