Obituary - Current Affairs for September, 2017

Lillian Ross, the ever-watchful New Yorker reporter whose close narrative style defined a memorable and influential 70-year career has died at age 99. Ross died early Wednesday at Lenox Hill Hospital after suffering a stroke. Ross’ approach, later made famous by the “New Journalists” of the 1960s, used dialogue, scene structure and other techniques associated with fiction writers. She regarded herself as a short story writer who worked with facts, or even as a director, trying to “build scenes into little story-films.” In 1999, her 1964 collection of articles, “Reporting,” was selected by a panel of experts as one of the 100 best examples of American journalism in the 20th century. The group, assembled by New York University, ranked it No. 66. Lillian Ross: Know More

• Born in Syracuse, New York, she was always more comfortable as an observer and played hooky just to hang around professional newspaper offices.
• She graduated from Hunter College, worked at the liberal New York Citydaily PM, then was hired by The New Yorker in the mid-1940s, when the magazine was looking for women writers because so many men were serving in World War II.

India’s sole Marshal of the Indian Air Force, Arjan Singh passed away just two years short of a century in New Delhi on 16^th Sept 2017. Singh, was the first and the only Chief of the Air Staff to be awarded this rank, a rare honour bestowed to only two army chiefs since independence. Born on April 15, 1919 in Lyallpur, Punjab, now in Pakistan, Singh was a legend in the Indian Air Force throughout his career. One of the early pioneers who joined the Royal Indian Air Force, he took part in the Arakan campaign in Burma (Myanmar), before being posted as part of the force sent to defend the city of Imphal in India’s North East against the advancing Japanese Imperial forces. Arjan Singh: Know More

• Born in a traditional military family, Singh’s father had served in the Hodson’s Horse, a reputed cavalry unit that was converted into a armored regiment in independent India.
• Trained at the Royal Air Force College at Cramwell, Singh spent a few years in the North West Frontier Province, (now in Pakistan) before moving to the Arakan campaign.
• Awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, he was one of those handful of Indian pilots who would form the nucleus of the Indian Air Force.
• Singh was also known for his exceptional leadership as the Chief of Air Staff, when India and Pakistan went to war in September 1965.
• In 2002, the government of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee took the historic decision to appoint him as India’s first Marshal of the Indian Air Force.
• Known to only a few people, Singh started a Foundation with a generous grant of $317,400 (INR 2 crore) for the welfare of the air force personnel and their families.
• He was one of those rare Chiefs who had flown every aircraft in independent India’s inventory, from the Canberra to the Hunter and the MiG-21s as they arrived just before his tenure and were pressed into service.
• After retirement Singh was appointed as India’s ambassador to Switzerland and the Vatican and then the High Commissioner to Kenya.
• Years later, he was also appointed as the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi for a year, before being appointed as India’s first Marshal of the Indian Air Force in 2002.
• A state funeral will be accorded to Marshal of the Indian Air Force Arjan Singh + and the national flag will fly at half mast in all government buildings here on Monday in his honour along with a 21 gun salute.
• Singh, who had flown more than 60 different types of aircraft, had played a major role in transforming the IAF into one of the most potent air forces globally and the fourth biggest in the world.
• He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian honour, in 1965.

Noted constitutional law expert and senior counsel P P Rao died on 13th Sept 2017 following a cardiac arrest. He was 84. Rao, who was a former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2006 and was regular commentator on legal affairs. The eminent lawyer completed 50 years of legal practice in July 2017. Born in July 1933, he completed his LLB and LLM from the Osmania University, Hyderabad, after which he started his career by teaching law in Delhi University in 1961. He enrolled as an advocate in 1967 in Delhi. He became an advocate on record in 1969 and was designated senior advocate by the Supreme Court in 1976. He had the privilege of assisting lawyers like H M Seervai, M C Setalvad, N C Chatterjee and A K Sen and appeared before the Supreme Court in many landmark cases like the Kesavananda Bharati and the Babri Masjid demolition cases.

Arunachal Pradesh Health and Family Welfare Minister Jomde Kena died at a private hospital in Guwahati after prolonged illness. 52-year old Kena, a resident of Gensi village in Lower Siang district was undergoing treatment at Guwahati. Kena, who represented Likabali constituency, was first elected to the Legislative Assembly in 2004. He was re-elected to the House from the same constituency in 2009 and 2014. Kena was elected as Deputy Speaker during Nabam Tuki Government and served as Parliamentary Secretary under the Dorjee Khandu and Jarbom Gamlin ministries. He is survived by his wife, four daughters and two sons.

Former Union minister and sitting Trinamool Congress MP Sultan Ahmed died today following a cardiac arrest at his residence in Kolkata.

The 64-year-old is survived by wife and two sons.

He was elected to the Lok Sabha from Uluberia constituency on a Trinamool Congress ticket.

Ahmed had served as the Union Minister of State for Tourism in the UPA government headed by Manmohan Singh government.

He was elected to the West Bengal Assembly twice.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee condoled his death.

Ahmed, who was president of Mohammedan Sporting Club in Kolkata, had served as the junior minister for tourism for three years till 2012.

Before joining the TMC, he belonged to the Congress party and was elected to the West Bengal legislative assembly twice.

Lately, Ahmed was in the news as one of the key accused in the Narada TV sting operation case, and was facing investigation by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) at the time of his death.