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Article: Biju Patnaik. (Indian politician)(Obituary)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- April 26, 1997
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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IT IS worth writing about Biju Patnaik for at least two reasons. His long life can be read as something of a history of India back to the time when the country was run by Britain. And he gave Indian politics a rare flash of colour.
His great pleasure was flying, and his exploits as a pilot provided his career with a metaphor that endured from the frolics of his youth to his ambitions as a politician and an industrialist: he was, everyone said, a high flyer. At his wedding his guests arrived in Tiger Moths. When the second world war broke out Biju Patnaik joined the Royal Air Force, along with British friends who, like him, had learnt the rudiments of flying at the ...