When the rupee crumbled

“Her cabinet had endorsed devaluation earlier in the evening, with Manubhai Shah alone dissenting. Only at the eleventh hour did it strike the prime minister that she must also consult the powerful Congress president, K. Kamaraj. According to R. Venkataraman, then a member of the Planning Commission and later President, who was acting as interpreter because Kamaraj spoke only Tamil, the Congress president “hit the ceiling” and told her that she was “courting disaster”. Kamaraj also muttered to RV: “A big man’s daughter, a small man’s mistake”. However, it was too late to change the process already set into motion.”