The PM himself as ‘tryst with destiny’

On a random rainy July 1991 night in South Bombay a massive van left for the international airport On the way the vanrsquos tyre burst The heartstopping level of security that surrounded the vehicle right then alerted bystanders on the road to wonder What the hell could be inside itA photographer followed the van The next morning the government secret got revealed as national newsmdashthat India had shippedpledged tonnes of pure gold the night before to secure dollar loans because its foreign exchange had altogether dried upFormer RBI governor YV Reddy reveals this in Sravani amp Srikarrsquos spoton documentary series Continuity with Change available on YouTube with 400odd views deserves a better platform How did India get to this Multiple reasons of coursemdashuseless governance collapse of ally Soviet Union Gulf War and oil prices shooting up etc Mortgaging gold is an emotional thing for Indian families A country is no differentVinay Sitapatirsquos Half Lion a Rao biography says the new industrial policy that ended licence raj was casually slipped in alongside the 1991 budgetPV Narasimha Rao had been newly sworn in as Indiarsquos Prime Minister Even before he picked technocrat Manmohan Singh as his unusual choice for finance minister there were papers laid before him for ldquobig bang reformsrdquo to mitigate disasterbankruptcy which India stared at The IMF had its own terms for a bailoutAccording to journalist Sanjaya Baru Rao told the IMF boss he was willing to do whatever it takesmdashso long as no Indian lost job None did Budget for rural development quadrupled under his term Within about 25 days as PM Rao steered India into an economic direction politically unimaginable at the timeMaking him a miracle man of sorts for Indian politics when you consider he pulled this off without numbers in parliamentmdashneither the unanimous support of his own party nor the wind blowing in his direction from states And he did this through building consensusmdashsometimes by hook often by crookmdashnot through dictatorship but through proper legislationThe July 24 1991 budget is considered historic But as Vinay Sitapati points out in his Rao biography Half Lionmdashit is what was casually slipped in alongside that budget day the new industrial policy which profoundly dismantled Indiarsquos rusty decadesold sarkari licencepermitquota raj Leading industrial India toward liberalisation globalisation and privatisation instead Before tabling this industrial policy in parliament Rao had it read before his cabinet from the Congress Party Which rejected it right away Because it didnrsquot follow the socialist ideals set forth by Nehru and Indira Rao had been a lifelong socialist He heard them intently Said hersquoll return with changes And did Merely inserting Nehru Indira and Rajiv into the preamble of the same document to have it approved entirelyHe also added the line lsquoContinuity with changersquo P Chidambaram his commerce minister recalls in Raorsquos centenary memorial doc series of the same name Detractors could also title his biopic The Artful DodgerThat the phenomenally multilingual Rao he knew 10 languages could switch between purechaste Urdu Hindi Telugu Marathi and English in particular without an overlap in words wouldrsquove perhaps made him a master communicator behind closed doors anyway A quiet scholarpolitician shorn of pinching rhetoric he was an autodidact mastering piano before he diedAs Indiarsquos youngest PM in mid rsquo80s Rajiv Gandhi was once telling people at work about his keenness to bring about a computer revolution in India Except that he was surrounded by oldies in government who wouldnrsquot get it Defence minister Rao overheard this He ordered in a personal computermdashlearnt a few more languages BASIC and COBOL He could write code in the mainframe OS UNIXWould any PM taking over under circumstances that Rao did have initiated economic reforms anyway Possible But they may have stopped at diffusing the balance of paymentsrsquo crisis YV Reddy argues that Raorsquos talent rested on being an enabling leader who didnrsquot tell subordinates to do as he says Hersquod spotrecognise talent and allow them the freedom to flourish while he battled the politicsSad that for all the artcunning he employed to give the Congress and its ministers a full term 199196 despite a minority government the party itself after loss in subsequent elections dumped himmdashholding him solelysecurely responsible for illegal demolition of Babri Masjid in 1992 no doubt a blot on his legacy Veteran journalist Kuldeep Nayar wrote in his book that Rao was praying to gods and opened his eyes only when the mosque was felled This became the truth Sitapati researched later to reveal that there was no evidence to this story Indeed a rattled Rao was on the phone with his top bureaucrats after watching the demolition news on TV at home with others in attendanceHerersquos the other thing though In May 1991 before Rajiv Gandhirsquos assassination Rao had actually quit politics He wasnrsquot offered a ticket for the forthcoming elections although he had fought every election stategeneral since independence He was old diabetic with a major heart conditionHe was packing off to Hyderabad from Delhi Over the year that he became the Prime Minister his health condition turned normalmdashreturning him to his fittest possible self Sitapati in Half Lion asks Raorsquos doctor Srinath Reddy to medically explain this what couldrsquove changed ldquoVitamin P Powerrdquo says the good doctor Mayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper