"My Encounters with the Three Lals of Haryana" | A memoir of Haryana: politics from a bureaucrat 

Australian economist Joseph Alois Schumpeter once wrote: “Bureaucracy is not an obstacle to democracy but an inevitable complement to it.” The quote is evident from the book ‘Life in the IAS, My encounters with the three Lals of Haryana,’ by former IAS Ram Varma. It is not just a memoir of a top bureaucrat but includes the political history of Haryana.

The political histories in India always suffer from a crisis of a perspective, it becomes either textbookish or politically biased. But, Varma’s personal narrative as a bureaucrat under the three Lals of Haryana – Bansi Lal, Devi Lal and Bhajan Lal – describes his encounter with these politicians. 

The birth of the 17th state of India initiated a political turmoil when it was formed on November 1, 1966. Varma was then a young IAS officer, who had graduated from the IAS Academy two years back. He was one of the first IAS officers appointed in the newly formed state. The book has 13 chapters in which, Varma chronologically writes about the evolution of Haryana’s politics. Each chapter minutely describes the central characters. The author, from his first chapter, has developed the characters. The three Lals were chief ministers of the state at various points, with different working methods, politics and nature. This difference also affected the working of the bureaucracy, which has been pointed out by the author with anecdotes and observations. 

To develop his characters, the author has also described their background, for in his experience this played a key role in their politics. Varma in this book never loses himself from the story. He has described his own journey from a young IAS to the chief secretary of the step. This journey was not simple too, it had many ups and downs. The book captures the life of an IAS wonderfully. In the second chapter of the book ‘My early days in the IAS,’ he has described the life of becoming an IAS. His memories of the hill station Mussoorie as a part of the training and the first experience of witnessing the beauty of a hill station will take the readers to a different world -- a world of beauty and momentous experiences.

In chapter five he has written about the memories of life as a sub divisional officer, and Varma has written about the first election of Haryana Assembly. “The polling passed off peacefully with no incident of booth capturing or ragging. Unlike the paperless, electronic switch-button election of the present day, voting was done by ballot papers with the names and symbols of candidates printed on them,” this way, throughout the book he has compared the situation back then with that today, making the book a contemporary one. This contemporary approach has made the book an easy read yet deep with the idea of the dramatic politics of Haryana.

Another very interesting feature of Varma’s writing is his experience of various projects started under different Lals. The vivid description of these, the foresight behind the projects, execution and sometimes the conclusions. Some of such projects are electricity to all villages, a road to every village, Haryana Agricultural university, etc.

With his utmost care for writing the experience, the author sometimes fails to tell the story. Somewhere the readers may find too many technicalities, official terms, and detailed work systems in the book. These events were very easy for the author but if the reader is not aware of the governmental works then they may get bored at times. While there is some obvious mismatch in writing style, Varma has tried his best to draw the picture of the three Lals, their lives, and politics. This book will always be an important document of the political history of Haryana.