In these three decades, between 1991 and 2021, India has truly come a long way. P V Narasimha Rao was also an accidental Prime Minister. He had almost turned into a Sadhu.
Sworn in as Prime Minister of India on June 21, 1991 and till December 1992 when the disputed Babri structure was brought down on December 6, Rao got all cooperation from the BJP. And the phase evolved country's economy.
That the BJP has been the country's 'free economy' political party also helped in the overall endeavour.
The post-economic reforms era after 1991 is certainly and directly related to human development and nation's development. We have immense stories of ordinary Indians making extraordinary by opportunities provided by the liberalisation and open market policies.
It was only during the Vajpayee regime of 1999 and beyond that middle class Indian boys and girls dreamed about having own 'houses and flats' in highly demanding and cash-rich cosmopolitan cities of Delhi and Mumbai.
But all of it did not come easily. Some Congress leaders were highly skeptical of dismantling the Nehruvian structure that in effect promoted License Raj.
Credit should go to P V Narasimha Rao and also to the then Cabinet Secretary, Naresh Chandra and also the Opposition leaders of the time - the likes of L K Advani, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Rao's immediate predecessor Chandrashekhar.
Rao took over as the Prime Minister on June 21, 1991 but a day ahead (June 20); as the PM-designate he held a crucial round of meeting with Naresh Chandra and got the briefing of the country's dismal economic condition.
Subsequently, Rao depended on his Finance Minister Manmohan Singh and also some opposition leaders like Advani for 'understanding' the difficult situation. Initially, Rao did not have majority in Lok Sabha and in the first trial of strength, the BJP had staged a walk out during voting to help Congress manage the requisite numbers easily.
A week after taking charge as PM, Narasimha Rao met opposition leaders separately and briefed among others Chandrashekhar, Yashwant Sinha (who was outgoing FM), V P Singh, Advani, Harkishan Singh Surjeet and Madhu Dandavate, also a former Finance Minister. The IMF conditionalities were issues and some opposition leaders had their reservation.
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Finally, on July 4, 1992, IMF chief Michel Camdessus expressed 'satisfaction' over Indian government implementation of the conditionalities.
Looking back, the Indian economy and socio-economic conditions in the 1950s and the 1969s passed through an era of shortages. In the 1970s, one needed even a letter from an elected Member of Parliament if one had the desire to procure an HMT watch out of turn.
Even in the eighties, as a young man growing in the Assam Rifles camps in Nagaland, I witnessed how our relatives and acquaintances would make a beeline to my father for HMT watches from CSD canteens.
The same phenomenon applied for gas connection and landline telephones even till late 1990s. Visits to banks were nightmare and daylong hassles.
When I shifted to Delhi in 1998, a dear friend and an esteemed colleague of mine H C Vanlalruata helped senior New Delhi-based journalists (at the PTI headquarters) to get a landline telephone connection at their residences.
This was because one Telecom Minister was known to him and some of us!
We all knew that the era of regulated economy would be replaced slowly. And of course one of the features of that ‘regulated economy’ was that those who were entitled to grow at the discretion and a price for the state (government), also ensured that others in competition would not grow.
By 1991 when the reforms were brought in; in the words of Late Arun Jaitley, suddenly India found the “unleashing of its energy”. Telecom revolution was truly revolutionary. Youngsters of my daughter's generation would not know the beelines made in front of STD booths for late night calls after 11 pm because the charges would be minimum.
In retrospect, the system of permit and licence raj stifled individual aspirations, ambition and achievement. It practically tied down India.
The reforms brought by P V Narasimha Rao assisted by his Finance Minister, Manmohan Singh, actually unleashed a new kind of entrepreneurs.
Many years later, it was aptly cited that the 1991 liberalistaion gave a businessman named Anil Agarwal the courage and platform to transform his business from a metal-scrap dealership into a mining-and-metals conglomerate.
Competition did bring prices down and there was plurality of choice. There came in better services and qualities and also better pricing.
This was also a path breaking era wherein the middle class started thinking big. No longer had people thought to be a business honcho one needed the right heritage. We may like or dislike someone.
But people like N R Narayana Murthy have proved that with the right mix of
hard work, planning and use of talent and skills, one could build an empire from scratch without any ancestral business behind.
This marked the democratisation of Indian business scene. There came in individuals and also a small group of individuals who developed appetite for risks and finally delivered projects that grew up exponentially.
Opportunities were also opened for others who got employment and also 'opportunities' to achieve bigger milestones at their levels.
Thus, in the subsequent period between 1991 and 2001 alone, we found India could produce as many as 2 lakh millionaires and hundreds of billionaires.
Notably, it took more than a century in the United States to generate such numbers.
Importantly, the young Indians emerged as 'drivers' of nation's fate - a great departure of the old trends wherein there were numerous excuses and hurdles to stop younger lots thing big.
The 'seniority' counted more even if there was laziness and non-performance.
Look at India of late 1980s and early 1990s - when TV serials like 'Chunauti' and 'Udaan' (on Doordarshan) and 'Campus' and 'Banegi Apni Baat' on Zee TV made waves. By the way, TV business tycoon Subhash Chandra is also a creation
of that post-liberalisation policy era.
ends
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