‘Telangana will not forget insults heaped on PV Narasimha Rao’

PV Narasimha Rao was denied the honours he should have been extended even after his death, said Gadwal Vijaya Lakshmi

Hyderabad: Hypocrisy was the defining feature of the Congress and it was amply proved by its leadership which was talking high of late Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao after insulting him in many ways when he was alive, Hyderabad Mayor and BRS leader Gadwal Vijaya Lakshmi said on Saturday.

Addressing a joint press conference along with Surabhi Vani Devi, MLC and daughter of the late Prime Minister, she recalled that PV Narasimha Rao was denied the honours he should have been extended even after his death. Members of the Gandhi family, especially Priyanka Gandhi, were talking high of him today because of elections to the State Assembly. The people of Telangana would never forget the insults heaped on the great son of the soil, she said.

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The Gandhis claim to be still cherishing the memories of Narasimha Rao. But they owe an explanation to the people of the State as to why his last rites were not performed in Delhi and why none of the family reached Hyderabad to share the grief of the family. They did not build even a memorial or a ghat in memory of Narasimha Rao as they did in the case of all other Prime Ministers.

The Gandhi family had prevented his entry into the party headquarters for a long time, despite the fact that he had served the party as its president and the country as its Prime Minister in a crucial time. Priyanka Gandhi had hailed the courage of Narasimha Rao and the bold stand he took on issues before the nation. In the end, there was neither a statue installed in his name nor a picture of the great leader in the Parliament, she said.

The robust economic structure of India today and its emergence as a nation to be reckoned with owed to the economic reforms introduced by the late Prime Minister. Though he deserved Bharat Ratna, he did not get it even posthumously, thanks to the recognition accorded to him by the Congress leadership that succeeded him, she resented.