While the Congress may have disowned him even before his death, the NDA government plans to restore full glory to late Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao with a memorial honouring him as the architect of the country’s economic reforms.
Sources said the urban development ministry last week moved a proposal for cabinet approval to build a memorial ghat for Rao at Ekta Sthal Samadhi Complex on the ground that he was entitled to state honours as a former PM and as the harbinger of economic liberalisation.
The move, though orchestrated by NDA ally Telugu Desam Party, is being seen as an attempt to embarrass the Congress leadership which completely disowned Rao and forced his family to perform his last rites in Hyderabad.
The Rao memorial would be a raised plinth in marble with a plaque honouring the former PM. Last October, the TDP had moved a resolution urging the Centre to build a memorial for Rao, who hailed from Telangana.
Ekta Sthal also houses the memorial of Congress loyalist Giani Zail Singh whose term as President was full of controversies on account of his soured relations with then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
In May 2013, the then Congress-led UPA government blocked demands for separate memorials, with the cabinet deciding to set up a common memorial ground — Rashtriya Smriti — in view of paucity of space.
