Career Accomplishments and Political affiliation::

During that time Santiago Rajan’s personal friendship with Mr. K. Kamaraj the former two time legendary chief Minister of Tamilnadu paved way for joining the Sthabana Congress. Under Mr. K. Kamaraj’s wise leadership Santiago Rajan was appointed the Tirunelveli District Secretary for Sthabana Congress. After Kamaraj’s time Santiago Rajan became a District President of Janatha Party in mid 1970’s. Then in 1980’s Santiago Rajan was invited to join the Congress party and became its District President and a leading public speaker for a number of years before retiring from politics. Santiago Rajan never went looking for power or money while being a politician and followed Kamaraj’s principles of honesty, integrity  and hard work. Santiago Rajan was a famous speaker who attracted large crowds for the parties he represented mainly because of his leadership qualities, oratory skills, communications skills, people management abilities and most notably as an effective public speaker.

When the wall posters were posted saying that Santiago Rajan is speaking in a public meeting, that alone attracted large crowds not because of his political affiliation but mainly because of Santiago Rajan’s famous speeches who kept his audience glued to his speech with several applause in between. In 1974, Santiago Rajan being the President of the Tirunelveli district Janatha party hoisted 74 flags in one single pole in front of Tirunelveli Railway Station which was reported widely in local news papers including Dinamalar. During that period one evening Santiago Rajan gave a famous speech in a public stage infront of Tirunelveli Railway Station which I also had a chance to see with immense passion and proud of my Father. One of the audience next to me  saying to me "Is that your Father and I said yes. Then he remarked Santiago Rajan is such a great speaker and orator and there is no one like him”. 

Later during his political association Santiago Rajan also was the chief Advocate for Tamilnadu Farmers Association.Santiago Rajan was a leading Lawyer in Tamilnadu and worked tirelessly for his clients. His clients have often quoted  in a new case Santiago Rajan was always able to give few options for the clients to choose the correct legal procedure and the possible outcome of each legal option with accuracy. Santiago Rajan never charged much fees from common people and charged reasonable fees for the quality he provided. One of the great accomplishments for Santiago Rajan is his professional career would be the Neyveli Lignite Corporation(NLC) case in which Santiago Rajan was chosen as the soul Advocate for the residents of  Virudhachalam town and surrounding villages to represent the 100 plus land owners whose land was taken away part of the Neyveli project. Santiago Rajan worked tirelessly for a number of years and won the case  by sweeping victory.   Santiago Rajan made sure his 100 plus clients  of Virudhachalam  and surrounding villages in Cuddalore district in Tamil Nadu received appropriate compensation from NLC and win back their farm land and land and get justice for them all. Even today the clients of Virudhachalam admire Santiago Rajan for making that possible against a huge corporation like NLC. The Neyveli case was one of the watershed moments in Tamil Nadu legal history. Santiago Rajan not only argued the Neyveli case in Virudhachalam district court, he also represented  the case in Madras High Court in Madras and also represented Virudhachalam and surrounding village residents in the Supreme court of  Delhi finally winning this mammoth case.

The Typist Jeyaram(a leading Typist in Tirunelveli for the District court) who worked on that Neyveli case with my Father over 7 years said he had received as his typing fees alone over Rs. One Lakh for that case which was a huge amount in 1980’s and says Santiago Rajan would dictate the case matter to be typed which ran into thousands of pages with so much accuracy and professionalism and on many days working through midnight in those days of manual type writer. Santiago Rajan travelled in bus between Tirunelveli and Virudhachalam every week to meet the clients and after reaching Virudhachalam he would represent them some times staying in Virudhachalam for upto two weeks at a stretch during those seven years of that renowned and complicated Neyveli case.  Santiago Rajan always cared about his clients rich or poor and in many instances he  has given completely free legal service for several poor clients who could not pay the lawyer fees and even paid their court fees from his own pocket without expecting any favours from those poor clients, which is a  quality rare among Lawyers. Santiago Rajan though a  competitive but always go along well with competing Lawyers and  in Tirunelveli district court have made his clients  often wonder how he was able to go for a coffee with the same lawyer after being in the court room heated  argument with that Lawyer just a while ago.

This professionalism amongst many great qualities of Santiago Rajan both as a junior lawyer 53 years ago and later as a senior lawyer is a great example for Lawyers how to conduct  themselves to make  true Lawyer profession for what it stands for and equal justice for all. One of his clients in who is a retired  TNEB Engineer from Pettai, Tirunelveli told me that Santiago Rajan while dealing with new  or existing clients during the opening discussion of a new case in his office before taking any fees from the clients he was able to give several case options for his clients and the possible outcome for each case before taking up the case so that clients are able to understand their chances of winning and losing. That TNEB Engineer said this was absolutely amazing and he was such a genius Lawyer and nobody does this better.Santiago Rajan was elected the President of the Tirunelveli Bar Association five times in 1980, 1998, 1999, 2002 and 2003 and he was elected twice unopposed as President according to Mr. Karuppaswamy Pandian his long time Lawyer friend.

During his reign as President of the Tirunelveli Bar Association the Tirunelveli District Court went through pivotal changes from new facilities for the court, Lawyers welfare and Kumasta’s welfare benefits, more co-ordination between lawyers and clients, functions for Lawyers family and children, Planting trees in the court campus amongst many other improvments. Santiago Rajan was responsible for opening the Tirunelveli District court library, Fast Track court building in 2002 and 2003 (even today in Tirunelveli Court building one can see the stone plague commemorating the opening with Santiago Rajan name on it) When Santiago Rajan was the President of the district bar association he worked tirelessly for the welfare of Advocates, welfare of Kumasta clerks and also for clients by making the judicial process more accessible for common people and not only that he was also responsible for improving the facilities of the court and surrounding areas including planting trees.

When Santiago Rajan was the President of the Tirunelveli  Bar Association five times in 1980, 1998, 1999, 2002 and 2003 (he was elected twice unopposed) and those years were some of the Golden years for Tirunelveli bar Association. Santiago Rajan also was also a lead counsel Advocate  and leader for numerous organizations including Tamilnadu Farmers association, Tirunelveli Junction Merchants association,  Palayamkottai Catholic Parish council, NGO’s.Santiago Rajan befriended people from all faith, colour, caste and creed and he employed people  as his Kumastha assistants in his Law office as well in his Pushpa Estate farm people from Hindu, Muslim and Christian back grounds and different caste and he always treated them in a commanding tone but with honesty and compassion which was his nature. Santiago Rajan’s juniors Advocates like Mr. Jeyakumar adored him like a Father figure and says he was able to become a good lawyer in Tirunelveli District Court only because of his exposure to  Santiago Rajan’s experience and guidance.

Santiago Rajan only had a bicycle for many number of years as a Lawyer and rode his bicycle to work and also went by public bus to Tirunelveli District Court building in Kokkirakulam in 1960’s to early 1980’s and then went on to own a Rajdoot Motor Bike, then a Maruti 800 car which he bought in 1997 (though he could afford but never  wanted to own a luxury car for showing off and instead drove that old Maruti 800 car only to reach the destination safely) and then became a Millionaire, but he never forgot his roots and was a  simple down to earth person till his last day.
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