BENGALURU: Senior IAS officer of 1991 batch, Karnataka cadre and Additional Chief Secretary (ACS), LK Atheeq’s first interaction with former prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh soon after he joined the Prime Minister’s office (PMO) as director in 2007 was an eye opener and a lesson for the rest of his professional life as a bureaucrat.
“As part of the protocol, I was taken to the then prime minister’s official residence 7, Race Course Road to meet Dr Manmohan Singh. He was sitting near his writing table. He got up and greeted me and asked me my background and enquired about my family. I was taken aback by his extraordinary Tehzeeb (culture)," Atheeq said.
"As bureaucrats, we don’t get up to greet our juniors but here I was in front of the PM and he had stood up to greet me. Not only that he was reaching out to me regarding my family; whether they were settled in New Delhi,” he reminisced.
Atheeq spent five years in the PMO between 2007-2012. “Dr Singh was a
visionary. He would always advise us to read well and then prepare notes on policy matters and not go by our biases and opinions. He discouraged us from advising ministries. He used to tell us that they know what they are doing. When I asked if we could make some suggestions to the Finance Ministry on budget, he was irritated. He asked if the PMO would know better than the FM," he recollected.
"I have travelled with Dr Singh during his international tours to various countries including when he was invited to the state dinner at the White House by former president Barack Obama. He was the
first head of state to be invited by President Obama for the state
dinner,” he said.
The bureaucrat has drafted speeches on agriculture, education,
nutrition, skill training etc for Dr Singh, which were vetted and
edited by his private secretary.
“Most of his speeches were written in Urdu, including those in Hindi. He was proficient, scholarly, and a very fine gentleman. It was my privilege to have served in the PMO during his tenure. He had recommended my name for posting at the World Bank. When it happened, he told me that I was going to WB as a senior adviser and that international finance was part of international financial diplomacy," Atheeq added.
"When I left the PMO in 2012 as a Joint Secretary (JS) I spent 30 minutes with him. He asked me about my experience and what changes could be made to improve it. This was a PM asking for an opinion from his JS on how to improve the PMO. That was Dr Singh! An immaculately well-dressed man in crisp white. He was an impeccable and visionary leader,” he said.