In his speech in the Constituent Assembly on 11 August 1949, Panjabrao Shamrao Deshmukh expressed his displeasure at the ‘most ill-fated article in the whole Constitution’.
On 12 February 1949, Vallabhbhai Patel gave a speech at Chennai's Island Grounds where he spoke about the importance of unity and how the government had been dealing with the RSS movement.
On 9 December 1963, Ram Manohar Lohia spoke in the Lok Sabha about the Rs 10,000 crore outlay that involved wasteful expenditure borne out of a desire to imitate the European way of life.
On 22 April 1955, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru spoke at the closed session of the Asian-African Conference in Bandung, Indonesia, where he said there was no no point in blaming the Soviet Union or America and Asian countries must be on the side of peace, not war. ‘If there is aggression anywhere in the world, it is bound to result in world war.’
On 23 October 1947, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad spoke from the Jama Masjid decrying Partition as a fundamental mistake. His advice to Indian Muslims: 'Do not seek certificates from the new echelons of power, or lead a life of sycophancy. If you do not wish to flee, nobody can make you flee.'
On 23 March 1976, following his release from prison, Charan Singh delivered a scathing speech in the Uttar Pradesh assembly against Indira Gandhi and her decision to impose Emergency. 'You don't become the master of the country forever once you come to power'.
In his broadcast to the nation on 19 October 1964, Lal Bahadur Shastri addressed India’s dependence on food imports, calling austerity the need of the hour.
On 25 July 1969 in Lok Sabha, Rajkot MP Minoo Masani listed the economic and political grounds on which his Swatantra Party opposed the Indira Gandhi government's Bill to nationalise private banks.
On 11 May 1951, then-President Dr Rajendra Prasad attended the opening of Somnath temple in Gujarat despite Nehru's opposition, and spoke about Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel's idea of restoring the temple to commemorate the restoration of Indian unity.
Liberty without accountability is the freedom of the fool. Our concept of freedom will remain impoverished until it is deepened by liberal education, wrote Nani A Palkhivala in 1995.
While global corporations setting up GCCs in India continue to express confidence in availability of skilled AI engineers, the panel argued that India’s real challenge lies elsewhere.
It is a brilliant, reasonably priced, and mostly homemade aircraft with a stellar safety record; only two crashes in 24 years since its first flight. But its crash is a moment of introspection.
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