Rajaji, an ardent follower of Gandhi, was a freedom fighter, scholar, jurist, statesman and the first recipient of the Bharat Ratna along with S Radhakrishnan and C V Raman.
A bust of Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, the first Indian governor-general, has replaced a statue of British architect Edwin Lutyens at Rashtrapati Bhavan, symbolizing a move away from colonial influences and embracing Indian heritage.
A district collector leads Dalits into a temple in Tamil Nadu, which is then sealed. A Ganesh Nadar finds out why.
Fifty years ago today, December 25, 1972, Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, one of the titans of India's freedom struggle, passed into the ages. Kalki Krishnamurthy, who penned the Tamil classic Ponniyin Selvan among numerous other novels, describes his first glimpse of the man who would become an august national leader and his cherished role model.
'The war of 1962 exposed the hollow intellectual foundations of Nehruvian foreign policy, especially vis-a-vis China and that is why it was such a shock.'
Tamil Nadu's voters wanted tough leaders at the helm, to the point of being autocratic. It was what Karunanidhi, MGR and Jayalalithaa ended up becoming, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
'After people died when banners fell on them, I decided to file a case to make it a law to prevent people from doing this.' 'Till today, I have filed 150 cases against this menace.'
'Nehru once told JRD, "I hate the mention of the very word profit".' '"Jawaharlal, I am talking about the need of the public sector making a profit!" JRD replied.' 'Nehru reiterated, "Never talk to me about the word profit, it is a dirty word".' A fascinating excerpt from Shashank Shah's The Tata Group: From Torchbearers To Trailblazers.
The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam might have been pushed into a corner to come up with a prohibition policy of its own, if only to create the right atmosphere for talking about an Opposition coalition in the state, says N Sathiya Moorthy
'This is the first time a majority ruling government is nominating a Dalit for President.' 'So, the moral credibility definitely will go with the BJP, particularly Narendra Modi.'
Does Pranab Mukherjee want to be 'PM' by office, not just by initials? The very prospect, with memories of the Narasimha Rao years scarred into their memories, scares the Nehru-Gandhis, says T V R Shenoy.
In the shock after Nathuram Godse murdered Mahatma Gandhi that January evening 72 years ago today, a young American diplomat rushed to capture the assassin. Vaihayasi Pande Daniel traces the memorable life of Herbert Reiner, who History has sadly relegated to a footnote.
'Those days, none of the leaders thought of amassing wealth.' 'All of them wanted to sacrifice their all for the country.' 'There are many who didn't have any money, but sacrificed their lives for the country.' 'There are many who spent their own money and worked for the country.' 'There are many more about whom we do not even know what they had done; they did everything so silently and selflessly.'
