Atal Bihari Vajpayee: A statesman

A member of Parliament since 1957, Mr Vajpayee headed the 13-day government in 1996 after four decades in Opposition.

His involvement in politics began during the Quit India Movement of 1942-1945. He started as a communist but shed that for RSS
Vajpayee dropped out of law school to run an RSS magazine in the early 1950s. Later, he emerged as the moderate voice of the BJP.
He became an aide to Shyama Prasad Mook-erjee, founder of the Jana Sangh, BJP’s predecessor. He was at Mookerjee’s side when he went on a fast-unto-death in Kashmir in 1953.
One of India’s most charismatic post-independence leaders, Atal Behari Vajpayee is lauded as a statesman whose acceptability across the board succeeded in bringing the BJP to the centrestage of politics in the late 90s from being a virtual untouchable, especially after Babri Masjid demolition in 1992.
His second stint as PM from 1998 ended within 13 months. He was reelected in 1999 and completed his full term.
An orator par excellence, with a signature long pause, he is known for taking bold initiatives like riding a bus to Lahore
His peace initiative failed as Pakistan undertook a covert operation to send troops into Kargil. His historic Agra summit with Pervez Musharraf in 2001 failed.

Madan Mohan Malviya: A Reformer

Mahamana Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya was born on December 25, 1861 in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh.
After completing his graduation from Calcutta University in 1884, Pandit Malviya taught at a school in Allahabad. It was in 1886, when 25-year-old Malviya was noticed by Surendranath Banerjee for his speech at 2nd Congress.
After a brief stint as the editor of Hindustan, in 1889, he pursued LLB and after completing his degree, he started practising at Allahabad High Court.
He was instrumental in pushing the use of Hindi in court’s day-to-day work.
In 1909 and 1918, he was the president of the Congress. He opposed the separate electorate for Muslims under the Lucknow Pact of 1916.
In 1911, he gave up practice and started travelling all over the country to set up a university in Varanasi. During this time, he was called ‘Prince of Beggars’ by Mahatma Gandhi
Established Banaras Hindu University in 1916.
In 1931, Malviya, fondly called Mahamana by Gandhiji, went to attend the Round Table Conference in London with Mahatma Gandhi. He was jailed several times in 1930 and 1932. On November 12, 1946 he passed away at the age of 85 in Varanasi.

BHARAT RATNAS

C. Rajagopalachari - Freedom fighter and last Governor general of India
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Second President of India, educat-ionist and philosopher.
C.V. Raman, Nobel laureate physicist.
Bhagwan Das, freedom fighter, Kashi Vidyapith founder.
Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya, Civil engineer, Diwan of Mysore state
Govind Ballabh Pant, Freedom fighter, first CM of Uttar Pradesh.
Dhondo Keshav Karve, Social reformer
Bidhan Chandra Roy, Physician, 2nd CM of WB
Purushottam Das Tandon, Freedom fighter, educationist
Rajendra Prasad, 1st Prez
Zakir Hussain, 3rd Prez
Pandurang Vaman Kane, Indologist, Sanskrit scholar
Lal Bahadur Shastri, Freedom fighter, second PM
Indira Gandhi, Ex-PM.
V.V. Giri, 4th Prez of India
K. Kamaraj, Former CM of Tamil Nadu.Was instrumental in making Lala Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi PM
Mother Teresa, Founder of the Missionaries of Char-ity and Peace Nobel laureate
Acharya Vinoba Bhave, Social reformer, and Ramon Magsaysay Awardee
Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Known as ‘Frontier Gandhi’
M.G. Ramachandran, Film actor and ex-CM of TN
B.R. Ambedkar, Chief architect of the Constitution
Nelson Mandela, Leader of the Anti-Apartheid Mov-ement in South Africa and Peace Nobel laureate
Rajiv Gandhi Ex-PM, initiated IT revolution.
Vallabhbhai Patel, Freedom fighter and India’s first home minister.
Morarji Desai, Sixth PM
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Freedom fighter. Ind-ia’s first education minister.
J.R.D. Tata, industrialist and philanthropist.
Satyajit Ray, Oscar winni-ng filmmaker
Gulzarilal Nanda, Twice interim PM
Aruna Asaf Ali, Freedom fighter
A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Father of India’s missile programme, 11th Prez of India
M.S. Subbulakshmi, Carnatic classical vocalist
Chidambaram Subramaniam, Father of green revolution
Jayaprakash Narayan, Freedom fighter, social reformer
Amartya Sen, Nobel laureate economist
Gopinath Bordoloi, First CM of Assam
Pandit Ravi Shankar, Classical Sitar player
Lata Mangeshkar, Playback singer
Ustad Bismillah Khan, Shehnai maestro
Bhimsen Joshi, Hindustani classical vocalist
C.N.R. Rao, Scientist
Sachin Tendulkar, Cricketer