They call him the compromise candidate the only politician everyone could agree upon. Or to put it differently the one person people disliked the least. The backhanded compliment is well deserved it describes the essence of the man more aptly than a list of his attributes. Today a tum of events has transformed his greatest weakness into his greatest asset.
This is really nothing new. During a long Political career that began in 1957 Rao had perfected the art of consensual politics long before V.P.Singh had even heard of them. Consensus of course is the kind interpretation Those given to cruelty say that the former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh has never displayed more than an anatomical interest in his backbone that he is a weak man who has never taken a firm stand but remained true and blue to his leader
This trait has served him well over the years. It has allowed him to hover around the throne of power ever since he came to the Centre at Mrs Gandhi’s behest in 1974 without having any political base of his own. In itself this is not an extraordinary achievement there are many politicians stenographers and other human beings who can claim the same in the Indira Gandhi Rajiv years. And as in so many other cases his loyalty and steadfastness to the cause have been amply-rewarded with some of the most important portfolios Defence External Affairs Home (albeit briefly from July 1984 to December 1984 but at the crucial stage of the tragic transition from mother to son) and Human Resource Development.
Of course the man from Karim nagar in Andhra Pradesh is a person of unquestioned ability and experience. He is one of the more cultured and learned men in the profession who loves his books almost as much as he loves politics A man of letters and something of a translator Narasimha Rao is well known as a polyglot. Some claim that he knows up to ten languages but he definitely speaks and reads at least five Telugu Hindi English Marathi and Urdu His range of interests are almost as wide and diverse as the languages he speaks: from Indian philosophy to would you believe it computer literacy. In fact during Rajiv Gandhi’s Crash course in computronics Rao was one of the first and most enthusiastic Congressmen to be forgiven the pun bitten by the byte.
Pamulapati Venkata Narasimha Rao was born in Vengara Karimnagar district seventy years ago to an agriculturist family. After attending Osmania University Hyderabad he went onto Bombay and Nagpur Universities where he acquired a B.Sc. and an LLB He also participated in the nationalist Vande Mataram movement in Hyderabad before Independence. A promising career as a lawyer was cut short by his political ambitions which resulted in his winning an assembly seat from Manthani Warangal in 1957. He held onto that seat for two decades years during which he belonged to various Congress ministries and ended up as the Chief Minister in 1971 as Mrs Gandhi’s choice for the job until the state came under President’s Rule in January 1973. An indifferent tenure was notable only for the number of tips he apparently made to the Delhi Durbar. This father of five daughters and three SONS a very private person made his debut at the Centre as General Secretary of the AICC (All India Congress Committee). If he did justice to the post it was because his talents lent themselves best to that of drafting statements formulating policies and framing manifestoes functions he continued to perform night up to Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination. His calm unflappability his soft-spoken scholarly air and his low key personality have helped project him as a reasonable likeable man who can hold his own in any discussion without threatening anybody.
It is perhaps for these reasons that he was so well suited for the position of Minister for External Affairs when Mrs Gandhi returned to power in 1980. He is considered to have been one of the more successful Foreign Ministers someone who never put India to shame in any international forum it was a post he relished and would return to in 1988.
In July of 1984 Rao moved to the Home Ministry and had the dubious distinction of holding that portfolio when riots broke out ~ and were not immediately quelled throughout the country in the aftermath of Mrs Gandhi’s assassination. It was still another example of his indecisiveness his reluctance to act independently
Reelected to Parliament from Ramtek in Maharashtra in 1989 Narasimha Rao found himself in the Defence Ministry (1985) before being moved to the newly invented Human Resource Development one (8688) where amongst other things he helped draft Rajiv Gandhi’s policy on education.
Due to ill health the widower had decided not to defend his Lok Sabha constituency in this election He was instead heading the party’s think tank doing what he is really best at putting across party ideology and drafting its policy papers.
No scandal attaches to his name though like so many of today’s politicians he enjoys warm relations with the present god man of Indian politics Chandraswami Indeed it is in connection with the later that Rao has been accused of malfeasance though he has denied any impropriety he admits that in the St. Kitts forgery case of 1989 which sought to establish that V.P.Singh’s son Ajey a had a secret foreign account (and which Chandraswami reportedly masterminded) he did in his Capacity as the Foreign Minister verbally order one of his officers to attest alleged statements of some of those involved in the affair even though those concerned were not present
The choice of Narasimha Rao as President of the Congress Party after the non Starter of Mrs Sonia Gandhi’s candidacy for the post is the first time that anyone other than a Nehru-Gandhi family member has held the post in the last 13 years and certainly since K.Kamraj’s tenure in the late sixties that it has such importance. Rao is widely accepted as the best choice for a hard job under the circumstances for both in terms of seniority and experience he is considered head and shoulders above his colleagues. Moreover at a time when the Party is looking to somehow stay together his ability to negotiate to compromises and final a common minimum platform his flexibility is undoubtedly a plus point — Particularly if there is no clear mandate and Coalitions or consensus have to be arrived.
Indian Express
Article extracted from this publication >> June 28, 1991
