Half - Lion: How P.V. Narasimha Rao Transformed India

by Vinay Sitapati

  106. Singh (with Chopra), A Grain of Sand in the Hourglass of Time: An Autobiography, 310.

  107. Inderjit Badhwar and Zafar Agha, ‘Rao’s actions are anti-secular’, India Today, 15 June 1995, http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/raos-actions-are-anti-secular/1/288952.html.

  108. Zafar Agha, ‘Fighting for survival’, India Today, 15 June 1995, http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/divided-denied-its-traditional-vote-banks-congress-turns-to-populism-and-regional-players/1/290438.html.

  109. Jenkins, Democratic Politics and Economic Reform in India, 13.

  110. Interview with Montek Singh Ahluwalia in New Delhi, 2015.

  111. P.V. Narasimha Rao Selected Speeches 1993–1994, 468.

  112. Kanta Murali, Economic liberalization, electoral coalitions and private investment in India (PhD dissertation, Department of Politics, Princeton University, 2013).

  113. Interview with Devesh Kapur (on phone) in the United States, 2016.

  9. A WELFARE STATE?

  1. Chatterjee, Keeping the Faith: Memoirs of a Parliamentarian, 99.

  2. Manor, ‘The Congress party and the “Great Transformation”’, 204–20.

  3. Hindi phrase that means ‘Remove Poverty’.

  4. Satish Y. Deodhar, Day to Day Economics (IIM Ahmedabad Business Books, Random House India, 2012), 41.

  5. Ibid., 41.

  6. Mihir Shah et al., ‘Rural Credit in 20th century India: An Overview of History and Perspectives’, 17, http://www1.ximb.ac.in/users/fac/shambu/sprasad.nsf/0/e78490ff090249d06525730c0030abf9/$FILE/Mihir%20Shah_rural_credit__April_2007__epw.pdf.

  7. Jagdish Bhagwati and Arvind Panagariya, Why Growth Matters: How Economic Growth in India Reduced Poverty and the Lessons for Other Developing Countries (Public Affairs, Kindle edition, 2013), 33–35.

  8. Census of India 1991 literacy rates, available at http://infochangeindia.org/education/statistics/literacy-rates-in-india-1951-2001.html.

  9. ‘Global Nutrition Report: India Country Profile’, available at http://globalnutritionreport.org/files/2014/11/gnr14_cp_india.pdf.

  10. Jenkins, Democratic Politics and Economic Reform in India, 23.

  11. Interview with Sanjaya Baru in New Delhi, 2015.

  12. Deodhar, Day to Day Economics, 41.

  13. In terms of tax and non-tax receipts.

  14. Figures computed by Vikram Srinivas. Data sourced from ’Handbook of Statistics on the Indian economy’, Reserve Bank of India, available at http://dbie.rbi.org.in/DBIE/dbie.rbi?site=publications. Srinivas has used the year 1982 as base, and CPI for industrial workers as the deflator to calculate in real terms.

  15. Ibid.

  16. Notes and letters found amidst Rao’s private papers in 2015.

  17. Jenkins, Democratic Politics and Economic Reform in India, 178.

  18. Interview with Prabhakar Menon in Delhi, 2015.

  19. Interview with Jairam Ramesh in New Delhi, 2015.

  20. Interview with Ramu Damodaran in New York, 2015.

  21. ‘“People’s IAS officer” S.R. Sankaran no more’, The Hindu, 8 October 2010, http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-andhrapradesh/peoples-ias-officer-sr-sankaran-no-more/article818981.ece.

  22. C.R. Sukumar, ‘Satya Nadella’s father a high achiever himself; has strong left leanings’, Economic Times, 3 February 2014, http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-02-03/news/46963079_1_satya-nadella-yugandhar-rural-development.

  23. P.V. Narasimha Rao Selected Speeches 1991–1992, 412.

  24. Jenkins, Democratic Politics and Economic Reform in India, 181.

  25. Ibid., 182.

  26. P.V. Narasimha Rao Selected Speeches 1991–1992, 412.

  27. Note found amidst Rao’s private papers in 2015.

  28. Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar, ‘The real path to social justice’, 27 April 997, http://swaminomics.org/the-real-path-to-social-justice/.

  29. Jairam Ramesh, ‘New subsidy raj’, India Today, 15 February 1999, http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/the-pds-has-been-reformed-but-problems-remain/1/253199.html.

  30. Jenkins, Democratic Politics and Economic Reform in India, 24.

  31. Interview with K.R. Venugopal in Hyderabad, 2016.

  32. Interview with Ramu Damodaran in New York, 2015.

  33. Jenkins, Democratic Politics and Economic Reform in India, 185.

  34. P.V. Narasimha Rao Selected Speeches 1993–1994, 54.

  35. Sudipta Sengupta, ‘When former PM PV Narasimha Rao “gatecrashed” Satya Nadella’s wedding’, the Times of India, 7 February 2014, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/When-former-PM-PV-Narasimha-Rao-gatecrashed-Satya-Nadellas-wedding/articleshow/29965083.cms.

  36. Interview with Ramu Damodaran in New York, 2015.

  37. Interview with Sanjaya Baru in New Delhi, 2015.

  38. The budget also included spending on youth and culture.

  39. P.V. Narasimha Rao Selected Speeches 1994–1995, 100.

  40. Interview with Akshay Mangla (on the phone) in US, 2015.

  41. Interview with Keshav Desiraju in New Delhi, 2015.

  42. Jean Drèze and Amartya Sen, An Uncertain Glory: India and its Contradictions (Princeton: Princeton University Press, Kindle edition, 2013), 118.

  43. Ibid., 118–19.

  44. Ibid., 122.

  45. Interview with Baladevan Rangaraju in Delhi, 2015.

  46. This has been a smaller increase compared to the increase in absolute amounts.

  47. This includes the budget for health and family welfare. See P.V. Narasimha Rao Selected Speeches 1994–1995, 100.

  48. Devesh Kapur and Prakirti Nangia, ‘Social Protection in India: A Welfare State Sans Public Goods?’, India Review 14, no. 1, 73–90 (2015): 77.

  49. Ibid., 83.

  50. Bhagwati and Panagariya, Why Growth Matters: How Economic Growth in India Reduced Poverty and the Lessons for Other Developing Countries, 33–34.

  51. Ibid., 33–35.

  52. Pranjul Bhandari and Rohit Lamba, On Twenty-five Years of Economic Liberalisation (unpublished paper, 2016).

  53. Devesh Kapur, D. Shyam Babu and Chandra Bhan Prasad, Defying the Odds: The Rise of Dalit Entrepreneurs (Gurgaon: Random House India, 2014).

  54. See, for example, Pravin Krishna and Guru Sethupathy, ‘Trade and Inequality in India’, in Jagdish Bhagwati and Arvind Panagariya, eds, India’s Reform: How They Produced Inclusive Growth (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2012), 247–78. There is, however, a debate on the quality of the data, and other metrics, such as malnutrition.

  55. Drèze and Sen, An Uncertain Glory: India and its Contradictions.

  56. Devesh Kapur and Prakirti Nangia, ‘Social Protection in India: A Welfare State Sans Public Goods?’.

  57. World Bank estimates, available at http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2013/05/13/helping-india-combat-persistently-high-rates-of-malnutrition.

  58. P.V. Narasimha Rao Selected Speeches 1991–1992, 63.

  59. Hasan, Congress after Indira: Policy, Power, Political Change (1984–2009), 14.

  60. Interview with Devesh Kapur in Philadelphia, 2015.

  10. SURVIVING PARTY AND PARLIAMENT

  1. Interview with Dr Srinath Reddy in Delhi, 2015.

  2. Interview with Rajaiah in Vangara village (now in Telangana state), 2015.

  3. Manor, ‘The Congress party and the “Great Transformation”’, 204–21.

  4. Atul Kohli, Democracy and Discontent: India’s Growing Crisis of Governability (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991).

  5. Rajni Kothari, ‘The Congress “System” in India’, 1161–73.

  6. Interview with Salman Khurshid in New Delhi, 2015.

  7. ‘Narasimha Sworn in ninth PM’, the Times of India, 22 June 1991, 1.

  8. Ibid.

  9. Interview with N.K. Sharma in New Delhi, 2015.

  10. P.V. Narasimha Rao Selected Speeches 1991–1992, 11.

  11. ‘Rao wins trust vote’, the Times of India, 16 July 1991, 1.

  12. In
terview with Subramanian Swamy in New Delhi, 2015.

  13. Note found amidst Rao’s private papers in 2015.

  14. Gollapudi Srinivasa Rao, ‘Seventh Highest Margin’, The Hindu, 26 November 2015, http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-telangana/seventh-highest-margin/article7914610.ece.

  15. While Vajpayee accepted the honour, Namboodiripad refused.

  16. V. Krishna Ananth, India Since Independence: Making Sense of Indian Politics (New Delhi: Pearson Education India, 2010), 391.

  17. The Times of India, 10 March 1992, 1.

  18. Prasad, Wheels behind the Veil: PMs, CMs and beyond,101–02.

  19. Zafar Agha, ‘The favourite five’, India Today, 31 May 1993, http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/five-trusted-aides-who-help-pm-narasimha-rao-run-the-party-and-the-government/1/302316.html.

  20. Singh, One Life Is Not Enough, 290.

  21. Interview with N.K. Sharma in New Delhi, 2015

  22. Interview with Ramu Damodaran in New York, 2015.

  23. Interview with Dr Srinath Reddy in Delhi, 2015.

  24. Interview with Ramu Damodaran in New York, 2015.

  25. P.V. Narasimha Rao Selected Speeches 1991–1992, 434.

  26. Singh (with Chopra), A Grain of Sand in the Hourglass of Time: An Autobiography, 310.

  27. Prasad, Wheels behind the Veil: PMs, CMs and beyond, 107.

  28. ‘NF-left plans no-trust move’, the Times of India, 30 June 1992, 1.

  29. ‘Narasimha Rao wins trust vote’, the Times of India, 18 July 1992, 1.

  30. Akshaya Mukul, ‘How Shukla saved Rao govt in 1992’, the Times of India, 23 September 2012, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/How-Shukla-saved-Rao-govt-in-1992/articleshow/16509278.cms.

  31. Letters found amidst Rao’s private papers in 2015; confirmed in interview with Sanjaya Baru in New Delhi, 2015.

  32. Interview with Ramu Damodaran in New York, 2015.

  33. Javed M. Ansari, ‘Splitting endlessly’, India Today, http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/latest-defections-shock-v.p.-singh-but-could-bring-solace-to-narasimha-rao/1/307575.html.

  34. Interview with Subramanian Swamy in New Delhi, 2015.

  35. Interview with Chandraswami in Delhi, 2015.

  36. Prasad, Wheels behind the Veil: PMs, CMs and beyond, 113–14.

  37. Interview with Ramu Damodaran in New York, 2015.

  38. Singh (with Chopra), A Grain of Sand in the Hourglass of Time: An Autobiography.

  39. ‘No-trust Motion Defeated’, the Times of India, 22 December 1992, 1.

  40. Ibid.

  41. Interview with Satish Sharma in New Delhi, 2015.

  42. Ibid.

  43. Draft found amidst Rao’s private papers, 2015.

  44. Interview with Ramu Damodaran in New York, 2015.

  45. Ibid.

  46. Interview with N.K. Sharma in New Delhi, 2015.

  47. ‘I gave Rs 1 cr. to Rao, says Harshad’, the Times of India, 17 June 1993, 1.

  48. ‘Ajit Singh faction to vote against government’, the Times of India, 28 July, 1993, 1.

  49. Edward A. Gargan, ‘India’s Prime Minister Faces a No-Confidence Vote’, the New York Times, 28 July 1993.

  50. Interview with P.V.R.K. Prasad in Hyderabad, 2015.

  51. Prasad, Wheels behind the Veil: PMs, CMs and beyond, 41.

  52. Interview with Subramanian Swamy in New Delhi, 2015.

  53. ‘Ajit Singh faction to vote against government’, the Times of India, 28 July 1993, 1.

  54. P.V. Narasimha Rao Selected Speeches 1993–1994, 17–30.

  55. Interview with P.V. Prabhakara Rao in Hyderabad, 2015.

  56. ‘Rao survives no-confidence move’, the Times of India, 29 July 1993, 1.

  57. ‘Moral victory, says opposition’, the Times of India, 29 July 1993, 1.

  58. Shri P.V. Narasimha Rao vs State Through CBI, 2002, CriLJ 2401.

  59. ‘Moral victory, says opposition’, the Times of India, 1.

  60. Inderjit Badhwar, ‘Rao’s revival’, India Today, 31 December 1993, http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/raos-revival/1/303568.html.

  61. Interview with Dr Srinath Reddy in Delhi, 2015.

  62. Interview with P.V. Prabhakara Rao in Hyderabad, 2015.

  63. Singh (with Chopra), A Grain of Sand in the Hourglass of Time: An Autobiography, 349.

  64. Ibid.

  65. Letter found amidst Rao’s private papers in 2015.

  66. Letters addressed to the Congress president, found amidst Rao’s private papers in 2015.

  67. ‘CBI chargesheets Advani, Arjun, 5 others’, the Times of India, 17 January 1996, 1.

  68. US Department of Treasury document, available at https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/terrorist-illicit-finance/Documents/FinCEN-Hawala-rpt.pdf.

  69. ‘Chronology of Hawala Case’, the Times of India, 17 January 1991, 1.

  70. Julio Ríos-Figueroa, ‘Fragmentation of Power and the Emergence of an Effective Judiciary in Mexico, 1994–2002’, Latin American Politics and Society 49, no. 1, 31–57 (2007); Tom Ginsburg, Judicial Review in New Democracies: Constitutional Courts in Asian Cases (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003); Gretchen Helmke, Courts under Constraints: Judges, Generals, and Presidents in Argentina (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005).

  71. Prasad, Wheels behind the Veil: PMs, CMs and beyond, 190.

  72. Ibid., 191.

  73. N.K. Singh, ‘Tarred with the same brush’, India Today, 15 February 1996, http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/tarred-with-the-same-brush/1/280827.html.

  74. Mahendra Ved, ‘Indicted ministers may resign’, the Times of India, 17 January 1996, 1.

  75. Janak Singh, ‘Rao’s hand seen in Hawala drama’, the Times of India, 17 January 1996, 1.

  76. Entries in Appointment Diary 1991, written by Rao’s secretary, R.K. Khandekar; found amidst his private papers in 2015.

  77. Janak Singh, ‘Rao’s hand seen in Hawala drama’, 1.

  78. Interview with P.V.R.K. Prasad in Hyderabad, 2015.

  79. Interview with Arun Jaitley in New Delhi, 2015.

  80. Note found amidst Rao’s private papers in 2015.

  81. Prasad, Wheels behind the Veil: PMs, CMs and beyond, 194.

  82. Interview with Rajeshwara Rao in Hyderabad, 2015.

  83. ‘BJP gaining an edge’, India Today, 15 May 1996, http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/elections-1996-bjp-will-add-substantially-to-its-1991-lok-sabha-tally-opinion-poll-shows/1/281179.html.

  84. John F. Burns, ‘Political Pact With Ex-Film Star May Bring Down India’s Premier’, the New York Times, 3 May 1996, http://www.nytimes.com/1996/05/03/world/political-pact-with-ex-film-star-may-bring-down-india-s-premier.html.

  85. Interview with P.V.R.K. Prasad in Hyderabad, 2015.

  86. Diary entry found amidst Rao’s private papers in 2015.

  87. Raj Chengappa, ‘Selling the Optimism Dream’, India Today, 15 May 1996, http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/selling-the-optimism-dream/1/281153.html.

  88. Interview with N.K. Sharma in New Delhi, 2015.

  89. Letter to the President of India, copy found amidst Rao’s private papers in 2015.

  90. Janak Singh, ‘Vajpayee Sworn in as P.M.’, the Times of India, 17 May 1996, 1.

  11. MANAGING SONIA

  1. See generally Tavleen Singh, Durbar (Gurgaon: Hachette India, 2012).

  2. George Wright, ‘Sonia Gandhi declines Indian prime ministership’, Guardian, 18 May 2004, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/may/18/india.georgewright.

  3. K. Natwar Singh says that he was present when Sonia decided not to become prime minister in 2004, at the insistence of Rahul Gandhi. See http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/natwar-singh-sonia-gandhi-prime-minister-shankar-dayal-sharma-pv-narasimha-rao/1/374821.html.

  4. Sanjaya Baru, The Accidental Prime Minister: The Making and Unmaking of Manmohan Singh (New Delhi: Penguin Books, 2014).

  5. P.V. Narasimha Rao Selected Speeches 1991–1992, 24.

  6. P.V. Narasimha R
ao Selected Speeches 1992–1993, 33.

  7. Congressman, ‘The Great Suicide’, Mainstream, 27 January 1990, http://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article5438.html.

  8. Ramesh, To the Brink and Back: India’s 1991 Story, 110.

  9. Facing political opposition, she eventually rejected the donation.

  10. Interview with P.V.R.K. Prasad in Hyderabad, 2015.

  11. Interview with Rajeshwara Rao in Hyderabad, 2015.

  12. Kalyani Shankar, Pandora’s Daughters, 46.

  13. Inderjit Badhwar and Zafar Agha, ‘The Sonia factor’, India Today, 31 August 1991, http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/congressmen-push-sonia-gandhi-into-politics-for-their-own-political-survival/1/318730.html.

  14. Prakash Joshi and Rajdeep Sardesai, ‘Sonia’s “no” disheartens dissidents’, the Times of India, 15 October1991, 1.

  15. Sanjay Singh, ‘Lessons from Rajiv: Congress must amend Modi’s security’, Firstpost, 7 November 2013, http://www.firstpost.com/politics/lessons-from-rajiv-congress-must-amend-modis-security-1215771.html.

  16. Letter found amongst Rao’s private papers in 2015.

  17. Interview with Salman Khurshid in New Delhi, 2015.

  18. ‘Ex-minister to be tried for scuttling Bofors probe’, Rediff, 7 July 2008, http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/jul/07bofors.htm.

  19. Kidwai, 24 Akbar Road,180.

  20. Interview with Rajeshwara Rao in Hyderabad, 2015.

  21. Interview with Kalyani Shankar in New Delhi, 2015.

  22. Singh (with Chopra), A Grain of Sand in the Hourglass of Time: An Autobiography, 247.

  23. Singh, One Life Is Not Enough, 310.

  24. Ibid., 309–10.

  25. Ibid., 310.

  26. Shankar, Pandora’s Daughters, 48.

  27. John F. Burns, ‘Speech Stirs Speculation of a Gandhi’s Return’, the New York Times, 25 August 1995, http://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/25/world/speech-stirs-speculation-of-a-gandhi-s-return.html.

  28. Ibid.

  29. Interview with Satish Sharma in New Delhi, 2015.

  30. Shankar, Pandora’s Daughters,47.

  31. Interview with K. Natwar Singh in New Delhi, 2016.

  32. Interview with N.K. Sharma in New Delhi, 2015

  33. Interview with Subramanian Swamy in New Delhi, 2015.