Pv Narasimha Rao Quotes

I think the most sacred right of man is to be happy.

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Over the years, Rao would master two computer languages, COBOL and BASIC, and would also go on to write code in the mainframe operating system UNIX. Narasimha

If only minorities vote for the Congress, how can we win ?' Raod said to a friend. In his book on Ayodhya, Rao blames Congressmen for a 'subconscious inhibition that any expression of [Hinud] religious sentiment on our part, even if we felt it strongly, would be seen as ''non-secular''. As a result, the BJP became the sole repository and protector of the Hindu religion in the public mind.

Almost imperceptibly, the Old Delhi returned. Rather than representing India, the city regressed to its historical self. Courtiers fawned, brokers promised access, and the writ of the queen ran unchallenged across the empire. When

Self-reliance in 1991, PV believed, could be defined as being ‘indebted only to the extent we have the capacity to pay’.

PV did nothing in 1991 that had not already been suggested by someone or the other at home. To that extent they were home-grown. But it is also true that the implementation of many of these reforms was a policy conditionality imposed by the IMF as a quid pro quo for the balance of payments support India sought from it.

the IMF, World Bank and donor governments was implemented. PV picked and chose what he felt he could reasonably defend within his own party and Parliament. It was his ‘middle way’. It is useful to

PV became the first Indian prime minister to travel to the Republic of Korea. In Seoul, he urged Korean chaebol to invest in India in a big way. In 1991, there was no major Korean brand available in the Indian market. A decade later, Samsung and Hyundai had become household names across

The great attraction of public life seemed to be its expanding frontiers, its flexible horizons. It was a realm of infinite possibility, a task that was never concluded, a challenge that never abated.

Appearance, make-up, not the real you; that was what politics was all about. Chaudhury became an expert in the nauseating art of political make-up. He learned how to mouth his party's ideology ritually and endlessly, without believing a word of it.

The Central leadership had neither permanent friends nor permanent foes in the states. It only had a stock of permanent tools. No two of them were alike and no one agreed with the rest, ever. Each gloated over his own 'pull' in Delhi and ran the others down for having 'fallen from grace'. They furnished regular reports to the Centre about each other's nefarious activities, exaggerated out of all proportion. Each of them waxed eloquent about the supposed CBI investigations ordered against the others.

In the group game, sometimes the last to join earns the greatest value because he's the one who scores the goal eventually.

The press. I believe that each one is as good as the best in the profession. However, their difficulty is that their job essentially lies in describing the way things go wrong. Most reporters subconsciously believe that all ministers are nitwits, or ought to be if they're true to type. Journalists relish the performance of ministers who mess up with wrong answers and cringe for publicity.

It is perhaps symbolic of power, Anand mused, that nervousness trails confidence like a shadow. You do something that you think is right, but the very next moment you are no longer sure. A host of critics assail you at once. They believe that you can't do anything right anyway, whatever you do. You end up with more doubts. Until you lose your sensitivity and persuade yourself that you're always right, whatever you do.

In the high-profile political field, almost every important development could be traced to a clash of egos, sometimes necessary and beneficial, but often leading to catastrophe.

From the age-old climate of strict purdah enforced until recently in the state, the sudden change to increased personal freedom began to be seen as indistinguishable from promiscuity. When the people saw a man and woman together, any man and any woman, they would make barbed comments that reeked of sexual innuendo. Malicious tongues were desperately and subconsciously trying to violate social barriers by touching on this forbidden subject. For some it was also, perhaps unknown to themselves, a manifestation of repressed anger at the transgression of accepted codes that prevailed from the beginning to the end of people's lives.

Anand's father said to him, "Look son, we've had no Lakshmi (wealth) in the family, ever. We had only one, Dhairya Lakshmi (the wealth of courage). Don't ever forsake her, or you will have nothing left to sustain you...

An interesting tailpiece to this agitation was provided by a Tamil MP from the party carrying on the anti-Hindi movement. Anand knew him very well, having met him several times in Delhi. One day, the MP arrived at Palam airport from Madras at the same time as Anand was about to leave Delhi for Afrozabad. They happened to meet in the VIP lounge. The MP was accompanied by his teenage son, whom he introduced to Anand. Then, with some amount of paternal pride, he said, "You know, he is studying in Delhi and always comes first in his class in Hindi!" Surprised, Anand said, "And you don't know a word of Hindi and agitate against it all the time!" "This is politics, you see?", said the MP.

Elections became an occasion to wage war, an opportunity for both groups and individuals to settle scores. Anyone could change his party at will. Anyone could desert any party at any time and re-enter it later, at his convenience. Candidates in some northern states captured polling booths like enemy military posts in war. The true spirit of democracy became a tattered illusion and a pathetic shadow of autocratic ambience that had existed in the country for centuries.

From 1959 onwards the situation on the border with China became increasingly tense. It soon became a cause for national concern. In the letters Chaudhury received from Jawaharlal Nehru, about China, he had a hunch about the divergence of views between Nehru and Sardar Patel. The NEFA Reverse, which occurred on 20 October 1962, rocked India's political and military foundations. The nation reacted with anger to the absoluteness of this event. In the words of Brig. John Dalvi, "1962 was a national failure of which every Indian is guilty. It was a failure in the Higher Direction of War, a failure of the Opposition, a failure of the General Staff (myself included); it was a failure of responsible public opinion and the Press. For the government of India, it was a Himalayan Blunder at all levels.

Chaudhury was further struck by the fact that each politician came to be identified by his or her main or only vice, which shrouded all the virtues. In the political field, frailty was the banner held aloft over each person's chariot, announcing only vulnerable points to the wide world.

The caste factor loomed larger with every passing day, and Indiraji and everyone in the high command had noticed it. This unmistakable trend had appeared in the political process and threatened to overwhelm it eventually. A casteless society thus seemed to be impossible, at least in the short run, as matters stood. It was a grotesque irony for a party which proclaimed castelessness as its creed.

Where motivation was concerned, there was hardly any difference between a caveman and a civilised human. The desire to live, and live as well as the next man, was common to all. The point at which virtually all of mankind began to develop a sense of discontent was when it discovered the hiatus between desire and capability.

The nation as a democratic entity, was where man's most potent institution, the state, assumed critical importance. If the state deployed its power to step up the hiatus (between desire and capability) further, the organism would break at some point.

To keep choosing between the one kind of damage and the other was unprofitable. Wisdom lay in preventing or avoiding damage altogether, of both kinds.

To do good seemed to take a great deal of effort, like moving a mountain, while to do seemed easy. Worse still, many people took evil as the expected norm - until it was publicly detected in the actions of the person in power. Then it was played up relentlessly till it was out of all proportion to reality. Often, the person involved was ruthlessly crushed as a fly under a sledge-hammer.

Anand remembered an adage which he had heard at the law college, that the troubles of a litigant in India begin after he obtains a decree and wants to get it executed.

Anand was on tour in a distant village when the shattering news of the Chinese invasion was announced. Within hours, there was an astonishing metamorphosis in the prevailing atmosphere. Except for the lone troubled voice that came from the radio, there was a numbed silence all around. Every citizen was in the grip of an indescribable mixture of anger, anguish, a sense of disappointment, and above all, a feeling of unity with every other Indian. Just when Anand was about to leave, a lad of about ten came forward. He put his hand in his shirt pocket and produced a twenty-five paise coin. He held it out tentatively and stammered, "This is my contribution to defeat China..." Anand accepted the coin and hugged the boy. He controlled his emotion with some difficulty. The gesture electrified the atmosphere. For the first time faces brightened somewhat. "Why not raise a fund in the village?", said the Sarpanch. "Yes!" interjected the villagers. "We must give and give and give until it hurts! Each a little more than he can afford to." God! Does this country need the threat of external aggression to unite it internally? wondered Anand, as his car turned into the highway.

Sardar Patel, in as early as 1950, drew Nehru's attention to the threat posed by China. In a detailed letter containing some truly prophetic formulations about China's intentions and plans, he warned JN of the dangers of complacency and strongly urged a serious reconsideration of the entire China policy and the various steps that needed to be taken to meet the new situation. The Sardar said, in his letter: "Thus, for the first time after centuries, India’s defence has to concentrate itself on two fronts simultaneously. Our defence measure have so far been based on the calculations of a superiority over Pakistan. In our calculations we shall now have to reckon with Communist China in the north and in the north-east, a Communist China which has definite ambitions and aims and which does not, in any way, seem friendly disposed towards us. In my judgement, the situation is one in which we cannot afford either to be complacent or to be vacillating. We must have a clear idea of what we wish to achieve and also of the methods by which we should achieve it. Any faltering or lack of decisiveness in formulating our objectives or in pursuing our policy to attain those objectives is bound to weaken us and increase the threats which are so evident.

Close studies reveal that the debacle of 1962 didn't occur for want of men and equipment., for there was enough of both, but it was rather spread out all over India. It may not have been available at a particular place, because we had to face the situation rather suddenly and we didn't have time. General Thimayya, then COAS, wrote an article in July 1962 that as a soldier, he couldn't envisage India taking on China in an open conflict on its own because China's military strength, with the full support of the USSR, exceeded India's military resourced a hundredfold. The only way to counter Chinese aggression on the border, according to him, was to attack the enemy in the Himalayan passes, which were practically impossible to cross for six months of the year. Here, the Indian Army could make full use of its manpower and light equipment against a Chinese force deprived of the use of its heavy equipment including tanks and heavy-calibre artillery. In case the Chinese got through to the plains and foothills, guerrilla tactics would have to be used to harass their lines of communication. The Indian Army's superior firepower and manoeuvrability would then have to be brought into play to defeat the enemy forces. As Air Chief Marshal Arjan Singh later pointed out, there was insufficient appreciation of the problems of operating aircraft from high altitude airfields. If those problems had been thought through, there wouldn't have been as much reluctance to use Indian air power in support of our operations in 1962 as there actually was.

Today, in view of the rising political consciousness and the high cost of forcible occupation, we are no longer in an age where war can be used as an extension of foreign policy. This is the age of coercive diplomacy, when the projection of forces in intimidatory, deterrent and defensive roles has become an inextricable aspect of international relations.

I TRACED FROM NEHRU TO WHAT I WAS DOING AND NO ONE COULD SAY IT WAS A SUDDEN SHIFT OR U-TURN. YOU CAN’T AFFORD U-TURNS IN THIS COUNTRY. IF YOU UNDERSTAND THE GROUND YOU ARE STANDING ON IS IN MOTION, THE TURNING BECOMES EASIER P.V. NARASIMHA RAO

PV wanted the Congress to return to a pre-1966 trajectory, seeking a future independent of any one family. Why should the Congress remain only the ‘Indira Congress’?

The President may first appoint him the Prime Minister and then ask him to prove his majority in the Lok Sabha within a reasonable period. For example, Charan Singh (1979), VP Singh (1989), Chandrasekhar (1990), PV Narasimha Rao (1991), AB Vajyapee (1996), Deve Gowda (1996), IK Gujral (1997) and again AB Vajpayee (1998) were appointed as Prime Ministers in this way.

PV’s ‘middle way’ sought to ‘strike a balance between the individual and the common good’, as PV put it.

For the leadership he provided in that fateful year PV deserved the Bharat Ratna. It is a sad commentary on this nation of ours that we do not know who our real heroes are and do not know how to honour them. The year 1991