Who Was P.V. Narasimha Rao? Interesting Facts About India’s Former Prime Minister On His Birth Anniversary

Pamulaparti Venkata Narasimha Rao served as the Prime Minister of India between 1991 and 1996 and was the first non-Hindi-speaking PM of the country. On his birth anniversary, take a look at some of the interesting facts about the first non-Hindi-speaking PM.

PV Narasimha Rao is best known for introducing revolutionary economic reforms that liberalised the Indian economy.

Born on June 28, 1921, in a small village near Karimnagar (now in Telangana), PV Narasimha Rao, or Pamulaparti Venkata Narasimha Rao, spoke Telugu as his mother tongue and had an excellent command of Marathi.

He joined the Congress Party as an activist to fight for independence from Britain and was also a member of the Andhra Pradesh state legislative assembly.

After Congress leader Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination in May 1991, the Congress (I) Party chose Rao as its leader at the age of 70, and he became India’s 9th prime minister after the general elections in June.

Narasimha Rao was the first PM of India to lead a minority government for a full term.

The former PM suffered a heart attack on December 9, 2004, and was taken to the AIMS, where he died 14 days later at the age of 83.