Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao on Tuesday moved a resolution in the state Assembly, urging the Centre to confer the Bharat Ratna, the country’s highest civilian award, on former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao, the Hindustan Times reported.

The Assembly also adopted a resolution to ask the central government to install a statue and a portrait of the former prime minister in the Parliament Annexe and rename the Hyderabad Central University after him. Speaker Pocharam Srinivas Reddy has already approved the request for the portrait at the Assembly complex.

The resolution, however, did not go down well with the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen. The Asaduddin Owaisi-led party boycotted the Assembly, saying it could not support the move. “AIMIM [All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen] MLAs boycotted Telangana Assembly proceedings following a resolution that proposed Bharat Ratna for PV Narasimha Rao, the party said on Twitter. “As Prime Minister, Rao failed to protect Babri Masjid from demolition & his communal politics is well known.”

On the other hand, the chief minister said Narasimha Rao was a statesman, a multi-linguist, who could who could speak Telugu, Sanskrit, Marathi, Kannada, Urdu, Persian, English and French among other languages, and was an intellectual par excellence. He also credited the former prime minister with introducing modern economic reforms and helping India become one of the largest economies in the world.

“Only two leaders turned India’s modern history,” he said. “One was Jawaharlal Nehru, the architect of modern India and the second one was PV Narasimha Rao, who was the maker of global India.”

Chandrashekhar Rao praised the former prime minister for his handling of the 1991 economic crisis. “He led a minority government for a full five-year term and also introduced revolutionary economic reforms in the country,” Chandrashekhar Rao said. “He opened gates for privatisation and created employment for scores of Indians.”

He said Narasimha Rao played an important role in bringing land reforms in the state and lauded him for donating 800 acres of his family land to the poor in his native village, The Hindu reported. The chief minister also praised Narasimha Rao for recognising Israel and establishing diplomatic relations with the country, when he was the external affairs minister.

Chandrashekhar Rao had spoken about the plans to seek Bharat Ratna for Narasimha Rao at the former prime minister’s 99th birth anniversary on June 28. The state government has announced events throughout the year to honour the former prime minister.