Pamulaparthi Venkata Narasimha Rao was born on June 28, 1921 at Vangara (village), Karimnagar district of Andhra Pradesh. His father was P. Ranga Rao. He studied in Osmania University, Hyderabad, Bombay University and the Nagpur University. He was able to speak in 17 languages. He was an agriculturist and an advocate. He was an active freedom-fighter during India's indpendence movement, and after independence, he joined politics full time. He was the Minister of Law and Information, 1962-64; Law and Endowments, 1964-67; Health and Medicine, 1967 and Education, 1968-71, Government of Andhra Pradesh. He was the Chief Minister, Andhra Pradesh, 1971-73; General Secretary, All India Congress Committee, 1975-76; Chairman, Telugu Academy, Andhra Pradesh, 1968-74; Vice-President, Dakshin Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha, Madras, from 1972. He was also Member, Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly, 1957-77; Member, Lok Sabha 1977-84. He was Minister for External Affairs from January 14, 1980 to July 18, 1984; Minister of Home Affairs from July 19, 1984 to December 31, 1984 and the Minister of Defence from December 31, 1984 to September 25, 1985. He then assumed charge as Minister of Human Resource Development on September 25, 1985.
He was never an iconic leader. And while his leadership through the economic crisis, terrorism, religious violence and corruption scandals inspired the people to beat the odds, endure the hardship and look at the future optimistically, he was never loved or idolized. And since the fruits of his substantial labors were long to materialize, he was never actually as popular as his more iconic predecessors, who had faced and achieved much less.
