There is no other reformer in the world who has achieved this much with so little. For a man like that, to bring about the kind of transformation he did, there is no parallel in world history. He ran a minority government in Parliament. Also, remember that Rao had a weak mandate. In the 1996 elections, he campaigned on the plank of welfare schemes because the beneficiaries of liberalisation only come in later. In my judgment, Rao did not sell reforms. There is no other explanation.īut, I also think Rao realised early on that while liberalisation was important, it did not have a political constituency. All the big reforms we talk about in terms of implementation - opening up of consumer goods, FIIs (foreign institutional investors) entering the market, opening up of airlines, telecom, infrastructure - happened after 1992. So, why continue with the reforms? That’s not pragmatism. One must remember that by February 1992, the crisis was over. Photograph: PTI.ĭ id this pragmatic streak survive? You seem to suggest that he turned his back on reforms before the elections of 1996. IMAGE: Vice President M Hamid Ansari (R) releasing the book on P V Narasimha Rao titled Half-Lion, authored by Vinay Sitapati (L), in New Delhi.
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