Friday, January 13, 2006

Remembering the modern day Chanakya

It's been almost more than 6 months since former PM Narasimha Rao passed away.He was one of the chief architects of the bubbling economy that we have right now.The transition from Nehruvian socialism to centre-right capitalist economy took place in his term as the PM.
However, as we all revel in the emerging economic status of India, greater job prospects, an ever growing IT sector, it seems like no one now has the time to spare a few pages, some ink and a moment or two for the man who made all of this possible.The steps taken by him from 1991-1996 as the PM were severely criticized by almost all the political parties including people from within the Congress.Inspite of the scathing attacks on his blueprint of the economic policies he went ahead and implemented these policies. This was done at a time when the country was in an economic crises which almost had gone out of control.It was a period of downswing for the economy.People were fed up of government monopoly in almost all the sectors.Inspite of living in a democratic country we had almost no choice when it came to buying goods,commodities,cars or just about anything.All these things came with the "Made in India" tag which were always overpriced since they had no competition and people had no choice but to buy the goods from these companies. Only 2-3 cars could be seen on the Indian roads.The Fiat,Ambassador an the classy Maruti 800(in comparison to the former).
Cameras,phones,tape recorders, TV's every electronic item was either manufactured by the now defunct Crown,Orion or the still running Videocon.Did we have a leftist government in power all these years? No dahling.We had centrist Congress ruling us all these years which was busy protecting these local industries without giving a second thought to the common man. But then again it was a Congress government which got us out of this mess.I guess it all evens out in the end.
Now that we have started enjoying the benefits of a free market with tie ups between big global brands and the local "pehelwans" everyone is clamouring to have a piece of the pie.The Congress which had till 2003 disassociated itself from Rao's policies has started taking credit for the liberalisation process.The NDA government led by "statesman" A B Vajpayee prided itself in pushing forward the reforms process.It is another issue that the privatisation of most of the cos from 1998-2004 was done in the profit making units and not the loss making ones.Also, most of the "auctioning" was done not on the basis of highest bidder or a particular roadmap but....! Tch tch we are not supposed to speak about these things baby.
The reason for remembering P V Narasimha Rao is that he was one of the few courageous leaders in India who had a vision for the future. He went ahead with his policies knowing very well that the repercussions of these would be a setback to his political career.No other politician in his place would have dared to open up the markets to the world the way he did.Initially it was expected that the small scale industries would be badly hit by this step.It also led to the closing down of thousands of small scale factories and industries.But,in the end it is the consumer who has emerged as the winner. Things now look brighter with every passing day. All this has been made possible due to the foresight of one man-P V Narasimha Rao. I guess it is high time all of us Indians give this man his right place in history instead of wasting our time on good for nothing Bardhan's,Advani's,Natwar's,Mahajan's,Bharti's....The list is endless.

8 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Good show. Well written. Why nothing about his politics and other aspects?

6:25 AM  
Blogger Pranav said...

Thanks a lot.THis blog was mainly for his economic policies and the good things he did for the country.Hence,I didn't mention anything abt his politics.
But who is this?Pls put ur name along with ur comments

9:29 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

this has absolutely no relation to what patty has written.....but i am gonna write it anyways.....

unless u can muse in the crowd all day,
On the absent face that fixed u;

Unless u may love as the angels may,
With the breadth of heaven betwixt u,

Unless u can stick when times are tough,
Thru behoving and unbehoving;

unless u can die when dream is past,
Oh! never call it loving!!


this one isfor u mate.....

9:24 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Kameene saale...Kya ghatiya blog likhta hai.Apne aukaad mein raha kar

10:28 PM  
Blogger Sunil Natraj said...

First of all: Mr Anon, please refrain from wasting web space like this.

Next, Pranav I appreciate your prediliction to Mr. Rao, but Narasimha Rao was also known for his misgovernance as well. We all know as to how much money he siphoned off. That he was absolved of the charges is just a slap in the face the Judiciary and all a big eyewash.

Another thing, we should look beyond comparisons. Arun Shourie was wrong with many of his policies, but was also right in some contexts. The NDA laid the foundations for the Golden Quadrilateral roadway. Anyone who has been down South will tell you about those exquisite roads. Its another matter that the roads are now adorned with huge cutouts of one Miss Gandhi and how SHE was influential in getting them there.

All in all, remember one thing. Mr PVN was a linguist par excellence, but when it came down to being a politician, he was not very different from the rest of the pack. And let me say this one last thing - this is not a supporter of any particular party speaking, this is Indian here.

P.S: Natwar Singh is a representative of....??????

7:52 AM  
Blogger Pranav said...

Dear Sunil,
Thnx for tellin that nerd to refrain from wasting space.
Coming back to the context of this post,I think u didn't get the basic idea about what I was tryin to say.I never said that PVR was clean,a statesman or a honest politician.No politician can be honest.But,what he did in a socialist cum(sach main kam) capitalist country like India is something which was unthinkable at that time.The reason it was unthinkable was because all the indigenous industries and small time businessmen were protected by the govt policies and it was almost a monpoly in every field.In return the government,ruling party etc got "party funds" and donations which are huge amounts.After the economy was opened up this protection was no more and these small time manufacturers and industries were the worst hit.So obviously since they were losing money the donations and evrything stopped.PVR knew this wud happen.Yet,he went ahead and implemented his policies,knowing very well that the business class and farmers wud go against him.But,he believed in his plicies and implemented them.Voila! 15 yrs down the line everyone is speaking about the pharmaceutical industry,the IT sector,the nuclear power that we are and all that.All that has been made possible due to PVR.Period.Now I wouldn't mind voting for a politician like him who was involved in scams,corruption and all that simply because his decisions and policies have made India a force in the world market.
As for Natwar Singh I don't give a damn about such a** h**es.It doesn't matter, because every party has its own share of good for nothings.

9:55 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

great goin patty got sum seriously good people readin ur blog n givin u suggestion n deir responses,,,,,,,,so u deserve da accolades for da good work dat u hav put in,,,,,,,grt goin dude,,,,,,n please PVN was from andhra......he wud nver be tainted as da judiciary has proven me rite.....hahahah seriously kiddin.......it was good blog n i kinda support u in da good effort dat PVN has put in,,,,,,,lets all praise people for da good work s we knw we all hav got an evil side to us......

sai....

1:15 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

someone said kameene saale...r ite???? uski tho maa ka.... kaun hai pta kar. uski dhkan abhi baandh kar dete hain...... and hv u heard the saing... love thy neighbour... but dont get caught!!!!
pvn was frm andhra... hehehe... sai... naa... bhanti kaun jhelta hai usse????.(sorry sai.. i am jokin yaar..)
he did thngs rite ushered in a whole lotta new policies and liberalization policies.... but he ate money..... saala fool... every one eats it.... fool vause he got caught....hehehehe

--the devil

3:07 AM  

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