Key Points
When Major (Retd) Ved Prakash collapsed inside 24, Akbar Road, it was lunch time and the chairman of ex-serviceman was, perhaps, heading for a discreet corner to have his packed, home-cooked lunch, a ritual he followed for almost four decades or more...
A barrage of condolences followed from the US -- where Rahul Gandhi is busy making ways difficult for Narendra Modi ahead of the prime ministers state visit to the US -- Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Manish Tiwari, Pawan Khera and hundreds of beat correspondents who had their own collection of stories and snippets about the genial Major saheb...
The veteran Congressman saw rise and fall of Rajiv Gandhi, coming and going of P V Narasimha Rao, whims and fancies of Sitaram Kesri and long years of Sonia Gandhi, Rahul and Mallikarjun Kharge..
Several decades later, Sushil Kumar Shinde, the then union home minister under Dr Manmohan Singh, had reportedly called up Ved Prakash enthusiastically, congratulating him for a gubernatorial assignment that was about to be announced...
For more discerning observers, Ved Prakash was an inseparable part of a troika Gadgil, Chandulal Chandrakar and the army major, often acting as Gandhis three wise monkeys..
