Narasimha Rao passes away

NDTV.com: "Former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao who changed the face of India's economic map passed away in New Delhi today. Rao who was 83 years old, had been critically ill for the last two weeks.

He died of cardiac arrest at 2:40 pm (IST) at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). A widower, he is survived by three sons and five daughters. Rao had been admitted to AIIMS on December 9 and had undergone surgery to install a pacemaker.

The state funeral and cremation of the former Prime Minister will take place in Hyderabad on December 25. The cremation will take place at noon, reports said. The mortal remains of Rao will be kept at the AICC headquarters at 24, Akbar Road tomorrow to enable party leaders and workers to pay their last respects to the late leader.

Rao was the Prime Minister from 1991-96, a turbulent period in Indian politics that witnessed the demolition of the Babri Masjid on one hand and the birth of liberalisation at the other end of the spectrum. The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha case in which MPs were bribed to switch over in a no-confidence vote led to Rao becoming the first Prime Minister to be convicted in a criminal case.

But Rao's very survival instincts which saw him rise from local politics in Andhra Pradesh to the chief ministership of the State and to every important cabinet position would let him down on December 6, 1992. The demolition of the Babri Masjid on that day would become symbolic of the politics of indecision. Rao was even accused of not being firm enough in handling Hindu fundamentalists."