Half Lion: How P.V. Narasimha Rao Transformed India

PV Narasimha Rao. The only Indian PM (till date) who has completed a full term with a minority mandate. The PM who is not credited for the economic reforms (‘liberalization') of 1991, which occurred under his term in office. The PM blamed for corruption (bribing of MPs), communalism (his connivance in the demolition of the Babri Masjid is suspected to this day) and collapsing under US pressure (the nuclear tests that failed to happen in 1995/96, his last years in office, occurred in 1999, under Vajpayee). The man who was vilified by all sides of the political spectrum - left, right, and centre. What made him the political conundrum that he was? Was it avarice, cowardice or both?

In this no-holds-barred biography, the author lays bare Rao's entire political philosophy (if it can be called so) - and how it was shaped. How his failed stint as CM of the united Andhra state in the '70s convinced him that he had to be a pragmatic socialist, and how his stint as Cabinet minister for a dozen or so Ministries under various PMs convinced him (for better or for worse) exactly how much sycophancy was needed to thrive within the corridors of Delhi. Why he insisted on giving credit to Manmohan for the (presently) much-lauded economic reforms, why his experiments with the PDS (popularly known as the ‘Ration Card' system) mostly ended in failure, and how the Babri Masjid demolition took place even when he was (falsely) convinced that there was no chance it would happen.

It is remarkable to witness how little the Indian public knew of this giant of Indian politics before this book's release, and how his political career was destroyed by none other than the Congress - the party to which he devoted effectively his entire life. Treated both as the villain and the hero, as an independent and a sycophant, this biography doesn't eulogize Rao - it just gives credit where it is due. And that is a necessity in these fractured political times.