The Hindu Magazine’s celebration of 60 years of Indian Constitution is notable for the choice of its articles which are interesting to an average reader.

The lead article is by Vikram Raghavan, our co-contributor, who records perhaps for the first time, how our first President, Rajendra Prasad, clumsily inserted his name in the small space between the last line of the text and Nehru’s signature, while signing the Constitution’s calligraphic copies. Can Vikram also tell us where are these copies kept? Is there one copy or several copies? The article is not clear on this. He also refers to Prasad’s announcement that Jana Gana Mana would be the National Anthem and Vande Mataram would have equal status. What did Prasad mean by this? Considering that Vande Mataram continues to be controversial, interpreting what Prasad meant by this may be relevant.

Readers will find the following articles too of considerable interest:

Gopal Sankaranarayanan’s choosing our destiny

Gyan Prakash’s in the name of the people

and Nandini Sundar’s Lingering Inequalities