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

by Vinay Sitapati

is true that commission after commission investigating the massacre have cleared Narasimha Rao of any role in the violence and, as the evidence suggests, he was under a direct order from the prime minister’s office to stand down. But he was home minister of the nation, formally in control of the Delhi Police. He could have defied his prime minister’s henchmen, ordered the police to act, and called in the army on 31 October itself, before the killings began. A public statement by him may have shamed Rajiv into acting sooner. Such an open revolt against his party would have meant political oblivion for Narasimha Rao, who had by now perfected the art of being a loyal number two. Rao’s career in the Congress would have surely ended had he ignored instructions—both categorical and couched—from his party. But it would have set him apart from the others who allowed evil to take place in those four days of 1984. It was his vilest hour.

Narasimha Rao, by not taking charge when he should have, proved that he was only interested in saving his position in the party.