Miscellaneous - This Day That Age

dated April 11, 1952: C.R. assumes office as C.M.

Mr. C. Rajagopalachari, Chief Minister, Madras Government, addressed his first press conference on April 10, after his assumption of office.

The Chief Minister begun the interview by himself asking the pressmen: "Are you all happy I am here?"

"Yes, we are all happy," came the reply. On this Mr. Rajagopalachari commented: "You are happy because I am in trouble!"

There was a brief interval of silence. Mr. Rajagopalachari himself broke it by asking: "Am I to begin?" The pressmen signifying assent, he prefaced his remarks by saying that he was going to speak over the radio in the night and so he did not wish to make any speech here. "Having just been sworn in," Mr. Rajagopalachari said, "I feel rather dry in my head. You do not expect me to say exactly how I feel. Everybody knows the circumstances under which I have come in and will sympathise with me and, I hope, will cooperate with me."

"Mere sympathy will not do," Mr. Rajagopalachari emphasised." I want co-operation. Government has become, as you know, extraordinarily difficult since I was lost on the saddle in Madras, Government in India as well as Government all over the world has become more and more difficult. I wish I had been in office 50 years ago. It would then have been an easy job and I would have done it well. Now I stand greatly in need of toleration. I am too disturbed in mind just now to give you any indication of policies. I should be very happy if I succeed in giving satisfaction to the general public about efficiency."

Dr. Radhakrishnan in London

On his arrival in London on April 9, from Moscow en route to India, Dr. Radhakrishnan, India's retiring Ambassador to the Soviet Union, said that Mr. Stalin "was friendly" at the farewell interview.

Dr. Radhakrishnan said: "I saw Mr. Stalin before I left and he is in good health. He gave me no message for the Western world. He only said farewell to me." Dr. Radhakrishnan declined to comment on the reports that Marshal Stalin was planning a new diplomatic offensive.

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