Hyderabad: Parties across the political spectrum on Wednesday paid tributes to former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao on the occasion of his 102nd birth anniversary.
In a media statement on Wednesday, Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao called Narasimha Rao “a son of the Telangana soil” and said he had rescued the country from critical conditions. The country's people are now reaping the benefits of the financial reforms introduced by him as the PM.
“We have a responsibility to honour the former PM and recollect his services rendered for the country. As part of its endeavour, the state government is officially conducting P.V. Narasimha Rao's birth anniversary celebrations,” Rao said.
TPCC chief A. Revanth Reddy took to Twitter to pay tribute to the person he called “Chanakya and architect of reforms”, while senior Congress leader Ponnala Lakshmaiah visited PV Ghat to pay tribute.
Many Congress leaders also paid tribute to him at the state party headquarters of Gandhi Bhavan.
On the occasion, TPCC former president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy said he would ask the state government to name a district after the leader.
Narasimha Rao’s grandson N.V. Subhash, who is currently an official spokesperson for the BJP, Telangana state, said on Twitter, “Today, on occasion of 102 Jayanthi of Late P.V. Narasimha Rao (Former PM) paid floral tributes at PV Gyana Bhoomi, PV Marg, Necklace Road, Hyderabad.”
State BJP president Bandi Sanjay Kumar, on Twitter, called the late Narasimha Rao a “multi-talented person” and “genius”. He later visited PV Ghat on Necklace Road and paid floral tributes.
Senior Congress leader Ponnam Prabhakar paid tribute to the late leader at his native village of Vangara in Karimnagar district. Speaking there, he said, “The present generation should get to know about the simple life of the leader. He was behind the implementation of the technical revolution. The present government has increased the debt of the country from ₹60 crore to ₹1,50,000 crore.”
However, Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao was conspicuous by his absence at the PV Ghat on Necklace Road, given that Rao renamed the Necklace Road as PV Marg, unveiled a 26-foot-tall statue of the leader and held a year-long grand centenary year celebration, from June 2020 to June 2021.
Only two BRS ministers, Talasani Srinivas Yadav and Satyavathi Rathod, visited the memorial and paid tributes to PV.
The Chief Minister first visited the memorial on June 28, 2014, soon after taking oath as Telangana state Chief Minister, but did not revisit the site until June 2020, when he launched the year-long centenary celebrations. He visited the memorial again in June 2021, to mark the conclusion of the celebration, but is yet to visit the spot since.
P.V. Narasimha Rao was born on June 28, 1921, and died on December 23, 2004.
