Vir Sangvi does a fair assessment though I wont subscribe to his theories of PV's name being used to undermine the Gandhi family, or their legacy, whatever that is supposed to mean, or bjp being behind it, or where he says Gandhi family has not made sure of not letting non-gandhi names have a resonance, heck they have so conveniently forgotten lal bhadur shashtri who was painted as the villain immediately post 65 war and MMS finds his place as a PM because he is a yes man to the high command with no bone which can dare contradict, with sonia a name which remains unacceptable as a PM to the country and rahul is not yet seen temperamentally qualified enough to take to the role of the PM and even he admits he finds it unexplainable and so he is just trying to coin a thought he has no clues about. In Pakistan they term it as conspiracy theories!
India was in dire straits back in 1991 when pv took to the role of the PM, and without a doubt with moscow being in its own mess post the break up of ussr and boris yeltsen taking a pro US stance, the only other possible hope which could have bailed India out, India then had no option but to look at imf which eventually happened but something that does not get highlighted because MMS has been portrayed as the real architect, the genius behind the reform process who since then is followed as some sort of a cult figure. It was by sheer luck and purely by accident the economic reform process was taken up which then was severely opposed and criticized both with in the congress and out side by the commies and the bjp who labeled the act as a sell out of the country and a new form of colonialism taking shape.
I think to do justice to this discussion we need to look a little back to an era post indira when rajiv became the PM who was the first person to have really looked at the option of economic reforms and he did promise a lot when for the first time he talked about making India a scientific hub, the time when a real change in outlook towards economy started happening, though rhetorical in nature, but he was atleast talking about it before the bofors scandal came to haunt him and his regime which eventually rocked the whole process.
PS: Truthful, please don't just give a link to an article, if you could post the relevant part of the article pertaining to the discussion on the thread would be great. Thanks.