Telangana Assembly Seeks Bharat Ratna For PVNR, Passes Resolution

HYDERABAD: The Telangana Assembly on Tuesday passed a resolution urging the Centre to confer the country's highest civilian honour Bharat Ratna on former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao posthumously on the occasion of his ongoing birth centenary celebrations and also install his statue in the parliament premises.

A resolution moved by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao was unanimously adopted by the House. It also urged the Centre to name the Central University in Hyderabad after Narasimha Rao.

While the opposition Congress and BJP supported the resolution, AIMIM had stayed away from the Assembly proceedings for the day.

The Chief Minister, who described Narasimha Rao as a beloved son of Telangana and hailed his stellar contributions to the country, said there has already been a delay in announcing Bharat Ratna to the former Prime Minister and that it would be appropriate to announce the honour during the forthcoming session of parliament at a time when the state government is organising the centenary celebrations.

He said the Telangana government has decided to organise the birth centenary celebrations of Narasimha Rao, who laid the foundation to make the country economically strong by introducing economic reforms, on a grand scale for a year.

Narasimha Rao, who assumed the office of Prime Minister at a time when the country was faced with serious challenges, including on the economic front, in handling the situation in Punjab and Kashmir and the cold war coming to an end with a unipolar world emerging, steered the nation with courage and vision, the CM said.

Narasimha Rao had stellar achievements on the external affairs front, including changing the attitude of the then US President Bill Clinton, who used to be considered favouring Pakistan and introducing the ''Look East'' policy, he said.

Though he was born in a landlord family, Narasimha Rao had handed over about 800 acres of his own land to the government and also initiated land reforms as Chief Minister (in undivided Andhra Pradesh), he said.

The Navodaya Schools introduced by Narasimha Rao (when he was Union HRD Minister) and the Gurukul schools as state education minister in the state continue to provide free, quality education to rural students even today, he said.

Narasimha Rao, a multilinguist, was an outstanding literary personality and can be compared with the likes of Bal Gangadhar Tilak, K M Munshi and Nehru, he said.

As per a request made by the Chief Minister, Speaker Pocharam Srinivasa Reddy said a portrait of Narasimha Rao would be installed in the premises of the Assembly.

Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka hailed Narasimha Rao as a philosopher, economist and educationist and recalled the former Prime Minister's contributions in economy, foreign affairs and others.

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), the National Minorities Commission, the National Womens Commission and the National Backward Finance Development Corporation were constituted during Narasimha Rao's tenure, he said.

BJP MLA Raja Singh said Narasimha Rao, a great patriot, was suspended from Osmania University here for raising the slogan of Vande Mataram (during the freedom movement). As prime minister, he took all sections along, Singh said.

State Municipal Administration Minister K T Rama Rao said the state government took up programmes in the last six years to celebrate the contributions of not only Narasimha Rao but several other great personalities from Telangana who have not received due recognition.

Meanwhile, AIMIM said it has decided to "boycott" Tuesday's proceedings in Telangana Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council. "Our party cannot support resolution and discussion on centenary celebrations of late P V Narasimha Rao," a AIMIM release said.