Bhupesh Gupta, a leading luminary of the Communist movement in India, had been an indefatigable Parliamentarian. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha on March 13, 1952 and remained its member till his death on August 6, 1981, serving five terms. He used every forum to raise his voice in defence of the secular-democratic set up of the country and strengthen the edifice of national integration. He would never miss an opportunity to intervene in the Rajya Sabha. Tenacity was his hallmark. He had moved a number of Private members’ Bill. The 26th amendment to the Constitution to abolish privy purses and 61st amendment to the Constitution to lower the voting age from 21 to 18 years became possible thanks to Gupta’s Private Members’ Bill along with his colleagues. And it did not surprise anyone when he moved a Constitution (Amendment) Bill to change the Madras State to Tamil Nadu on March 10, 1961. The Bill was taken up for debate in May 1963. Like several other Private members' bills, this too failed to pass through but the debate helped to bring out the best of the scholar-orator-diplomat in Perarignar Anna (former Chief Minister C N Annadurai). Anna November made one of the legendary speeches in the House of Elders in defence of renaming the erstwhile Madras State as Tamil Nadu. Following are excerpts from Anna’s epoch-making speech....