P. V. Narasimha Rao

India's 1991 economic turn needed political management as well as an economist's programme. Rao gave Finance Minister Manmohan Singh room to act while leading a government without an outright parliamentary majority. Study that partnership to distinguish designing a reform from maintaining the authority to implement it. This is a deliberately bounded reason for inclusion: the destruction of the Babri Masjid in 1992 and his government's failure to prevent it weigh heavily against any uncomplicated celebration of his premiership.