It is said and rightly argued that if August 15, 1947 placed India on the global political map, July 24, 1991 put India on the international economic map. P.V. Narasimha Rao and his government set off “seismic tremors” by announcing the abolition of the Industries (Development and Regulation) Act of 1951. This move signalled the rollout of India’s economic reforms that would in the coming years make it the world’s fifth largest economy.
In India’s Tipping Point, S. Narendra deals with some of the most important events in Rao’s government. A career civil servant, Narendra was an aide and later Rao’s information adviser during the eventful years of India’s economic reforms.
MPs and ministers waiting for Prime Minister Narasimha Rao’s arrival from Rio, at the Air Force Station at Race Course Road in New Delhi, in 1992. | Photo Credit: The Hindu Archives
The author gives an insider view of the goings-on in the corridors of power when the reforms were being formulated. In early 1991, India had a foreign exchange reserve of a few million dollars, sufficient to meet the essential import needs of barely six weeks. But a few months later, he notes, that an “unheralded new leader used the crisis as an opportunity to turn around the economy with transformative economic policies”.
Sparring with ideas
Narendra writes that Rao, “like most of us”, was a complex person: “Never impulsive, he deliberated a lot…. He liked to spar with ideas and alternatives. I was one among many in such sparring contests.” The author delves deep into the nitty-gritties of Rao’s government that was also mired in scams and controversies. He explains in detail the Harshad Mehta scam of 1992 and how the Prime Minister didn’t hesitate to order a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe.
Effigies of political leaders being set on fire in Kolkata in connection with the Babri Masjid demolition. | Photo Credit: PTI
On the Ram Mandir-Babri Masjid issue, the writer says that the demolition of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992, weakened the prime minister and, according to some of his critics, defined his political legacy. Rao believed that he was made a ‘scapegoat’ by everyone involved in the government and the political decision-making on the dispute. The unsteady political atmosphere that followed the demolition forced the government to slow down the pace of economic reforms.
Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao with the President of Burkina Faso, Blaise Compaore, in Ouagadougou on November 04, 1995. | Photo Credit: PIB
The chapter on Kashmir is an interesting one where the author provides some fascinating details of how Rao’s government was successful in negotiating with Farooq Abdullah and coaxed him into participating in the 1996 elections. Narendra explains Farooq Abdullah’s tactics of extracting a bargain from the PM in the form of ‘autonomy’ for the State. The Prime Minister was to leave for New York. The manner in which a public broadcast was made — from Burkina Faso — reads like a thriller. Prime Minister Rao chose his words carefully and announced that the ‘sky was the limit’ for “discussing the State’s autonomy within the Indian Constitution — that is short of independence.” Ultimately, the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections were held in 1996, after the Lok Sabha election, and the National Conference came to power in Srinagar.
Towards the end, the writer states that The Economist which had described India as a ‘Caged Tiger’ in 1991, revised its opinion about the country in a 2006 issue, saying that ‘Many of the bars that caged the Indian tiger have been removed, leaving the beast free to roam and roar’.
In a gripping account of his years as Prime Minister Rao’s information adviser, Narendra sheds light on many key events and the internecine rivalries and politics that Rao had to encounter. Narendra acted as a cog among several cogs supporting a wheel, but is perfectly placed to explain, at least in part, the actions of the man at the centre of it all.
India’s Tipping Point: The View from 7 Race Course Road; S. Narendra, Bloomsbury India, ₹699.
The reviewer is a book critic based in New Delhi.
