The former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, whom the Congress has never quite forgiven for not being able to prevent the destruction of the Babri Masjid on his watch in 1992, is gradually being rehabilitated — goaded on by rival parties that include not just the Telugu Desam Party and the Telangana Rashtra Samiti, but the BJP.
On his 94th birth anniversary on Sunday, as the TDP and the TRS in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana sought to claim his legacy, the Congress began the process of staking claim to its “forgotten” leader.
Using its official twitter handleþ @INCIndia, the Congress announced: “Our humble tribute to Former Prime Minister, P V Narasimha Rao on his Birth Anniversary today”. Shortly, thereafter, party general secretary in charge of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana Digvijaya Singh tweeted: “Offered floral tributes to PV Narasimha Raoji's Samadhi in H'bad & now attending joint meeting in his memory by AP and Telengana Congress”.
It was a quiet beginning to bringing the former Prime Minister back to the Congress fold as, for the first time after his death, party seniors from both Telangana and AP made a beeline on Sunday to his samadhi, PV Gyan Bhoomi, in Hyderabad.
Meanwhile, in the national capital, the Modi government has just installed a small memorial in Rao’s name, ten years after his demise. It is at ‘Ekta Sthal’ which is now integrated with ‘Rashtriya Smriti’, a common place for erecting memorials for former Presidents, Prime Ministers and others, with the approval of the Union Cabinet.
It is not on the scale of the memorials built to the memory of Mahatma Gandhi or Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri or Indira Gandhi, but thanks to the BJP-led Modi government, he will be remembered here as well.
Barring the “jali” work around the memorial, it is complete now and anyone, who wants to pay their respects to the former PM, can now visit the site.
