இந்தியப் பொருளாதாரம் சீர்குலைந்த
1990களின் துவக்கத்தில் உலகமயமாக்கல், தாராளமயமாக்கல் என்று மேலும் வாட்டக் கூடிய வகையில்
இந்தியாவின் பொருளாதராப் பாதையை வகுத்தவர் அன்றைய பிரதமர் நரசிம்மராவ். இந்தியப் பிரதமர்,
ஆந்திர முதல்வர், மத்திய அரசின் பல்வேறு முக்கியத் துறைகளின் கேபினட் அமைச்சராக விளங்கியவர்.
ஆந்திரத்தில் தெலுங்கானா பிரச்சனை, சென்னை ரெட்டி தலைமையில் எழுந்த போது இந்திரா காந்தி
இவரை ஒன்றுபட்ட ஆந்திராவின் முதல்வராக்கினார். இவருக்கும் சோனியாவிற்கும் ஏழாம் பொருத்தம்.
ராஜீவ் பிரதமராக இருந்தபோதும் இவரை சரியாக அங்கீகரிக்கவில்லை. பல்வேறு மொழிகளை அறிந்தவர்.
இலக்கியத்திலும் நாட்டம் கொண்டவர். இவரை கவிழ்க்க காங்கிரசில் இருந்த தலைவர்களே பின்னாலிருந்து
தள்ள முயற்சித்தும் ஐந்தாண்டுகள் பிரதமராக மௌனமாக இருந்து காலத்தை தள்ளிவிட்டார்.
இவர் இறந்தபின் அவரது உடலைக்
கூட அகில இந்திய காங்கிரஸ் கமிட்டி அலுவலகத்திற்கு கொண்டு வரத் தடை விதிக்கப்பட்டது.
அந்த அலுவலகத்தின் வாயில்களும் மூடப்பட்டுவிட்டன. பலப் பிரதமர்களை டெல்லியில் நல்லடக்கம்
செய்தாலும் இவருடைய நல்லடக்கம் ஹைதராபாத்தில் தான் செய்ய வேண்டுமென்று டெல்லியில் சேர்ந்த
இவரது சகாக்கள் திட்டமிட்டே அனுப்பிவிட்டனர். ஹைதராபாத்தில் இவருக்கான நினைவிடம் அமைக்க
அன்றைய முதல்வர் மறைந்த ஒய்.எஸ். ராஜசேகர ரெட்டி அறிவித்தும் கிடப்பில் போடப்பட்டது.
நரசிம்ம ராவ் யாருடனும் நட்பு
பாராட்டி அன்பு காட்டக் கூடியவர். ஏனோ, அவர் உயிரோடிருக்கும் போது காயப்படுத்தி சிரமப்படுத்தினார்களோ
என்று தெரியவில்லை.
அவரைக் குறித்து ஆங்கிலத்தில்
டி.எச்.சௌத்ரி சௌத் ஆசியப் பாலிடிக்ஸ் (South Asia Politics – Feb 2018) இதழில் எழுதிய பத்தி வருமாறு.
Bharat’s Maha Ratna: P V Narasimha Rao
T H Chowdary
Some so
far suppressed true facts about the insulted, ignored intellectual Prime
Minister Bharat’s Maha Ratna P.V.Narasimha Rao who liberated the inherently
enterprising Indians from the shackles of Nehruvian socialism(rightly
characterized by Rajaji as the pernicious permit-licence-quota raj) which
condemned India to the pejoratively called Hindu rate of GDP growth at 3% per
year for four decades of planned development, for a population growing at 2.8%
per year, deserve to be told, to do justice to the man who bears comparison to
Deng Tsiao Ping of China who, without denouncing or repudiating the stultifying
Maoist communism, put China on the part of free enterprise calling it socialism
with Chinese characteristics, for it to emerge as a super power challenging the
established one, the United States of America.
In his
six decades-long political life, Sri P.V.Narasimha Rao held the largest variety
of ministries in the state and central government, including Chief Minister of
A.P. in 1971 and the Prime Minister of India during 1991-96 health, education,
defence, foreign affairs, home, industries, HRD(education) and rural
development. He has the record of seven successive wins in elections to the
State Assembly and to the Parliament; once from Nandyal not his native district
from A.P. and from Ramtek in Maharastra to the Parliament. He is a
multi-linguist, 10 languages including Spanish(which he learnt in1978 in JNU
when he was in the opposition) in his 60’s. He translated the Magnum Opus of
Kavi Samrat Viswanatha Satyanarayana’s Veyi Padagalu (1000 Hoods) of over 1000
pages into Marathi.
In the
aftermath of separate Telangana agitation he was appointed by Indira Gandhi as
the Chief Minister of A.P. She expected him to do whatever she desired and he
did comply. Soon she realized she wanted a different type of man. She removed
him as Chief Minister. He wrote, “even though I did all, (what she wanted)
Madam Gandhi treated me so badly”. He was removed as General Secretary of the
Congress for his observation about Emergency namely, “dialogue would help but
not detentions”.
During
the time he as in the dog house 1973-74 PV visited America and stayed there for
a few months in his daughter’s home. He poured to the newspapers. He saw how
the economy was thriving. He came to the conclusion that Nehruvian and Soviet
type socialism were totally inappropriate. International trade, manufacturing
and free economy were answer for India’s development.
When he
was Home Minister and Rajiv was the newly installed Prime Minister slaughter of
Sikhs in Delhi took place in 1984. As the Home Minister normally he would have
been held responsible. The fact is that the PMO directed him to keep off the
police and the genocide of Sikhs going on in and around Delhi. The PMO directly
dealt with the situation overlooking the slaughter of Sikhs by Congress-men led
death squads. Rajiv Gandhi dismissed the event by saying that when a banyan
tree falls, there would be tremors of the early nearby!
When he
was Foreign Minister, he accompanied Rajiv Gandhi, the Prime Minister on his
China visit in 1988. He was kept away from Rajiv’s meeting with Deng Tsiao
Ping, an insult that pained incited him to resent.
He was
chosen by Sonia as the Prime Minister on the advice of P.N. Haksar. It was
first offered into Sankar Dayal Sharma who declined saying that he was too old
to do justice. He was preferred to Shard Pawar and Arjun Singh, because he had
no committed following in the Congress party nor did he have enemies; also, he
was not a person popular with people. He was expected to carry out the dictates
of Sonia whose concern the was that Bofors should not be investigated.
He was
under the tutelage to Sonia Gandhi during his first year of Prime Ministership
in1991, every week, he had to go to see her. The lady’s concern was that the
G.O.I should go soft on Bofors inquires. PV sent his foreign minister, Solanki
to Sweden with a secret letter that their media and the government should not
play up Bofors.
P.V.
became the Prime Minister in the b most difficult economic situation of the
country. The foreign exchange reserves ran out. Country was about to default on
debt repayment. Industry would come to a halt because no foreign exchange was
available to pay for the imports of raw materials and parts and machinery 21
tons of gold had to be flown out of Indian to London as pledge for a loan; to
repay the debt installments due to have three months foreign exchange for
imports. He silenced his “Nehruvian socialist” Congressmen by quoting an
aphorism in Sanskrit. P.V. said that desperate maladies called for drastic
remedies and he justified the pledging of gold by invoking a sookti in
Sanskrit, “Sarvanase Samutapanne artham tyajati panditaah” (when calamity
threatens, the wise give up wealth).
The IMF
and the World Bank were too approached for another loan. They insisted on
devaluation of the rupee and liberalisation of the economy.
As
Prime Minister of Crisis-ridden country he had to choose an expert in economies
who would also be acceptable to the world, especially to the World Bank. The
choice was Manmohan Singh who was totally apolitical and who had also discarded
his love of Soviet style and Nehruvian socialism and was for free enterprise.
How to sell this to the Congress Party which is addicted to Nehruvian socialism
state control and public sector. It is here that PV’s genius showed up. He used
Manmohan Singh to face and answer every criticism.
He
totally backed him in what all he had to do like devaluation of the rupee,
removal of permit-licence-quota system and establish a totally liberated
industrial and business environment. After the financial crises was over, he
called for a plenary of the Congress in Tirupati in April 1992. Here he showed
his genius. He went on talking about Nehruvian socilalism for all round
accelerated development and for helping the poor to get out of poverty. This is
exactly what Deng Tsiao Ping leading China did –praising Mao and communism but
added the phrase, socialism with Chinese characteristics. P.V. described his
reforms, “liberalisation and globalisation with a human face”. These words
silences Sonia loyalists talking of socialism.
For the
first time in years P.V. wanted that the Congress working committee members
should be elected have not nominated. In the election, his bitter opponent
Arjun Singh got the highest number of votes, Second bitterest for Sharad Pawar
also sailed through easily. Both were disaffected aspirants for Prime
Ministership. P.V. did not like either of them. He set aside the entire
election saying that not a single woman and SC person was elected. How can the
Nehruvian socialist Congress as a working committee without a lady and an SC
person. In order to do justice to those two selections, he asked all the
elected members to resign and then he nominated whomsoever he wanted. Not to
have trouble he nominated Arjun Singh and Sharad Pawar also. That means they
were not elected representatives but nominated by P.V. and therefore should be
grateful to him.
Some
brag that they had gone to Davos to address the largest number of business men
and economists and Chief executives of the biggest companies P.V. Narasimha Rao
addressed the Davos World Economic Forum twice, where he explained his
liberalisation and globalisation with a human face. He told the IMF’s Chief, Camdessus
that his liberalization would be given up, if even worker complained that he
lost his job because of globalisation or liberalisation.
Ten
days before P.V. would be dying an emissary from Sonia inquired of his son
where P.V. would be cremated. That was even when he was alive, it was not be
allowed in Delhi. When he died the then Chief Minister of A.P. Sonia’s loyalist
Y.S.Rajasekhara Reddy told P.V.’s family that a magnificient cremation would be
arranged in Hyderabad and a grand memorial would be built for him. None of
these promises were kept.
On the
way to the airport, his dead body was not allowed to be displayed at the
Congress Party’s HQ at 10, Janpath. The gates were shut on Sonia’s orders, so
that Congress-men would not pay respect to the departed former Congress
President and Prime Minister. Such an ignoble deed could come only from persons
of low birth and vulgar culture.
Like
Nehru, who wrote about himself under a pseudonym Rashtrapati, in Modern Review
in Nov 1937. P.V. wrote about Rajiv Gandhi in1990 in the left-eaning journal
Main stream edited by Nikhil Chakravarty. He identified himself only eas a
Congress-man. He was critical of Rajiv’s naivete in handling Ayodhya. ….” while
Rajiv may not have made money in the Bofors scam, it was more probable that
Rajiv as “an inept leader blinded by his own election victory in 1984.
Thereafter Rajiv Gandhi was right all the way, whatever he said or did; so
there was no limits anymore. What he heard day in and day out from his young
coterie was nothing but fulsome praise.
He
became a praise-addict. The elders either joined the chorus or looked on, not
knowing what to do”.
P.V. is
wrongly accused of collusion with the Hindu Right for the pulling down of the
Babri structure in Ayodhaya on 06 Dec 1992. The facts however are: He trusted
L.K.Advani who assured him that it would not be pulled down; he was comfortable
that the Chief Minister Kalyan Singh assured the Supreme Court about Safety of
the structure. Besides, the Center cannot send central police unless the State
government requested; and President’s rule could not be imposed because the
governor B.Satyanarayanan Reddy did not ask for it; but on the contrary, on
December 1,1992 he send a letter recommending against imposition of President’s
rule; the loud-mouthed champion of secularism, Arjun Singh when challenged to
move a resolution in the cabinet for imposition of President’s rule, he did not
be so.
P.V.’s
magnanimity and Bharatiya samskruti are seen in his regime conferred Bharata
Ratna on JRD Tata in the year 1992. The first time a “socialist” India honoured
a business man. This was a message by PV to the private sector that they are
partners to develop India. P.V. conferred Padma Vibhushan on Atal Behari
Vajpayee in the year 1992; an unthinkable during the rule of a Nehru Dynasty.
P.V.
held that Rajiv’s sending the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) to Sri Lanks
was unwise; that Indira sending armed forces into the Golden Temple in Amritsar
in 1984 was wrong; he held that Rajiv had been a disaster; (English as first
language);
He moved among rootless non-resident Indians whose
mind-set was colonised by the west; he opined that Congress is train to be
attached to the Nehru – Indira – Rajiv – Sonia family engine; the imposition of
Emergency by Indira Gandhi in June 1975 was wrong. These thought were enter din
his private diaries.
P.V.
faced five no confidence motions, two on divisions, like vote of thanks to the
President and three formal ones, the
largest any Prime Minister of India had to face. He survived all of them by
luck, by engineering division among the disparate opposition parties and by
outright injection of Vitamin M(money) into vulnerable MPs. And all this he did
to bury the ghost of Nehruvian socialism, while praising him, giving Rs.100 cr
gift to Rajiv Gandhi Foundation and invoking secularism to ward off the attack
of leftists in Congress and the communist. No minority government in the world
carried out such fundamental economic and industrial reforms as P.V. did. That
alone qualifies him to be a Bharat’s Maha Ratna.
Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka
IPKF
was the Indian military contingent performing a peacekeeping operation in Sri
Lanka between 1987 and 1990. It was formed under the mandate of the 1987
Indo-Sri Lankan Accord that aimed to end the Sri Lankan Civil War between
militant Sri Lankan Tamil nationalists such as the Liberation Tigers
Eelam (LTTE) and the Sri Lankan military.
The
main task of the IPKF was to disarm the different militant groups, not just the
LTTE. It was to be quickly followed by the formation of an Interim the terms of
the Indo-Sri Lankan Accord, signed at the behest of Indian Prime Minister
Rajiv Gandhi. Given the escalation of
the conflict in Sri Lanka, and with the pouring of refugees into India, Gandhi
took the decisive step to push this accord through. The IPKF was inducted into
Sri Lanka on the request of Sri Lankan President J.R.Jayewardene under the
terms of the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord.
The
force was initially not expected to be involved in any significant combat by
the Indian High Command. However, within a few months, the IPKF became
embroiled in battle with the LTTE to enforce peace. The differences started
with LTTE trying to dominate the Interim Administrative Council, and also refusing
to disarm, which was a pre-condition to enforce peace in the island. Soon,
these differences led to the LTTE attacking the IPKF, at which point the IPKF
decided to disarm the LTTE militants, by force if required. In the two years it
was in northern Sri Lanka, the IPKF launched a number of combat operations
aimed at destroying the LTTE-led insurgency. Given LTTE’s tactics in guerrilla
warfare and using women and child soldiers to fight battles, it soon escalated
into repeated skirmishes between the IPKF and LTTE.
The
IPKF began withdrawing from Sri Lanka in 1989, following the election of the
V.P.Singh government in India and on the request of the newly elected Sri
Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa. The last IPKF contingents left Sri Lanka
in March 1990.
#பி_வி_நரசிம்மராவ்
#p_v_narasimha_rao
*கே.எஸ்.இராதாகிருஷ்ணன்*
13-02-2018
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