Former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao was not only a statesman and a politician but was an outstanding man in understanding the difficulties of others, said former Chief Justice of India M.N. Venkatachalaiah.
He was delivering the fifth P.V. Narasimha Rao memorial lecture, organised by the Lok Nayak Foundation, at the AU Assembly Hall here on Saturday.
Reminiscing his days with P.V. Narasimha Rao, the former CJI said, “It was during his [P.V. Narasimha Rao] tenure as PM that I served as the CJI and our relationship was not smooth from the beginning but blossomed into a good one with mutual respect for both at a later stage.”
Recollecting an anecdote, he said, “Every time a CJI leaves the office and the new one comes in, there is a customary dinner. At the customary dinner after I was sworn in, Narasimha Rao casually after the dinner said ‘Our relationship will be cordial’ and to which I shot back ‘It should not be cordial’ and he was such a witty person, though he was taken aback a bit, he replied ‘okay it will be both cordial and propitiatory’. I still do not understand what made him to say so. But over the period of time, especially after us stepping down from our offices that our relationship blossomed.”
Touching upon various aspects of democracy and quoting excerpts from the ‘Mahabharata’, he said world over, democracy was entering a dangerous phase and it was the duty of all to uphold its values. He also cautioned about technological explosion. According to him, 65% of the present jobs would become redundant with the advent of new technology and 65% of children who were now into primary school would enter a new job environment, which was unknown to the present generation. Advanced robotics, driver-less cars and Internet of things would rule the future and one must keep up with the pace of technological change, said Justice Venkatachalaiah. But at the same time he was critical of disruptive technology.
Earlier Justice Jasti Chelameswar in his address said for peace into society, religion and caste system should take a backseat. Senior journalist K. Ramachandra Murthy said Narasimha Rao was the actual architect of today’s ‘open economy’.
Justice Lavu Nageswara Rao, Justice Goda Raghuram, Dupati Vijay Kumar, MLC M.V.V.S. Murti and Chairman of the Lok Nayak Foundation Dr Yarlagadda Lakshmi Prasad were present.
