From: Vedant.Kumar@professionals.com <malikai@giasdl01.vsnl.net.in>

Date sent: Sat, 30 Nov 1996 03:41:51 -0800 (PST)

Person Nominated : Colonial Cousins

Reasons : Best Indian & Western fusion ever heard.

From: shaharyar.khan@professionals.com <shan@Khi.compol.com>

Date sent: Sat, 30 Nov 1996 04:14:01 -0800 (PST)

Person Nominated : Sachin Tandulkar

Reasons : he is a classy right handed batsman . He is a firm administrator now the captain of the side who has led the team to glorious heights of fame and success eg. Titan Cup .He is my best cricketer .

From: Stanis.Thiruthuvadoss@professionals.com <stanis@e-mail.com>

Date sent: Sat, 30 Nov 1996 08:24:02 -0800 (PST)

Person Nominated : Leander Paes

Reasons : I am nominating Leander Paes for the Rediff Person of the Year because his achievements are through his own hardwork and dedication. He did not receive any sort of financial support from the government. At a time when India has had one of its worst performances at an International level, the Olympics, it is time we showed our gratitude to Leander for getting India on the Medals tally.

Hopefully this will be an inspiration to other atheletes and youngsters to work hard and to fare well in the various things they do without turning to the government for aid.

Congratulations once more, to Leander Paes for his stellar performance at the Olympics and the US Open!!

From: Ramana Murthy <niharika@ix.netcom.com>

Date sent: Sat, 30 Nov 1996 19:02:52 -0500

Person Nominated : Atal Behari Vajpayee

Reasons : Statesman, poet, principled politician, orator, visionary, and then you ask why? Really ? Is there anyone better ?

Read your own special article you published on ReDiff. A gentleman persuading a nation to deliberate on the failures of a sytem and to take possible recourses must undertake to legislate and provide for the masses.

Graciousness under strain and defeat is the hallmark of a man. That he is from RSS is testament to a great organization. That he is one of the finest is a testament to his fine character.

We need Atal ji's !!!

I nominate Atalji heartily and happily. He is just not a man of the year, he is what a man of the next century should be : gentle intellectual-politician as envisioned by our ancient Rishis.

From: G D JETHMALANI <rmpi@giasdl01.vsnl.net.in>

Date sent: Sat, 30 Nov 1996 22:02:41 -0800 (PST)

Person Nominated : Shri L K Advani

Reasons : Life dedicated to the nation. Honesty, integrity being clean volunteered to resign from Lok Sabha which opened the pandorama box of corruption amongst politicians. He is the first politician to voluntarily declare his assets without hesitation. He is the only person who has stood up for himself and is not tempted to hold office of public intrest until such time he is cleared of false charge of corruption levied against him. Selflesness and his moral character holds him in high esteem world over.

I cast my vote in his favour as `THE PERSON OF THE YEAR.'

From: Badri < badri.bom@sil.sprintrpg.ems.vsnl.net.in>

Date sent: Sun, 1 Dec 1996 15:05:15 -0500

Person Nominated : T N Seshan

Reasons : In this world of political power, threats and chase, T. N. Seshan has sailed through every possible threat to execute the task assigned to him in the most professional way, and showed the way that a "single will power" can definately make things work.

A great achievement for a great nation.

Wish we have many more Seshan in this world in every walk of life.

From: Venakataramanan@professionals.com

Date sent: Sun, 1 Dec 1996 13:36:22 -0800 (PST)

Person Nominated : Atal Behari Vajpayee

Reasons : Every politician including his adversaries are functioning with the hope when towering figures like Vajpayee are there, they can not screw up the country very badly.

From: GAUTAM.BAJEKAL@professionals.com <gbajekal@tivoli.com>

Date sent: Sun, 1 Dec 1996 17:51:37 -0800 (PST)

Person Nominated : T N SHESHAN

Reasons : Without a doubt. This man single handedly took up the challenge of reforming our corrupt electrol system. Sheshans policies irked not just a single politician but the entire spectrum of India's political parties. Yet he stood by his views and took up the challenge. Thanks to Sheshan many walls in Mumbai and other cities were spared of ugly campaing posters. We need more such Al-Sheshan's for the betterment of the country.

From: H.Anand@professionals.com < anand@batelco.com.bh>

Date sent: Sun, 1 Dec 1996 20:24:10 -0800 (PST)

Person Nominated : T N Seshan

Reasons : Because of his contribution to cleanse the Indian polity from the corruption that it has been plagued with. In fact it was his efforts to cleanse the Indian politics helped other Indian bureacrats to get their act together and bring into light t he numerous hawalas and scams. Hence I vote T N Seshan as the rediff person of the year.

From: vundavalli murty <murtyv@mskcc.org>

Date sent: Mon, 2 Dec 1996 04:25:54 -0500

Person Nominated : P.V. Narasimha Rao

Reasons : As the prime minister, he changed the course of the country's future by diverting the attention to economic development from politics of religion, caste and goondaisms.

Continued