Religious he was but bigot, he was not. Some of us in the family turned into Shirdi Saibaba devotees and he did not demur. - Basappa Danappa Jatti

His life was a unique case of a public figure who rose from the chairmanship of a village panchayat to the Rashtrapathi Bhavan. He rose literally from the soil of Jamkhandi in Bagalkot District where he started his public life as chairman of a village panchayat, and his was another name for simplicity and humility.

I now come to external relations. My government will honour all the commitments made by the previous government. It stands for friendship with all our neighbours and other nations of the world on the basis of equality and reciprocity and will follow a path of genuine non-alignment.

His acting presidency was not without controversy. When in April 1977, the then Union Home Minister, Charan Singh, took the debatable decision to dissolve the Assemblies of nine States, he declined to sign the order, and broke the tradition of the President accepting the advice of the Cabinet. Though he later signed the order, he took the stand that the Centre's action should not only be politically and constitutionally correct but also appear to be proper.