Dr Manmohan Singh got me appointed as Director in the Department of Economic Affairs in 1978. Within a few months in December 1979, he dropped into my room and asked me when I was becoming a Joint Secretary (JS). I told him that the PM had to approve our list. He went to the department of personnel, got my name approved by the Home Minister and by the PMO by evening. I got the order and took over charge as JS in early January 1980.
I used to meet him every year as Finance and Planning Secretary of Madhya Pradesh when he was the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission. In every one of his press briefings after the annual plan discussions with the CM of MP, he would praise me by name for the excellent financial management in MP. I was made DGCA and Additional Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, after the air crash in Bengaluru in 1990. Manmohan Singh became the Finance Minister and in 1992 he asked for me by name to be transferred as Additional Secretary, Economic Affairs. Promptly, Madhav Rao Scindia, my minister, refused.
But he saw to it that I joined as Revenue Secretary in April 1993. He told me my task was to make fundamental changes in the tax structure. This I did in the budget for the year 1994/1995. Industry grew by almost 13% for nearly two years. Dr Singh praised the revenue department in his budget speech of 1995/1996. Never did he raise his voice or differ with me. He told me that while he relied on Montek Ahluwalia on economic policy issues, he trusted me on all tax-related matters and on issues that impacted the public. So all our policies were forward looking based on their overall impact on the economy.
On one occasion, the MoS finance got an order from him exempting from customs duty certain valuable gifts received by Aishwarya Rai for her being crowned as Miss Universe. I objected saying it will set an unhealthy precedent. He replied that the MoS was a good man and he wanted to make him happy and asked me to ignore it. Soon similar requests followed -- from foreign press correspondents to cricketers. I refused to entertain them and he then realised how one order could generate requests from many sources and did not yield thereafter with the exception of import of gold for the kanakabhishekam of Kanchi Periaval.
Confronted with a peculiar problem of the SC asking about the income tax filing of political parties and ministers, he was embarrassed as to how to ask his colleagues whether they have complied with IT filing requirements. So, he asked me to meet the ministers who had not filed the returns starting from the then Home Minister and all of them filed immediately and so did the Congress party after I requested the PM.
He was a soft person but would not tolerate disobedience. The then Chairman of the CBEC refused to attend to files relating to the budget proposals of 1994/95 even after his personal request. He was visibly angry and asked him to proceed on leave just before the budget.
When the then Cabinet Secretary Zafar insulted me and him, he saw to it that he did not get an extension. Just before he left as FM after the defeat of the Congress, he asked me what we would do if the BJP instituted a commission of enquiry against him and me for all the tax reductions we had done. I assured him that on every one of the hundreds of cases where I had signed, I would own full responsibility and I was confident that even if all the judges of the SC sat and examined them, they will find nothing that cast a slur on our impartiality, integrity or fairness. He liked me and I revered him. He was a good and honest man to the core.
(The author is a former Revenue Secretary, Government of India)
