We remember the man who liberalized India, but we rarely remember the man who did the liberalizing. It was June 1991. India was bankrupt. Literally. The country had just 15 days worth of foreign exchange reserves left. The treasury was so empty that the government had to pawn its gold reserves to stay afloat. The Soviet Union, our largest trading partner, was collapsing. Chaos reigned.
But whispers can move mountains.
Was he perfect? No. But was he the "communal" leader his opponents painted him as? Hardly. He was a man caught between the law, the streets, and a rising tide of religious nationalism. This is Rao’s real legacy. He knew economics, but he didn't know finance. So, he did something incredibly rare for a Prime Minister: He chose a Finance Minister who was smarter than him. sthanam narasimha rao
(a common misspelling or reference to his title "Sthanam" meaning position/seat) was the lighthouse that guided a sinking ship. We remember the man who liberalized India, but
There is a unique kind of tragedy in Indian politics—the tragedy of . Literally
But digging deeper, Rao’s actions were those of a pragmatist trapped in a nightmare. He famously told his colleagues, "Even if you send the Army, by the time they arrive, the structure will be gone." He tried to save the structure via legal assurances (the "Ayodhya Assurance" given to the Supreme Court). When it fell, he was accused of inaction. Yet, he immediately dismissed four BJP state governments (who were associated with the event) and banned the RSS-affiliated organizations involved.
He is the man who "opened" Israel without formally recognizing it (relations were established in 1992). He brought the "Look East" policy to life, pivoting India toward ASEAN nations, predicting the rise of China and the need for India to counterbalance it decades before it became fashionable. The Congress party, for a long time, neglected him because he wasn't from the "Gandhi family." He was a regional leader who rose on merit. After his tenure ended in 1996, and the Congress lost the election, Rao was sidelined. Worse, he was implicated in a bribery scandal (the JMM bribery case—from which he was later acquitted), and the party distanced itself from him.