Have you noticed how there is a determined effort to praise P.V. Narasimha Rao? Within the Congress, Rao’s name is mud – for good reason, as we shall see – but his praises are now being sung on the Internet, in editorial commentaries, on Twitter and even in the pages of the joke report that Justice Liberhan took 17 years to produce.

   Rao followed an unusual career trajectory. He was an unsuccessful chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, who could not complete his full term. He would never have made it beyond Andhra if it had not been for Indira Gandhi’s victory in 1980. When Mrs Gandhi returned to power in Delhi, largely on the basis of solid support from the South, she demonstrated her mistrust of North Indian politicians by appointing two South Indians to key posts.

   The first of these was the then little-known R. Venkataraman and the second was the previously written-off Narasimha Rao. Both men were bright but that was not why they were chosen. Mrs Gandhi appreciated their loyalty and liked the fact that neither had a political base of his own.

   For the four years he served in Mrs Gandhi’s office, PV was an unobjectionable enough sort of chap. His moment of great shame came during the 84 Sikh riots when as home minister he failed to protect the Sikhs. Rajiv Gandhi included him in his Cabinet nevertheless. As one of Rajiv’s ministers, PV continued to function unobtrusively only raising eyebrows because of his close relationship with Chandra Swami, who had already been exposed as a major international racketeer. When it was time for the 89 election, PV announced he would retire to Andhra because of his failing health.

   And that would have been that but for Rajiv’s assassination. When Rajiv died, the party offered the leadership to Sonia Gandhi. She turned it down and largely to forestall Sharad Pawar, chose PV to be the next Congress President and, therefore, the next Prime Minister. His old health problems were now forgotten as was all talk of retirement. PV found a new vigour and a taste for power.

   It is no exaggeration to say that Narasimha Rao’s reputation rests on the events of a few months early in his prime ministership. India was bankrupt. We needed the IMF’s money. The IMF would only give us money if we agreed to liberalize the economy. Rao accepted the IMF’s term because he had no choice. But in his single-best decision while in office, he chose a non-politician, Manmohan Singh, to be finance minister. Singh reformed the economy and put India on the path to glory.

   When people praise PV’s prime ministership, it is economic liberalization that gets the most credit. What we forget, however, is that there were few other successes. The insurgency in Kashmir that had begun in 1989 raged out of control. PV misunderstood the magnitude of the changes taking place in the Soviet Union and even delivered a little lecture warning of the dangers of liberalization when Mikhail Gorbachev was briefly ousted in a short-lived coup.

   On the domestic front, his policies were disastrous. He failed to protect the Babri Masjid (though Liberhan has mysteriously let him off on that one) and could not prevent the rise of the BJP. At the same time, he alienated India’s Muslims, most of whom have never forgiven him.

   The stock market saw the biggest-ever scam and matters were not helped when the architect of the scam, Harshad Mehta, revealed that he had actually visited Race Course Road and handed over a suitcase containing a crore in cash to the Prime Minister. But by then, corruption was endemic. Chandra Swami would come to Race Course Road to perform tantric havans for the Prime Minister. PV’s sons would sit at 5 Race Course Road and meet dodgy businessmen.

   In those days, the BJP regarded PV as the worst-ever Prime Minister of India because of his decision to frame L.K. Advani and several others in the havala scam. There was nothing in the case and it was thrown out by the courts. But PV wanted to seem like a crusader against corruption (which was ironic, given his own record) while simultaneously polishing off his opponents.

   Given this record, why is there a move to restore Narasimha Rao’s reputation? There is no logical explanation. In 1996, when the Congress lost the election, PV was regarded as a political untouchable, a discredited crook, who was forced to step down from his organizational posts by his own party men. The only things people talked about were corruption, Chandra Swami and PV’s willingness to misuse the system to frame such political opponents as LK Advani.

   So, why the sudden revisionist urge? And why now? Why not during the years when the BJP was in office?

   My theory is that this pathetic attempt to launch a cult of PV is inspired by no more than a desire to oppose the Gandhi family. If PV is regarded as a charlatan then it follows that the Congress can only function under the Gandhis – or so, empirical evidence would suggest.

   This conclusion is deeply offensive to anybody who opposes dynasty. Therefore, the desire to claim that PV was actually a very good Prime Minister.

   There is also a BJP element to the praise of Narasimha Rao. The argument runs as follows: praise Rao and you will, in effect, run down Sonia Gandhi. Make much of Sonia’s refusal to bolster Rao’s reputation at Congress gatherings (not really surprising given how the Congress hates him) and you can portray her as a petty dynast who cannot bring herself to praise anyone apart from members of the Gandhi family. (Never mind that she praised Lal Bahadur Shastri, who was hardly a member of her family.)

   And so, you will find all kinds of extravagant praise of Narasimha Rao on the Internet. A whole generation that is too young to remember how bad things really were during his time will be told that he was a great Prime Minister who liberalized the Indian economy but who is being robbed of all credit only because of the petty Gandhi family who can’t bear the thought of a non-Gandhi being regarded highly.

   And perhaps it’s working. I find, among visitors to my site that there is an excessive reverence for Narasimha Rao and very little understanding of how bad things were during his reign.

   One of our problems as a nation is that we have no sense of history. And in the age of the Internet, where information is disseminated faster than ever before, this allows those with an agenda to re-write facts with ease and effectiveness.