The 91st birth anniversary of former prime minister PV Narasimha Rao was observed on June 28. Some Congress leaders from Andhra Pradesh organised a meeting at the Andhra Bhavan in the capital to commemorate the event. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was inducted into politics and the union cabinet by Rao in 1991, was to be the main speaker at this event, but he failed to turn up. The reason given was his preoccupation with meetings with finance ministry officials.

The reason proffered for Singh’s absence is flimsy to say the least. Would he dare skip an event to mark the anniversary of Indira Gandhi or Rajiv Gandhi? By giving this event a miss, Singh has joined the league of ungrateful people in the Congress who lack the grace to acknowledge the phenomenal contribution of Rao, undoubtedly one of India’s greatest prime ministers.

We are all aware of the churlishness of the Nehru-Gandhi family and its reluctance to acknowledge the contribution of political leaders who are not part of the family. This pettiness has been on display since the days of Jawaharlal Nehru when everything was done to run down the contribution of Subhash Chandra Bose, Sardar Patel and BR Ambedkar. Likewise, despite the spectacular turnaround of the nation’s economy under Rao’s stewardship, the Nehru-Gandhi family has never acknowledged his contribution.

But it is sad to see Singh, who owes everything he has achieved over the last 21 years to Rao, lacking the courage to speak up for his mentor.

The significance of the PM’s absence from the anniversary event becomes apparent when one recalls the origin and circumstances of the Rao-Singh relationship. Rao was sworn in as prime minister on June 21, 1991. Rao headed a minority government because the Congress had won just 232 seats in the Lok Sabha election. He had to bank on the whimsical support of several smaller parties to survive in office.

More importantly, since the country’s economy was in doldrums, he had to take some drastic, at times unpopular, measures to turn things around and he had to do this without having a majority in the Lok Sabha.

When Rao took charge, the country’s foreign exchange reserves had hit rock bottom and the rate of inflation was 13%. The predecessor government, headed by Chandra Shekhar, had pledged gold to the Bank of England to raise $200 million because India was on the verge of default. The country had just Rs2,100 crore in foreign exchange, barely enough to meet import bills for a fortnight. Further, Nehru’s socialism and Indira Gandhi’s vote bank economics (conducting loan melas and offering low-interest loans ostensibly to the poor, but largely to her supporters) coupled with the licence-permit raj and the accompanying corruption had paralysed Indian business and industry.

This debilitating policy regime had to be dismantled and the innate entrepreneurial spirit in many communities across the land had to be revived if India had to recover from the gloomy economic situation that prevailed at that time.

The situation called for bold measures and Rao’s first step was to induct Manmohan Singh as finance minister and give him a free hand to dismantle the spurious socialist economic regime, which had virtually reduced India to a beggar state. When Rao demitted office in May 1996, he had ensured a spectacular improvement in the country’s economic situation. Forex reserves, which had hit rock bottom in 1991, had crossed the $50 billion mark and Indian investors, who felt shackled by the licence-permit raj of the Nehru-Indira era felt liberated and enthused to invest in industry.

Thanks to Rao’s determination, the economy turned around and India was onto a high growth path. Rao displayed similar determination to put down terrorism in Punjab and to quell the secessionist movement in that state. But for Rao’s firmness, Punjab could well have become the first state to secede from India.

When Rao passed away in 2004, the country’s foreign exchange reserves stood at $140 billion (Rs6 lakh crore). Yet, Rao’s extraordinary contribution has never been acknowledged by the Nehru-Gandhis. Instead, the family has been mischievously trying to credit the achievements of the Rao regime to Rajiv Gandhi by claiming that Rao was only following the policies initiated by Rajiv.

Initially, after he became prime minister, Manmohan Singh displayed courage to praise Narasimha Rao’s leadership during that critical phase in the 1990s. But, as the June 28 incident shows, he now seems inclined to duck functions and events in which he will have to willy-nilly pay homage to the man who brought him into politics and into the cabinet.

The writer is a senior fellow, Vivekananda International Foundation, New Delhi.inbox@dnaindia.net