Pakistan is a paradigm example of a failed state that has undergone an extremely dangerous form of radical Islamisation.
Neelam Sanjiva Reddy
Sri Neelam Sanjiva Reddy was the sixth President of India. Born in a peasant
family at Illuri village in the Anantapur District of Andhra Pradesh on May 19,
1913. Sri Sanjiva Reddy had his early education at the Theosophical High School
at Adyar in Madras and later joined the Arts College at Anantapur.
In 1931 he gave up his studies and took part in the freedom movement. At the
age of 25, he was elected Secretary of the Andhra Pradesh Provincial Congress
Committee and remained in that office for 10 years. Shri Sanjiva Reddy married
Shrimati Nagarathnamma on June 8, 1935. He was in prison for a greater part of
the period 1940-1945. In 1946 he was elected to the Madras Legislaltive Assembly
and became the Secretary of the Madras Congress Legislature Party the following
year. In 1947, he became a Member of the Indian Constitutent Assembly.
From April 1949 to April 1951, he was Minister for Prohibition, Housing and
Forests for the state of Madras. In 1951, he became the president of the Andhra
Pradesh Congress Committee. In 1952, he was elected Member of the Rajya Sabha.
In 1953, he became the deputy chief minister in the Cabinet of the T. Prakasam
and he was the Leader of the Congress Legislature Party. He was again elected to
the Legislative Assembly in 1955 and became Deputy Chief Minister in B. Gopala
Reddi's cabinet.
He became the first Chief Minister to the new State of Andhra Pradesh in
October, 1956. In 1959, he resigned the Chief Ministership to take over the
Presidentship of the Indian National Congress. In March, 1962, he again became
the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. In February 1964, he voluntarily resigned
the office of Chief Minister.On June 9, 1964, he was appointed a Member of the
Union Cabinet formed by Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri and took over the portfolio of
Steel and Mines. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha in November, 1964.
Reddy was Union Minister of Transport, Civil Aviation, Shipping and Tourism
from January 1966 to March 1967 in the Cabinet formed by Indira Gandhi. He was
elected Speaker of the Lok Sabha on March 17, 1967, an office that won him
unprecedented acclaim and admiration. After 1969, Shri Reddy devoted his time to
agriculture. In March 1977, he fought the Lok Sabha election from Nandyal
constituency in Andhra Pradesh as a Janata Party candidate. He was the only
non-Congress candidate to get elected from Andhra Pradesh.
Neelam Sanjiva Reddy was unanimously elected Speaker of the Lok Sabha on
March 26, 1977. He was unanimously sponsored as the consensus candidate for the
Presidentship by all political parties, a rare even in recent political history.
He was declared elected unopposed on July 21, 1977.
