Book Launch: P V Narsimha Rao was hero of ’91 but it was a different story in ’92, says P Chidambaram

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Chidambaram, who was a minister in the Rao cabinet and held Finance and Home portfolios in Singh’s government, said that had Rajiv Gandhi — who was assassinated during the Lok Sabha election campaign in the summer of 1991 — become Prime Minister again that year, he would have “more or less” initiated the economic reform process like Rao did.

Chidambaram said that the “underlying theme of the manifesto” of the Congress in 1991 itself was that “we must embark on major economic reforms”.

“Undoubtedly, and I have no hesitation in saying it that the biggest share of credit for the reforms must go to the political leader (Rao). It is Dr Manmohan Singh who brought in the intellectual heft to the reforms, the intellectual content to the reforms, but I entirely agree… that without a strong Prime Minister, a Prime Minister of conviction, these reforms would not have been pushed through,” he said.

“Remember, these reforms were pushed through when Rao was heading a minority government… In that sense, the hero of 1991 was indeed Rao,” he said.

He, however, was different in 1992. “This (book) is about one year in India’s history, which catapulted Rao to fame. The very next year, if Sanjaya Baru were to write a book about 1992, that book about Narasimha Rao would be a very, very different book. That is the tragedy of Narasimha Rao,” he said.

Chidambaram said Rao “dealt a blow to the Congress” when he asked all those who were elected to the Congress Working Committee to resign after some of his detractors got elected at the Tirupati AICC session in 1992. He said most of the announcements made by Rao as the party president at the Tirupati session to rejuvenate the party were never implemented.

Chidambaram said he had told Rao later that he had made some terrible mistakes.

Speaking at the book launch, former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha recounted his experience through the tumultuous balance of payment crisis during the Chandra Shekhar government. Sinha, who was the then Finance Minister, said the seeds of the 1991 economic crisis were laid much earlier. He said the mortgaging of gold “chased” him throughout his electoral career. “Maybe this is a reason, I did not decide to contest the 2014 Lok Sabha election,” he said.

Baru said the reason behind writing the book on 1991 was that it was a “landmark year” and Rao was “man of the year”.