HYDERABAD: SR Sankaran was an insurgent bureaucrat who bent the state programme to suit the needs of the marginalised, said Kalpana Kannabiran, director, Council for Social Development, at the launch of a two-volume book on the peoples’ IAS officer at the CD Deskmukh Auditorium at Council for Social Development, Rajendernagar, here on Friday.The book — Marginalisation, Development and Resistance — has been edited by Prof KB Saxena and Prof G Haragopal. Leading the discussion on the book, Prof Saxena said that civil servants are mostly faceless people.
He wanted to let the future generation of students as well as present-day bureaucrats to know about the man who worked extensively for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Adivasis, and other marginalized sections of the society.Though the initial plan was to bring out the book in a single volume, the volume of responses from Shankaran’s disciples and people who have known him forced Prof Haragopal to bring out two volumes.
“Every scholar and contributor we approached responded positively and took academic care in writing the articles,” said Prof Haragopal.Kaki Madhava Rao, former Andhra Pradesh chief secretary, who was also present at the book launch, referred himself as one of Sankaran’s many disciples. Talking about his zeal to help people even if it meant going out of his way, Rao said, “He believed that nothing should come in the way helping others. He lived to serve people. It did not bother him that his political bosses did not approve of him.”
Also speaking on the occasion, former IAS officer Sujatha Rao agreed that Shankaran was someone who gave her the value-based introduction of a civil servant’s profession and that they have a duty to contribute to social justice and development. She said that his life and works need to cherished and nurtured, and the book was doing the society a service.