Hyderabad: Leaders, cutting across party lines, on Tuesday paid rich tributes to former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao on his 101st birth anniversary.
Telangana ministers, leaders of ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), opposition Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and family members of the late leader visited PV Gnana Bhoomi on the banks of Hussain Sagar lake here to pay floral tributes.
Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, Home Minister Mohammed Mahmood Ali, and Animal Husbandry Minister T. Srinivas Yadav paid tributes on behalf of the state government.
Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao offered sincere tributes to the Former Prime Minister NV Narasimha Rao on his birth anniversary, June 28.
CM KCR praised PV Narasimha Rao, the “Son of the Soil,” for being the architect of modern India and for defending India from the crisis by enacting economic reforms. With the help of PV Narasimha Rao’s reforms, India’s economy has grown.
“The nation saw qualitative improvement in its nuclear power, foreign policy, internal security, and other areas,” he added.
“PV Narasimha Rao’s innovative policies as PM led to a multiplication of the nation’s wealth. He claimed that the Telangana State Government has absorbed PV’s inspiration into its operations. The Telangana government’s development action plan, according to CM KCR, is a national model,” CM said.
According to CM KCR, former prime minister PV Narasimha Rao demonstrated how Telangana’s leadership has provided the nation with a roadmap. He declared that Telangana would advance under the guidance of PV Narasimha Rao.
Srinivas Yadav said the late leader did not get due recognition. He said the central government did not give him the honour that he deserved as a former Prime Minister and the architect of economic reforms.
The minister said no memorial was constructed for Narasimha Rao in Delhi. Both the previous governments and the present government at the Centre have not honoured him and ignored the demands to confer Bharat Ratna on him, he said.
Srinivas Yadav recalled that the TRS government conducted year-long centenary celebrations as a befitting tribute to PV, as the former prime minister was popularly known.
He said Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao made Narasimha Rao’s daughter Sri Vani a legislator.
Who is PV Narasimha Rao?
Hailing from Vangara in Karimnagar district (now in Telangana), PV was India’s first and only Telugu Prime Minister. He also had the distinction of being the first prime minister outside the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty to complete a full five-year term.
PV, who also served as the Chief Minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh and as a Central minister, was known as a scholar, statesman, a polyglot and an author.
PV, who was elected to Parliament in 1972, held several cabinet posts under Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi including Foreign Minister from 1980 to 1984.
Described as “political Chanakya’ by many, PV managed to complete the full term despite being just short of a majority in Parliament.
Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan paid tributes to PV. “A learned scholar, administrator, writer and was blessed with remarkable knowledge and intellect. His services to United Andhra Pradesh as CM will be always remembered,” she tweeted.
(The story has been edited with inputs from the News Desk)
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