Stint with personages of wit and wisdom

1991. Rajiv Gandhi (RG) came to Hyderabad as part of his countrywide election campaign. The then Chief Minister N Janardhan Reddy accompanied him. And I was in tow, as one of the officers of the Chief Minister's office was required always to be in attendance. The day finished (or should I say the next day?) at 4 am, with a public meeting at Nizam College. I returned home and, after a quick snooze and freshening up, went back to the Lake View Guest House where RG was staying. Looking fresh as a daisy, RG walked out and got into the front seat of the car (Janardhan Reddy and I were seated in the back), saying "Chalo Janardhan ji".

From the airport (the one at Begumpet in those days), we left in private aircrafts for Vishakhapatnam.

After fulfilling his commitments in Vishakhapatnam RG came back to the airport to leave for Chennai. The pilot, however, refused to take off, citing poor light. RG, himself a pilot, tried in vain to coax the pilot into taking off. Dejected, RG started his journey back to the guest house. Halfway during the drive, however, the pilot rang up again saying that the light had improved, and takeoff became possible. Promptly RG turned back, went to the airport and took off for Chennai. On that fateful night took place the public meeting at Sriperumbudur. And the rest is history.

I have mentioned elsewhere about the good fortune I had, in my service, of having served under very understanding and affectionate persons. Not, mind you, that they did not expect me to give my absolute best to my job professionally. Still, the way they went out of their way to make me comfortable, and enjoy my duties, was unforgettable. One of those, whom I have not mentioned earlier, was Kuppu Rao. Charming in his ways, he was gifted with an excellent command of the English language, idioms and phrases, and had a touch of insouciance. He was a great person to work with. He was a dyed in the wool bureaucrat, not wary of delving too deeply into technical matters which he regarded as the domain of experts in the fields concerned. I remember how, when I was Deputy Commissioner, Commercial Taxes, (under training, still awaiting a posting in the department), and Kuppu Rao was the Joint Secretary in the Board of Revenue, I was allotted work in the Commercial Tax department, with Krishnaswamy as the Commissioner and the Head of the Department. Once, during a discussion, he characteristically stated, "I treat the Andhra Pradesh General Sales Tax Act (under the provisions of which the department's activities were carried out), with the contempt it deserves!" Such was his belief that generalists should be extremely wary of straying into areas where angels fear to tread! Krishnaswamy gave him a long look and said, somewhat wistfully, "I sometimes miss Sambamurthy (Kuppu Rao's predecessor in the department), who was strong on the legal side". Not that Kuppu Rao minded it a bit! Such was his affectionate and broadminded attitude that, when the time came for me to be trained with a Commercial Tax Officer in the field, he, arranged (incidentally without my knowledge or consultation), for it to take place in Ramachandrapuram where my wife was staying with her parents expecting our daughter! I spent a whole month in duty and learning my job, all the while enjoying the hospitality of my parents-in-law!

On another occasion, and after I had taken over as the regular Deputy Commissioner of Visakhapatnam Division, I ordered the transfer of an office from one place to another, purely in the interest of enhancing revenue demand and collection. I had, however, taken the precaution of keeping Kuppu Rao informed who, unsurprisingly, gave his enthusiastic go ahead. I then wrote to the Board of Revenue requesting that my action maybe "ratified".

It was only then that both Kuppu Rao and I learnt, to our utter chagrin, that the office shift in question had not merely to be ordered by the government but, in fact, had to go to the State Cabinet! Little wonder, in those circumstances, that Krishnaswamy, in his visit to my division a few weeks later, said, when I asked him if he had any instructions for me, "Ask for a little less ratification"!

In addition to his many other remarkable attributes, Kuppu Rao was a great orator too. He was a confident, fluent and outspoken speaker, especially on matters involving the welfare of service colleagues. I recollect how, in a meeting of the IAS Association, he derided those services as being victims of "fits of objectivity!"

Another enjoyable relationship I had was with Ashok Gajpathi Raju who was the Minister of Excise of which department I was the Secretary to the government as well as the Commissioner. He was a well-educated, cultured and soft-spoken political leader, from a noble royal family. He had a charming manner and a ready smile, even while dealing with official matters. One weakness he possessed, though, was a somewhat excessive reliance on the advice he received from his personal staff, particularly in relation to personnel matters. At a certain stage, I had to put my foot down, and ask for a face-to-face discussion with him. I explained to him how the relationship between a Minister and the Secretary had to be, with mutual understanding and clarity of communication being the essence. I went further and told him that the two should have the kind of understanding which obtains between the manager of a cricket team and its captain. It was perfectly alright, I told him, for the manager, at the beginning of the day's play, to set out the strategy for the day. Or, for that matter, at the end of play, to point out the mistakes made during the day's game. I concluded by pointing out to him that strengthening my hands would, in fact, strengthen his, and that, just as I respected his role in policy matters, he should allow me freedom in administrative matters. The fact that I was the President of the Hyderabad Cricket Association at that time and he was in the same position in the Andhra Cricket Association helped matters and, soon, an amicable relationship was established.

It was during those days that he shared a bench in the State Assembly with another absolutely straight-shooting Minister, Mudragada Padmanabham, who handled the Commercial Taxes portfolio. Between the two of them, they handled the two departments which accounted for almost all the revenue of State government and also, not surprisingly, practically all the corruption! In fact, they jokingly used to refer to their seat as the "corruption bench"!

I called on him again when he was the Union Minister of Civil Aviation, representing the TDP in the BJP government. I had gone to thank him for putting me on the selection committee for the post of the Chairman of the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India. He was as gracious as always, and we spent a pleasant few minutes together. He is now a senior and respected member of his party.

I have often reflected about the relationship between religious faith and the faculty of logical reasoning. Not that religious matters are not based on a rational foundation. Only, most of the theistic assumptions and ritualistic stipulations are not as easily amenable to the processes of experiment, observation and inference as scientific phenomena. While on the subject I recollect how my nephew Sitaram Yechury had his "Upanayanam" (the Vedic thread ceremony), performed over five days with every possible adherence to the rituals and procedures prescribed in the scriptures. To this day, he quotes fluently from the Vedas and the Upanishads and is capable of explaining the rationale behind the rituals and practices including the daily "Sandhya Vandanam". Still, within a few years after the said ceremony, he became a card holding member of the CPI(M)!

Frequent interactions with our children and grandchildren have brought me face to face with the phenomenon of the "generation gap". So much so, that I often feel that old people are a little like medicines in respect of which the "best before" date has expired!

And before I sign off, have you ever wondered why the President of India is somehow blessed with a state of eternal happiness? I mean, why does every order issued in his name always say that he's "pleased", even when he is rejecting a mercy plea of a person awarded the death penalty or dismissing someone from service?!

(The writer is former Chief Secretary, Government of Andhra Pradesh)