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

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.

In the Congress hierarchy, he enjoyed an enviable position being a member of the Congress Working Committee for many years.

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.