Narasimha Rao’s Son, Standing Up For Rahul Gandhi, Claims That Security Grounds Are To Blame For The Congress’s Rejection

According to the late leader’s son, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was prevented from going to the statue of former prime minister Narasimha Rao for security concerns.

ThePrint quoted Rao’s son P.V. Prabhakar Rao as saying that he went to the location at Necklace Road where his father’s statue is located just a few feet from that of former prime minister Indira Gandhi after learning that Rahul will go there.

The statue was erected in June 2021 as part of the Telangana government’s year-long centennial festivities for Rao’s birthday. It is located on the shores of Hussain Sagar.

The eldest son of Narasimha Rao, Prabhakar, also claimed that Rahul Gandhi felt awful about not being able to stop by the statue and that senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member Digvijay Singh called him and conveyed his apologies.

When Rahul paid tribute to his late grandmother Indira on November 1 and even spoke at a corner gathering, he incited a political controversy by ignoring Rao’s statue, which was only a short distance away. Currently, the Gandhi scion is participating in the Congress party’s Bharat Jodo Yatra in Telangana.

Rahul was criticized by the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Telangana chapter for disremembering Rao’s statue.

Rao, the tenth prime minister of India, is credited for ushering in liberal reforms during the early 1990s.

Soured ties

There have been ups and downs in the Gandhi family’s relationship with Rao.

When Rajiv Gandhi, the former prime minister, was killed in 1991, Rao was almost out of active politics. Rao was then selected to lead the newly-elected Congress administration by Rajiv’s widow Sonia.

However, soon rifts developed between Rao and Sonia on a variety of topics, such as inquiries into the Bofors gun fraud. According to reports, Sonia was also angry with Rao for the economic reforms he implemented and for choosing an independent path.

The situation finally came to a head in 1995 when Sonia reportedly became frustrated with the slow pace of the assassination investigations into her husband. Both their interactions and Rao’s trips to 10 Janpath, where the Gandhis lived, decreased.

The Babri Masjid’s destruction in December 1992 was the most prominent controversy during Rao’s term as prime minister, which spanned from 1991 to 1996.

Rao was forced to resign as Congress leader following their defeat in 1996 and was shunned by the party for a long time.

His anger was so intense that when he passed away in 2004, his remains weren’t permitted inside the Congress building at 24, Akbar Road. Instead, it was put on the ground outside the gates, where Sonia and the then-prime minister Manmohan Singh paid their respects to the late leader.

Since then, Congress has come under fire for the way it handled Rao. Prime Minister Narendra Modi charged the Congress with failing to recognize Rao’s service to the nation at a book event in July.

The 2020 year-long centenary celebration of Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao’s birth anniversary was also perceived as a political message to the Congress.

News Mania Desk