The Hindu : A book that spans multiple eras

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jan 13, 2003

National

National

A book that spans multiple eras

Cho Ramaswami, MP and Editor of the Tamil weekly, Thuglak, will release a book in Tamil, "Nehru Muthal Naytru Varai", written by B.S. Raghavan, retired member of the IAS and former policy adviser to U.N. (FAO), and published by the Kalaignan Pathippakam of Chennai, on January 17 at 4.30 p.m. at the Book Fair being held in Chennai.

It contains reminiscences of his service life between 1952-87 and his reflections on public life since his retirement. M.S. Udayamurthy, writer and founder-president of the Makkal Shakthi Iyakkam, and C.V. Shankar, Education Secretary, Government of Tamil Nadu, are among those who will receive copies and offer felicitations.

Mr. Raghavan's career goes back to the halcyon days of Jawaharlal Nehru. Among the surviving old timers of the service, he is the only one to have worked with him "within touching distance" as secretary of the National Integration Council from the time it was set up by Nehru in October 1961. His recollections of Nehru and the succeeding Prime Ministers, Lal Bahadur Shastri and Indira Gandhi, as also of a number of stalwarts of what he calls the "golden era of Indian politics" reveal many little-known behind-the-scenes events.

In other respects too, Mr. Raghavan's experiences have been out of the ordinary, if not unique. His spell of close to 10 years from 1961 in the Political and Policy Planning division of the Union Home Ministry during the time of Shastri, Gulzarilal Nanda and Y.B. Chavan as Home Ministers, dealing with political issues, political parties, Centre-State relations, intelligence, national security and related matters was marked by historic events: the Chinese invasion, the 1965 war with Pakistan, Mizo rebellion, anti-Hindi agitation, the catastrophic sequel to the disappearance of Prophet Mohammad's hair from the Hazratbal mosque, large-scale communal disturbances from Orissa to Rajasthan and much else.

Mr. Raghavan strikes an authentic note, writing about these and his role as secretary to the all-party committee on political defections and the Cabinet committee on the demand for Punjabi "suba". Other highlights are the interesting and intricate topics handled by him as a member of the Vikram Sarabhai committee on synchronous communications satellite, the expert group on energy, member-secretary of the committee to reorganise the IB and the CBI, and other path-breaking bodies.

He saw the birth of Bangladesh from close quarters, being the divisional commissioner of five West Bengal districts adjoining East Pakistan at the time of the epoch-making events, including provision of food, shelter and healthcare to 6 million refugees flooding his jurisdiction. Stewardship of four major public sector enterprises, three of them in the energy sector, membership of the railway board and management of national food security are not the only features of Mr. Raghavan's unusual background covered in the book. As one of the only two U.S. Congressional Fellows from India (the other being the former Secretary-General to the Lok Sabha, Subhash Kashyap) invited to observe and participate in the functioning of the U.S. Congress, as the chairman of a number of U.N. committees and as the leader of India's delegation to almost all international organisations, he throws light on many aspects of realpolitik governing relations among nations.

A book that spans multiple eras, unlike any published in recent times.

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