No More a Civil Servant: Nuggets of brilliance

I knew many of them even before joining the IAS. However, one got to know most of them during the journey as a civil servant that lasted for more than three decades. Each one is unique in his/her own way, but each is always forthcoming, accessible, and helpful personally. However, this article is about professional and not personal relationships.

I was fortunate to have met Naresh Nandan Prasad ('Nainoo' as I re-christened him at the Academy, and it stuck!) as a friend and batchmate. I interacted with him professionally when he was Joint Secretary in the Chief Minister's Secretariat, and I was District Magistrate, Lakhimpur-Kheri. These were troubled times in 1990. To prevent riots in the District, I had put behind bars the recalcitrant District President of the Ruling Party (Details available in the chapter 'A Recipe for Disaster' in Ethical Dilemmas of a Civil Servant). It was not an easy decision. It was Naresh who convinced the Chief Minister on why it was necessary and why he should speak to the District President to resolve the crisis. The crisis was resolved, and I was subsequently awarded as one of the finest District Magistrates in the state. I did not have any professional contact with him thereafter as he went on to occupy critical positions, both in the Government of India in international organisations, the last one being Assistant Secretary-General at World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). His poise, candour, grasp, and positive approach to resolving issues and, above all, his sense of humour shall always be remembered even though he is no more with us.

Duleep Kotia was a class apart. He was a thorough gentleman personally, always willing to lend a helping hand, but as a professional, he was 'wanted' by every head of the government. Thus, he served as Secretary to diverse Chief Ministers as Kalyan Singh, Narain Dutt Tiwari and Ramesh Pokhrial. My professional interaction with him occurred when he was District Magistrate, Aligarh and I was Director Information and Public Relations with Kalyan Singh in 1991-92. Aligarh was notorious for communal tensions that, on occasions, resulted in riots. During his tenure, on account of his professional handling, there was no communal riot in the District. The beauty about Duleep's functioning was that he was strict without appearing to be tough because he always wore a smile on his face. He was a leader par excellence, and everyone who worked with him was full of praise long after they had stopped working under him. He was also a go-to man for resolving any issue, professionally or personally, and duly earned the title of 'Chief' in the batch.

Everyone liked Balwinder Kumar (or 'Ballu' as we all called him). At a personal level, we were good friends, spending much time together, but I had the occasion to interact with him professionally and that too on several occasions. The first such occasion was when he was staff officer to the Agriculture Production Commissioner in UP in 1990 and then Staff officer to Chief Secretary. However, I witnessed his true worth when I succeeded him as Executive Director, Udyog Bandhu, in 1993. He set up frameworks that helped me when I succeeded him in resolving issues relating to the industry. My next occasion to interact with him professionally came much later when I took over as Secretary, Coal, and he occupied the position of Secretary, Mines, in 2015. He became an expert in urban management in between as he occupied critical posts of Vice Chairman, Lucknow Development Authority, Chairman, NOIDA and finally, Vice Chairman, Delhi Development Authority. Each of his tenures came in for an enormous amount of praise. I saw him grapple successfully with the complexities of the Mines sector and how he went about amending the related Act to kickstart auctions in non-coal mines.

Sharda Prasad was the 'monk' of our batch. Totally unflappable. Though we belonged to the same Cadre, UP, I never got to interact with him professionally before our posting in the Ministry of Labour and Employment in 2007. He took over as Director-General, Employment and Training, and I got posted as Director General, Labour Welfare. We spent seven years together in the Ministry, a large part of it under a tricky boss. Whereas I got upset on several occasions when confronted with the tantrums of this boss, for Sharda, it was business as usual. He did not bother about what the boss said and carried on with his work as a true professional. I found in him an officer who took his tasks and not himself seriously.

There was a massive but friendly showdown at the Academy on whether the correct spelling of my surname was 'Swarup' or 'Sarup' with Vrinda, who spelt her surname in the latter way. The issue is yet to be settled, but we became good friends. Though she belonged to the same cadre, we interacted professionally only when she became Secretary, School Education and Literacy, and I took over as Secretary, Coal, in the Central Government at the fag end of our careers. Vrinda had made a name for herself in the school education sector, having put in long years in various capacities. Apparently, school education had nothing to do with Coal. However, as I describe in 'Shit Happens' in Ethical Dilemmas of a Civil Servant, the government was keen on setting up toilets in all schools, a very laudable objective but what was not laudable was the fact that Coal India Limited managers whose primary job was to supervise digging of coal mines were now being tasked to oversee digging of shit holes. I was quite put off as we were struggling to meet the demand for Coal. Vrinda had to bear the brunt of it, but she was always very composed. As luck would have it, I subsequently took over as Secretary, School Education. Then, I learned about the wonderful work that she had done. There were a couple of Secretaries between Vrinda and me, but the mention was always about Vrinda.

To be continued…

With excerpts from the writer's recently released book, 'No More a Civil Servant'. Views expressed are personal