Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Quotes

A man of high principles, he worked for the country long and loyally, adding lustre to our traditions of tolerance and selfless service. A devout Muslim, he personified compassion and humanity which are the core of all religions and was thus an illustrious symbol of our secularism.
He labored with utter devotion for the uplift of his state and soon his field of work expanded to embrace the entire country.
He dealt with every issue with patience, calm and a sense of fairplay. In many delicate international missions which he undertook on behalf of the Government, his earnestness and dignity enhanced India’s prestige.

One of the great sons of Assam and India. His contribution to the Indian freedom struggle was invaluable. A firm believer in the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, he left an indelible imprint on the political landscape of our great nation. His long and distinguished career in public life, which culminated in his occupying the august position of President of India is a shining example of commitment to ethical values and selfless service to the people. Indeed, his contribution to the building of our society and country continues inspiring all of us.

How does the press manage to come out with the controversial bits in the cabinet meeting?

He was a close friend of Zakir Husain, the third President of India. It was a coincidence and a tribute to their friendship that both occupied the highest position of the land, died in harness of heart failure and collapsed in the same bathroom of the Rashtrapathi Bhavan.

He studied at Cambridge University’s Catherine College and became barrister from the Inner Temple of London. He could not complete his parents’ dream of appearing for ICS examination due to severe bout of illness. When he returned to India, he began practicing law in the Lahore High Court in 1928. In October that year, his father took him to Guwahati in Assam to take care of some paternal property, which included a few hundred acres of land in and around Guwahati. Thus the Ahmed family connection to Assam, which had been severed abruptly by his father’s posting to the northwest many years ago was restored... and two years later he returned in 1931 to become a primary member of the Congress, a move which greatly influenced his future development. **In: p. 49

He was the president who proclaimed the two-year period of Emergency that marked such a difficult period in India's political history. This, and his subsequent death in office, marked him in public memory forever as the “Emergency President”.

No religion has one single language. Muslims are spread all over the world and all Muslims do not speak one language. For instance the Turk Muslims speak Turkish, the Iranian Muslims speak Persian, the Indonesian Muslims speak Bhasha Indonesia; the Punjabi Muslims speak Punjabi, the Maharashtrian Muslim speaks Marathi, and like wise. He was against imposing any language on any people and he spoke a language which is known as Hindustani.

lt should not be forgotten that we are carrying on the Government in the province under an irresponsible centre, and almost under the shadow of the scheme of the All India Federation which has been rejected not only by the National Congress but also by other political organizations and the Princes and the people of the States.

He had been very close to the Nehru family from the very beginning. Like her father, Indira Gandhi also had a great liking for him and his wife Abida. Indira Gandhi after she took over as the Prime Minister in the year 1966, inducted him in the Council of Ministers.

The son of an army doctor from Assam, he was educated in India and studied history at the University of Cambridge, graduating in 1927. After returning to India, he was elected to the Assam legislature (1935). As Assam’s minister of finance and revenue in 1938, he was responsible for some radical taxation measures. On the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the Indian National Congress party had a confrontation with British power, and he was jailed for a year. Soon after release he was again imprisoned for another three and a half years, being released in April 1945. In 1946 he was appointed advocate general of Assam and held the post for six years.

His initiative in introducing the Assam Agricultural Income Tax Bill, the first of its kind in India, in 1939, that levied taxes on tea garden lands in the State and his pro-labour policy in the British-owned Assam Oil Company Limited at Digboi irked the European planters and their henchman who considered that the measures of the Congress Coalition Government were radical and, therefore, constituted a danger signal tot eh interests of the British commercial community.

He was a man with modest habits, he was fond of light music, he had neither smoked nor even took ‘pan’ but he was fond of good dress.

He was rudely woken up at midnight on 25 June 1975 and asked to sign the emergency proclamation which he faithfully did. Its effect was telling in six hours, with Newspapers without news and the entire opposition in jail.

He was very close to Jawaharlal Nehru. He could have joined the Central Cabinet much earlier but the Chief Minister of Assam, wanted him to work with him and resisted his going to the centre.

As a student in England he had befriended Jawaharlal Nehru whose progressive ideas had influenced him, and who became his close friend and mentor.