Varad Ranjani was a delegate to the Second Independent Congress and a signatory to the Article of Independence. Volunteering to personally deliver the notice of independence to Earth and the headquarters of the UUHA itself, he was taken into custody and killed on charges of being a "traitor".
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Colonization
Varad Ranjani emigrated from the Earth nation of India to the colonial world of Kaesong and the city of Wuchiu in particular in the year 2135 as a young man of twenty-two, newly married and looking to make his fortune. Finding an industrial city with more jobs than it had workers, Ranjani accepted employment at a sheet metal fabrication plant. Speaking not a word of Spanish when he arrived, he was almost fluent within the first six months in the planet's seemingly native tongue. Within a year, he had been promoted into a supervisory position and two years later into management.
After working for ten years, Ranjani struck out on his own using the connections he'd made as a manager at the plant, opening his own with funds raised with investors but also taking on the other side of the equation, scrap metal, in order to reduce his total costs.
By 2148, Ranjani's new plant was the third largest in Wuchiu and the tenth on all of Kaesong, providing pre-made parts for the various industries still being established across the colonial world. It was in the years between that Ranjani and his wife had their four children, raising them in the Songy culture.
It was also this time that Ranjani became something of a public figure, participating in several community organizations, giving to various charities and helping to guide the direction of development in Wuchiu. He was appointed to various voluntary civic councils, helping to oversee disposal regulations to clean up the city streets and establish a degree of voluntary air regulations to clear the hazy and polluted skies.
His connections came back in business benefits more than he could have imagined and his business more than doubled between 2149 and 2155. Still, he was known as a quiet and thoughtful man, one who pondered a question for a long time before he acted, being conservative in most of his moves both in private business and public matters, always urging the cost of minor adjustments to the status quo than major changes to ensure the upsides outweighed the downsides.
By the early 2160's, Varad Ranjani was one of the richest people on Kaesong but one known for his heavy giving to various charities and causes. As an employer, he was known as one of the best, offering the highest pay in the industry, the safest working conditions, and maintaining a family like atmosphere with his workforce. One worker for example, was badly injured in 2158. Ranjani visited the worker regularly in the hospital while his wife maintained a vigil with the worker's spouse. In addition to covering all of the medical costs, Ranjani also supplied the worker with a generous pension for the rest of his life and covered the costs of the worker's children's educations.
Through these acts of goodwill and his aversion to rash decision, he built a reputation as a man not only to be trusted but genuinely liked. But he was still surprised by his appointment to the First Independent Congressional delegation.
Delegation
In 2168, with a wave independent sentiment sweeping the planets of the Colonial Star Cluster, the Governor of Kaesong resigned from office and fled back to Earth to avoid the fate of those like Athenian governor Liam Michaels. Elections were quickly organized and a new governor was put into office who supported the independent cause. Shortly thereafter, Galilean governor Ivan Boldyrev called on all the worlds of the star cluster to send delegates to Galileo City to form an Independent Congress.
Names on Kaesong were bandied about, everyone seemingly supporting a different candidate but one that almost everyone could agree on was Varad Ranjani. The governor invited Ranjani to the new capital in New Toronto and discussed his willingness to serve as a Songy delegate. As was typical of Ranjani, he promised to think it over but his wife, seeing the great honor being asked of him, pushed for her husband to accept the appointment. With great reluctance, he did, leaving his business interests in the hands of his wife, and two oldest children, a daughter and son.
He departed Kaesong for Galileo and arrived almost two and a half weeks later aboard a Rayo Tomcat cargo vessel. As one of the first delegates to arrive, Ivan Boldyrev welcomed him at the spaceport and put him up for free in the bar and restaurant he owned, Little Moscow, in one of the brothel suites. But if Ranjani and Boldyrev began their relationship on good terms, they quickly disintegrated from there.
As mayor and governor, Boldyrev was a firebrand for independence, pushing from the first meeting of Congress for a declaration of independence from Earth. Varad Ranjani, however, was looking for a compromise. Was full separation required or could some recognition of self-rule work just as well? Thus, before long, two major factions formed, one called the "Boldyrev Bloc", the other the "Ranjani Faction".
Most of these differences were debated in a seemingly endless series of floor discussions, where one side repeated their point and the other side repeated their own. But, if the "Ranjani Faction" had a "weak point" it was in Varad Ranjani himself.
Always seeking compromise over conflict, Ranjani sat down with members of the Boldyrev Bloc and listened to their concerns about a failure to not adopt a resolution in support of full independence. Over the next two months, he slowly came around to seeing their side and, as the leader of his own faction, convinced the other members to turn their votes toward independence as well. Thus, while Ivan Boldyrev for the course of several months appeared almost willing to forcibly block Ranjani from any further proceedings, the two men eventually began to see eye-to-eye, though the latter always disagreed with the former's rhetoric.
Messenger
Once a list of grievances was finally compiled, and the independence resolution was drafted, the vote was held on January 9, 2169. Nearly unanimous, the worlds of the former Colonial Star Cluster declared themselves separate and apart from the government of Earth.
Unfortunately, Earth had not yet gotten the message. Sending a signed copy of the document along with a Shipper on their way to Earth would not guarantee its delivery and sending a digital copy via communication channels was deemed inappropriate for the magnitude of what it symbolized. Thus, following the vote and signing of the Article of Independence, the next major decision for the Independent Congress was how best to get it into the hands of Earth's authority.
Eventually, it was decided that a member of the Congress, duly appointed as an ambassador to Earth should put it in the hands of the Secretary-General of the United Nations themselves. But who? It was one thing to vote for such a thing, another thing entirely to walk into the lion's den and hand it to them. Even Ivan Boldyrev, who many nominated for the "honor" declined, citing his responsibilities to Galileo as governor.
In the end, it was the man who led the opposition to full independence who volunteered to deliver the Articles to the UN, Varad Ranjani.
Citing it as his responsibility for bringing his faction to vote for the measure, Ranjani promised to bring the message to Earth. Boldyrev, naturally, was the first to congratulate the man on his bravery. And, in return for his volunteering to take on a task no one else was willing to, the Independent Congress voted Ranjani a significant purse of money to pay for his travel to and from Earth as well as for a nice hotel during his stay.
It was cold comfort for a man who hadn't been back to the human home world in thirty years, hadn't believed he was ever going to see it again, and wasn't exactly looking forward to returning with the particular document in his hands. Still, he boarded the Rayo Bengal cargo ship leaving from Galileo City all the same, to the cheers of his fellow delegates and the people of the city who regarded him as a hero.
The month long trip to Earth passed in boredom and left him at the Meadowlands Spaceport. The next day he met with United Nations Secretary-General Kimberly Mertens and presented the Article of Independence along with the news that every UN appointed planetary governor in the Colonial Star Cluster had either been removed, stepped down, or put themselves up for popular vote.
To say the news pleased Mertens would be to overstate matters. Still, she agreed to allow him to present the document to the General Assembly.
The following day was the last in which Varad Ranjani was seen publicly. To the jeers of the General Assembly, Ranjani attempted to make Congress' case for independence and urged the representatives of the nations of Earth to acede to the star cluster's wishes. Instead, a resolution was offered for an immediate vote on the floor declaring Varad Ranjani a traitor and asking for the Secretary-General to take him into custody. It passed with an overwhelming majority.
A month after his being taken prisoner, the office of the Secretary-General issued a statement that in accordance with the laws of treason, Ranjani had been put to death by means of the gas chamber. No photo evidence was ever offered as proof but no one asked for any.
When the Independent Congress received the news of Ranjani's execution, they declared him a hero to the cause of independence, and promptly forgot him as they made preparations for the war everyone knew was coming.
Legacy
Though Varad Ranjani's death was marked with a collective shrug, with Congress doing little more than sending their condolences to his family back on Kaesong for sacrificing his life to the cause, in the following years he was held up as a prime example of a Republican citizen after the establishment of the Unified Republic of Stars.
Whether Ranjani would have supported a star cluster wide central government remains a topic of much debate and the answer, frankly, is unknown due to the limits of the discussion topic being merely independence or not during the First Independent Congress. This has stopped no one from claiming otherwise, however, including his own family.
In 2185, Ranjani's oldest son convinced the city of Wuchiu to build a statue depicting Varad in the park surrounding city hall. The Kaesong planetary legislature, likewise, had a bust of Ranjani commissioned and placed in halls outside the chamber. Even Ivan Boldyrev, once elected the first President of the Republic, declared Ranjani a "Hero of the Republic" and had a statue of the man placed in the Galileo City commons.
Furthermore, when the planet of Kaesong was offered the opportunity to name the second NOVA class battle ship in the new Second Fleet, it decided to name it the URSF Varad Ranjani in his honor, further cementing him as a hero of republican ideals over a man who merely voted for independence.
The story of Varad Ranjani, the cautionary, kind man who started out against the idea of independence but eventually became a supporter of it with such conviction he delivered the resolution to Earth himself remains a popular story taught in history classes throughout the Republic, though much of the nuance and subtleties are omitted, making it much more a folk tale than a true description of the man and his positions.
Story References
- Varad Ranjani was the main character in the story The Legend of Varad Ranjani, or, Those Short Sighted, Close Minded Bastards, detailing his trip to Earth to deliver the Independent Congress' Article of Independence to the United Nations.
