Telangana Prime Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Tuesday piloted a resolution through the state assembly to request the Center to award Bharat Ratna, the country’s highest civilian award, to former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao to mark the centenary of his birth which is celebrated this year.
K Chandrasekhar Rao, popularly known as KCR, asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make the announcement during the next session of Parliament. The assembly also resolved to request the Center to install a statue and portrait of Narasimha Rao in the Parliament annex, in addition to renaming Hyderabad Central University in honor of the Prime Minister of India between 1991 and 1996. The President of the Assembly, Pocharam Srinivas Reddy, has already approved a request to unveil the former portrait of the prime minister in the assembly complex.
The assembly’s push to place PV Narasimha Rao is part of KCR’s effort to bring the former prime minister’s contribution on a par with the country’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru.
Bhatti Vikramarka, leader of the Congress Legislative Party in the assembly backed the demand. Telangana’s unit of Congress supports the lawsuit to ensure that KCR’s Telangana Rashtra Samithi does not appropriate his legacy in his home state, although Rao’s uneasy relationship with the Nehru-Gandhi family is well known.
Also read: TRS, Congress fights to reclaim the legacy of former Prime Minister Narasimha Rao
The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, (AIMIM) the party led by Asaduddin Owaisi, boycotted the discussion in the assembly, saying the party did not support the resolution that Bharat Ratna was seeking for the former prime minister. “The AIMIM MLAs boycotted the Telangana Assembly proceedings following a resolution that proposed Bharat Ratna to PV Narasimha Rao. As prime minister, Rao did not protect Babri Masjid from demolition and his communal policy is well known, ”the party later tweeted its opposition to the resolution.
KCR had spoken of plans to push for the country’s highest civilian award for Narasimha Rao on his 99th birthday in June, complaining that Telangana’s “proud son” did not receive due respect in Congress.
The Telangana government has announced events throughout the year to honor the centennial of the late prime minister’s birth, which began in PV Gnana Bhoomi on June 28 this year.
“We also want the entire country to remember him and his contributions to the nation,” KCR told the state assembly on Tuesday.
Rao described Narasimha Rao as a statesman, quintessential intellectual, and multilingual, and credited him with introducing modern economic reforms and paving the way to make India one of the world’s largest economies.
“Only two leaders changed modern Indian history. One was Jawaharlal Nehru, the architect of modern India and the second was PV Narasimha Rao, who was the creator of global India, ”he said.
KCR said that Rao took over as prime minister at a time when the country was in the midst of serious economic problems. “He ran a minority government for a full five-year period and also introduced revolutionary economic reforms in the country. It opened the doors for privatization and created jobs for dozens of Indians, ”said the prime minister, praising Narasimha Rao for appointing Dr. Manmohan Singh as his finance minister.
“His reforms changed the lives of the poor in India forever and improved the standard of living for the average citizen. We are enjoying the seeds sown by him, ”KCR said, adding that the former prime minister had also taken steps to strengthen ties with the United States and Israel, in addition to proposing the Look East policy that served as the basis for his successors. Peace on Indochina’s borders for more than three decades was due to Rao’s diplomatic strategies, he said.
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