In my long professional career, covering two incidents amidst difficult circumstances is etched in my mind. One was the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and the other the dismissal of Andhra Pradesh chief minister N.T. Rama Rao. Both happened in 1984 in a space of two months. Both were heads of state and charismatic leaders with a popular mass base and both had built up a personality cult around themselves. What happened to them had its own echo in the country.