Ten Greatest Leaders of the World

Winston Churchill

Churchill arrives at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London to attend thanksgiving services for the May 1945 World War II victory in Europe.
The master statesman stood alone against fascism and renewed the world’s faith in the superiority of democracy

Muhammad Ali Jinnah

Muhammad Ali Jinnah was a muslim politician and leader of the All India Muslim League who founded Pakistan and served as its first Governor-General. He is officially known in Pakistan as Quaid-e-Azam (“Great Leader”) he envisioned a secular state for Pakistan.

Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi at home next to a spinning wheel, which looms in the foreground as a symbol of India’s struggle for independence. His philosophy of nonviolence and his passion for independence began a drive for freedom that doomed colonialism

Adolf Hitler

Hitler gestures during a speech in May 1937
The avatar of fascism posed the century’s greatest threat to democracy and redefined the meaning of evil forever

Martin Luther King

King announces on April 25, 1967, that he would not be a candidate for the president of the United States
He led a mass struggle for racial equality that doomed segregation and changed America forever

Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini

Khomeini in 1979 returning to Tehran, Iran
Brazenly defying the West, he revived Islam’s faithful and authored a new form of religious government. The prescriptions were often chilling

V.I. Lenin

Lenin in 1918, the year he split with the Left Social Revolutionaries and renamed the Bolsheviks the Russian Communist Party
Driven by ideological zeal, he reshaped Russia and made communism into a potent global force

Nelson Mandela

Mandela was a TIME Man of the Year in 1993
As the world’s most famous prisoner and, now, his country’s leader, he exemplifies a moral integrity that shines far beyond South Africa

Pope John Paul II

Pope John Paul II waves to pilgrims in September 1989
The most tireless moral voice of a secular age, he reminded humankind of the worth of individuals in the modern world

Ho Chi Minh

Founder and President of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, Communist North.

He married nationalism to communism and perfected the deadly art of guerrilla warfare

Parliament session starts, ‘fireworks’ expected

The economic crisis will be the big issue after Parliament reconvenes on Friday even as the session is expected to be a short one.

The session is also expected to be stormy with the United Progressive Alliance Government facing fire from the Opposition on many other issues.

With General Elections next year and five states going to polls starting November 14, there are many issues like the global financial crisis and its impact on the Indian economy, terror attacks, communal riots, price
rise and the Indo-US nuclear deal, which the Opposition will try to raise.

It could also be the last session under the leadership of Manmohan Singh.

But with elections for Assemblies of Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Mizoram already announced, there are many who feel that there is no point of continuing with a month-long session.

So it might well be cut short by at least 10 days to allow leaders to campaign aggressively in a poll that is already been billed as mini General Election.

“Whenever we need to have something, we will discuss it. There is no hard and fast position on that because political exigencies can definitely come,” Parliamentary Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi said.

An estimated Rs 25000 are spent per minute on Parliament’s activity.