India, Nov. 10 -- Those who walk, yet carve their own path apart. Such was the rare statesman, Chandrashekhar. He entered politics not as an amateur but as a scholar. He had wanted to earn a PhD in political science but Acharya Narendra Dev counselled him to plunge straight into the arena of politics instead. He did-and strode forward. For Chandrashekhar, politics became a sacred vow of nation-building, a vow he honoured all his life. In this sense, through politics itself, he turned into a living university for the reconstruction of the country.

In the chronicle of independent India, Chandrashekhar's place is immortalised for three reasons. One: ideology-driven, people-centred politics. Two: daring experiments in the political craft. Th...