Vinay Sitapati in conversation with Rudrangshu Mukherjee

With access to unseen documents, Vinay Sitapati, author, political scientist and professor at Ashoka University speaks to Vice-Chancellor Rudrangshu Mukherjee about Narasimha Rao, the man behind India’s economic reforms.

[@chandrasekaranvaidyanathan1215]

Excellent presentation and interaction with RC Guha. I had the rare privilege of spending 2 days with PVN at the AICC session in 1988 at Maraimalainagar... I was handling the computer centre and did election analytics for AICC... Presented to Rajiv, who was the PM at that time... I can say with confidence that every resolution passed was crafted and drafted by PVN. Whatever, anyone speaks, PVN's draft will be passed. At that time, he was Minister of External Affairs - but all resolutions - Foreign policy, defence, economic affairs, poverty alleviation... Literally every resolution.. was drafted by him. He is among the most intellectually evolved persons, I have ever met. He knew device driver versions on PC for the Laserprinter we were using and helped correct an issue! He reviewed my PPT (at that time IBM StoryBoard) and was appreciative of it and suggested changes before I presented it to Rajiv Gandhi! PVN was a brilliant man, a truly erudite man and an intellectual, who changed the course for India!!

[@bandipalli]

Wow..PVN knows Cobol & Basic languages also..It's a quite revelation

[@nathansekhar2840]

Excellent presentation by both authors Kudos. Nathan Sekhar Sydney Australia.

[@alokeghosh8823]

Extremely enlightening discussion.....

[@rahulmn007]

very enlightening conversation.i like the energy and passion of Mr. Sitapati.

[@ayeluru]

rameshwar rahul It is "Sitapati"

[@rahulmn007]

Thanks for pointing out the mistake.

[@ajitagwan3284]

¹

[@kishorekorutla2045]

there should be a netflix series on pv

[@RohanRajadhyaksha]

There is one in the making and it is based on Vinay Sitapati's book. Prakash Jha is directing it.

[@krishnamanoj7820]

great clarity of thought shown by Mr. Sitapati, enhanced by his eloquence. His painstakingly researched book which throws a whole new light on Mr. Rao, delights and enlightens both academic as well as a general reader. But for the erudite likes of Sitapati, the congress, left, liberal historians would continue to show Mr Rao forever as an unmitigated Babri villain or grudgingly accept him as a PM having feet of murky clay.

[@amitvaswani9484]

Krishna Manoj true..and I am ashamed to say before this interview and one news debate I didn't even knew the name of narasimha rao in his role in liberalization.. All that is said about reforms circle around manmohan Singh..

[@jayeshjani6357]

Enlightening discussion, thanks

[@georgekottaram]

PVN asks Sukhram(A minister under him) to make the first mobile call. Imagine this happening in the Modi era!

[@raghavendracm]

Hahaha.. True

[@rangaraoakkanapragada8389]

Vinny's biography is an excellent piece of work,he potryed the context in detail, scanned diaries oh Rao, interviewed his close aides, countercheked the statements.Full credit to him for his objective analysis.One has to read the book to know more about the prime minister who changed the destiny of India

[@megavananmegamc7332]

Thank you

[@akshatgoyal96]

Rao was One of the best PM India ever had. 🙏

[@aftabalam-pf4yr]

He is factually wrong as he mentions Sitaram Yechury easing out PV Narsimha Rao.It was actually Sitaram Keshari. It is like making political studies as pop science.

[@aftabalam-pf4yr]

What is the use of peeping into other people's bedroom ? What was required to analyse the politics and policies of PV.

[@sridharan.cchakravarthy4886]

not seetharaman yechuri sir but seetharaman keshri at 7.3 minutes this slip happened

[@mazumdar2379]

👍🏼

[@mazel_tov]

7:38 sitaram kesri (not yechury)

[@ASTROMURTHY]

Reform the constitution to elect PM direct by the people. India will get good leader

[@chaitanyavinay101]

Then people choose only hindi speaking person The consequences will be south india will get separated from india

[@Defaultrafale12]

@@chaitanyavinay101 no, pvnr spoke hindi fluently. Also, he spoke 17 languages.

[@maanyashukla326]

@@Defaultrafale12 Yeah and? Not everyone is PVNR, we can't risk such centralization

[@PS-ej2xn]

The host must be extremely unhappy now that PVN is being celebrated as Bharat Ratna.

[@maddalimurthy5052]

why not a movie on PV

[@police1500]

why don't u come to politics sir.

[@gurunathprakash1881]

Vinaj ji, a few points not covered. Ye to read the whole book. there are few points you may not find in the daries. :)

[@chocochip5419]

professional narasimha rao simp ❤️

[@poetrification]

8:52 Hey Sitapati, Vyjayanthi was an MP at that time. So, he is meeting MP Mala, not Actress Mala.

[@abhishekkrishna3902]

It'sSitapathi not Sethupati

[@poetrification]

Abhishek Krishna 👍 Corrected.

[@madhuanand1920]

Vyjayanthimsla was not an MP then; She was not given a Lok Sabha ticket in 1991 Election because Jayalalitha objected & Rajiv Gandhi bowed down to her pressure since Congress was in alliance with ADMK.Later in 1993 she was nominated to Rajjya Sabha by Narasimha Rao.

[@poetrification]

MADHU ANAND Thanks!

[@vishakhasingh8714]

Agreed. Common people have so much clarity but writers writing by book not. It irks readers. 🥺