Former media adviser to ex-PM Manmohan Singh, Sanjay Baru, interacts with ex-PM P.V. Narasimha Rao’s grandson N.V. Subhash and former CBI director K. Vijayarama Rao at a panel discussion in Hyderabad on Tuesday. — DC

Hyderabad: “Congress president Sonia Gandhi didn’t expect P.V. Narasimha Rao to last as PM for the full five-year term, but for about two years. She was worried about the Nehru-Gandhi legacy. She did everything to belittle him,” said N.V. Subhash, the late PM’s grandson.

Mr Subhash said that though the Congress did not honour the great reformist, he was happy that Prime Minister Modi has done it. “P.V.’s memorial is almost ready and will be opened on June 28, on his 95th birth anniversary. If all goes well, P.V. may be honoured with Bharat Ratna next year,” he said.

Mr Subhash is now with the BJP. “Sonia Gandhi did not want a cremation or a memorial in New Delhi since people would flock to it and he would be remembered forever in New Delhi for his reforms, casting a shadow on her legacy. She is equally scared of Narendra Modi now. Rahul Gandhi failed to continue the legacy, Congress is losing on all fronts; she is planning to induct Priyanka,” he said.

Mr Subhash, along with former minister and ex-CBI director K. Vijayarama Rao and former media advisor to former PM Manmohan Singh, Sanjaya Baru, participated in a panel discussion on the 25th anniversary of P.V. Narasimha Rao becoming the Prime Minister.

All the panelists described Narasimha Rao as one of the greatest PMs of the country along with Pandit Nehru, Indira Gandhi and others, and an architect of economic reforms.

Contrary to popular belief and joke during P.V.’s rule that “not taking a decision is also a decision”, they asserted that P.V. was never indecisive, and cited his far-reaching reforms, the fruits of which are now being enjoyed by one and all.

Mr Vijayarama Rao gave a clean chit to P.V. in the JMM cash scandal in the purchase of MPs and in the Ayodhya issue.

“Money was paid to JMM by two persons from AP and they innocently put it in the bank. I know who paid it, but I don’t want to reveal it. I can emphatically say that P.V. was not involved,” he said

Dr Sanjay Baru, who is coming out with a new book on P.V. titled 1991, the year that changed India, gave full credit to the late PM for the economic reforms and asserted that even if Rajiv Gandhi was alive, P.V. would have become PM and not Rajiv. “My new book will disprove earlier books written,” he asserted.