New Delhi, December 23
A statesman, scholar and linguist Pamulaparti Venkata Narasimha Rao will be remembered the most for setting the country on the course of economic reforms and liberalisation as its Prime Minister from 1991 to 1996.

Mr Rao was the first Prime Minister from the south, the first from outside Nehru-Gandhi family to complete a full five-year term and also, dubiously, the first to face criminal charges and accusations in and out of the top office.

However, he was cleared in all the three cases he faced trial, the relief in the last Lakhubhai Pathak cheating case coming just a few months ago.

Born in an agrarian family in Vangara village of Karimnagar district of Andhra Pradesh on June 28, 1921, Mr Rao took over the reins of Congress after the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in May 1991 and became Prime Minister after the staggered Lok Sabha elections. Mr Rao, whose pout was a cartoonists’ delight, earned the soubriquet “Chanakya” for his manoeuvering skills.

Educated at Osmania, Bombay and Nagpur Universities, Mr Rao’s political innings began in 1938 during the protest against the Nizam government’s ban on singing `Vande mataram’ in his college.

Mr Rao was elected to the Andhra Pradesh legislative assembly in 1957 from Manthani constituency, which he represented for the next 20 years. He held several ministerial posts in the state before becoming the Chief Minister from 1971 to 1973.

Indira Gandhi made Mr Rao the general secretary of the Congress during the Emergency. After Emergency was lifted, he was one of the few prominent Congress-men who withstood the Janata wave and entered the Lok Sabha from Hanamkonda in 1977. He had rare distinction of holding important portfolios of External Affairs, Defence and Home at different times in the 1980s. His role at the Conference of Foreign Ministers of non-aligned countries in February 1981 earned him wide appreciation. Mr Rao is also credited with taking measures that paved the way of return of normalcy to Punjab after days of terrorism. As HRD Minister in the Rajiv Gandhi government, he prepared the National Education Policy which is still regarded as a landmark document.

Mr Rao did not contest the 1991 elections reconciling to political retirement. But fate willed otherwise. After Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination, he became the consensus candidate for the Congress president’s post that put him in the Prime Minister’s seat after the elections.

He headed a minority government for sometime and later acquired a majority strength in the Lok Sabha under controversial circumstances.

After he relinquished power in 1996, he went through a difficult period facing trials in the infamous JMM MPs’ bribery case and Lakhubhai Pathak case.

While the lower court convicted him in the bribery case, the Delhi High Court exonerated him later. He was also discharged in the St Kitts forgery case. He came under attack from his own party colleagues and opposition leaders when his government pursued the “Hawala” scam in which they were implicated. The scandal, however, finally met a judicial death.

One black spot of his rule was the demolition of the disputed structure at Ayodhya in December 1992 and nationwide communal riots that followed.

He was Union Home Minister when riots erupted after the assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984. Mr Rao has left a legacy of economic reforms which were pursued under the then Finance Minister Manmohan Singh.

Mr Rao moved decisively toward free-market reforms, reducing the government’s economic role, instituting austerity measures and encouraging foreign investment. He pulled the country from a severe foreign exchange crisis.

In 1993, a year after the securities scam, big bull Harshad Mehta created a sensation when he alleged to have handed over to him a suitcase with Rs 1 crore at his residence. It took a while for Mr Rao to come out of the political crisis that the muck had left behind.

With the defeat of the Congress in the May 1996 Lok Sabha polls, Mr Rao was forced to quit the post of the party president.

After being chargesheeted in St Kitts forgery and JMM bribery case, he also gave up the CPP leadership.

Mr Rao was the first Prime Minister to have faced criminal charges but he relentlessly fought all the cases.