Remembering Nehru’s magnanimity A friend of mine told me a story when I was a lawyer in Allahabad. This friend, who was a few years older than me, is now no more. In the late 1950s, a convocation was held in the Allahabad University. In this function, some university students, including my friend, put a garland of shoes on the neck of the UP governor (in protest against some issue). Consequently, these students were expelled from the university. They decided to go to Delhi and request prime minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to get their expulsion revoked, thinking that since Allahabad was Nehru’s parliamentary constituency, he would get their expulsion revoked. They took the night train to Delhi, travelling without tickets. When the travelling ticket examiner (TTE) came and asked for their tickets, they shouted Hum prime minister ke constituency ke hain; Bhaag jao! (We are from the prime minister’s constituency; get lost), and the poor TTE fled. On reaching Delhi, they ...