Repeat performance

After ruffling feathers in the Congress with his The Accidental Prime Minister, in which he claimed that Manmohan Singh as prime minister had played second fiddle to Sonia Gandhi, author Sanjaya Baru is set for an encore. In his forthcoming title, 1991: How Narasimha Rao Made History, Baru argues that Rajiv Gandhi contributed to the Indian economic crisis not just with his policies but also with his political manoeuvres. Gandhi had given an assurance to President R Venkataraman that he would back Chandra Shekhar’s minority government till the economic crisis had blown over. But Gandhi toppled the government just before the budget for 1991, preventing India, Baru writes, from securing a lifeline from the IMF. This, he adds, was the last straw that pushed the economy to the brink of default. At Baru’s book releases next week, then finance minister Yashwant Sinha will share the stage with one of his successors, P Chidambaram, who fell out with Narasimha Rao.