145;A reserved, dignified man146;

The death of P V Narasimha Rao is a grave loss to the country and a personal loss for me. Narasimha Rao became prime minister when the country was going through the trauma of the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. In the midst of that trauma, Rao took charge of the nation and provided stability and a quality of governance that brought normalcy to those troubled times. He will be remembered as a path-breaker. He was a diplomat par excellence. He took major initiatives in the foreign policy arena, such as improving relations with China, building upon the famous handshake between Rajiv Gandhi and Deng Xiaoping. On the Indo-US front, as well as on the Indo-Pakistan front, Rao was able to take many initiatives. He recognised Israel, which brought a new dimension towards the achievement of a holistic foreign policy. He was a wise man and his death has caused a void in the nation8217;s public life as well as in the Congress party, a void which is difficult to fill.

His death is a great personal loss to me. I remember him as an affectionate and kind person and I will always remember my association with him. He was a complete politician. For him there was no ad hoc approach. A fragmented view would not suffice. He always took the long view. Of course he was a mighty good practical politician as well and he also mastered the day-to-dayism of everyday politics, but he definitely took an elevated view of the key problem areas facing our nation.

At the personal level, he was a private person and a reserved man. But the closer you came to him, the more clearly his multi-dimensional persona was revealed. He was a litterateur, he had a deep understanding of ancient philosophy at the personal level and his reading and understanding of various regional literatures was truly amazing. There were so many dimensions to his personality. He could be very affectionate when he chose to be.

The manner in which he was falsely implicated in various cases saddened him. It was inevitable that a man of his background should feel hurt by the charges levelled at him. But he did not betray that feeling of hurt. He was reserved, a man of dignity, he kept his own counsel. I always felt that even though he was very hurt, he did not show it, never expressed it, but carried himself with dignity. And everybody must admire that quality about him.

He was a very capable prime minister. The office of the prime minister was elevated when he occupied it. He proved in a short time that he was more than a first among equals. He was the leader of the party and of the government and showed a great deal of respect to the Opposition. He awarded the Padma Vibhushan to Atal Behari Vajpayee. But what the BJP did to him is a part of history which I would not like to go into here.

The writer is a senior Congress leader and close associate of Rao