I met Dr Manmohan Singh for the first time on the tarmac of the Trivandrum Airport in 1994. He was then the country's finance minister, and I was the finance secretary of Kerala. I slipped past the security cordon and met him on the tarmac as he descended from his plane from Delhi.
We met him again the next day at Raj Bhavan, the Kerala finance minister CV Padmarajan and myself. As has happened many times in the history of the State, we were nearly bankrupt at the time, and the massive expenses of Onam loomed large. Manmohan Singh gave us no comfort at the meeting, but after he went back to Delhi, he gave us a Plan advance, which saw us through that year.
By the following year, we had worked on our finances and were better placed as Onam approached. I had sought an appointment with NK Singh, who had taken over as Secretary of the Department of Expenditure. When we met, the first question NK Singh asked me was if we needed any money for Onam. He registered surprise when I replied, "No, sir, we are okay." He then told me that the Finance Minister had instructed him to check with me if we needed money for Onam. This spoke volumes of Dr Singh, who not only saw us through in 1994 but remembered us the following year too.
The surprise PM
Many years later, in 2004, he was the surprise choice as Prime Minister of the country when the UPA came to power, and Sonia Gandhi resolutely refused to take up the top job. I was then in Geneva. Manmohan Singh had a close association with Geneva as he had worked there for four years as chief executive of the South Centre with the formidable Julius Nyerere as chairman.
He stopped at Geneva on his way back to Delhi from the US. He seemed tired when he came out of the plane. My colleague, Hardeep Singh Puri, then Ambassador to the United Nations establishments in Geneva, had arranged a cake to celebrate Dr Singh's birthday at the hotel. I met him briefly. I told him, "Sir, you will be a great success as Prime Minister because you have raised no false hopes and made no effort on your part to seize the highest chair."
I later went to the Centre as Revenue Secretary. My minister then was the exacting Chidambaram, who was also part of the team led by Manmohan Singh which in 1991 changed the course of Indian history by putting in place a set of economic reforms that brought new vitality to the country's economy. I met the Prime Minister occasionally, particularly during Budget briefings. He was invariably courteous, supportive, and encouraging.
State-of-the-nation-meetings time with the PM
The years went by, and the occasion came in 2007 to find a successor to the redoubtable BK Chaturvedi, the Cabinet Secretary. In the short list of possible candidates, my name led that of all the rest by virtue of seniority. Reportedly, I had been consistently rated outstanding in all my confidential reports.
Manmohan Singh had selected Chaturvedi after what some called a "beauty parade" when he interviewed everyone on the shortlist. Chaturvedi was not the seniormost on the list, yet he was selected.
In my case, he called me to his office on a hot, steamy June day. Throughout my life, I have had the unfortunate problem of perspiring excessively. The PM saw me sweating copiously and asked me whether my health was okay. At any rate, he thought me good enough, and I became the Cabinet Secretary.
The PM insisted on meeting me every week for a one-on-one discussion. He would usually start by asking me, "So, Chandrasekhar, what is the state of the nation today?" As he was invariably well prepared, I, too, had to do my homework carefully before I went to him. He was always the epitome of courtesy. He would rise to receive me, call for tea and biscuits and walk me to the door as I left.
Talking of his concern for the people who worked under him, I recall another incident a couple of years into my tenure.
One morning, I developed some pain in my chest. I rang up my friend, Dr Deka, Director of AIIMS, who asked me to come over immediately. He found that my blood pressure was higher than usual, so he suggested an angiogram. I had gone alone to the hospital, and he was somewhat surprised when I told him that I would prefer that it be done immediately. As I was approaching the theatre, there was a call from the PM. He sounded alarmed as he asked me what had happened. I reassured him that this was just a precautionary angiogram. This was the quality of the man. He was kindliness personified.
Health conscious and tempermentally strong
He himself had to take a month and a half off from his work when he underwent heart surgery. After the surgery, I went to meet him. Instead of meeting him in his home office, I was taken to a verandah adjoining his residence, where he was sitting on a chair wrapped in a blanket. I could see that he was shivering in the cold of the winter and that he looked very weak.
He usually took care of his health. He would use a treadmill every day for 20 to 25 minutes. An experienced masseur would come every week from the Delhi hospital of the Arya Vaidya Sala, Kottakkal, to massage his legs. He was kind to them, too, making sure that they had eaten their food and offering them tea.
Because, temperamentally, he was not used to blowing his trumpet, people often underestimate his strength and resilience. When the India-US civil nuclear deal came up in Parliament, he showed his resolve in no uncertain manner. Despite opposition from the Left parties, who had a healthy representation in the Lok Sabha at the time, despite opposition from the BJP and several fringe parties, he carried the day.
The same strength was visible during the attack on Mumbai by Pakistani infiltrators on 26/11/2008. There was no clear picture regarding what actually was happening in Mumbai until late into the evening. There was no clarity regarding whether it was another set of explosions, as had happened in Delhi and many other cities during the past few years or whether it was gang warfare.
Later in the evening, the Chief Secretary of Maharashtra asked for the help of marine commandos. I called the naval chief, who immediately obliged. However, even the marine commandos were insufficient to take control of the situation. With the agreement of the State government, we had to send in the National Security Guard, who had been kept in readiness for such an eventuality. Throughout the evening, until 2 AM, I was constantly in touch with the PM and taking orders from him.
Man of integrity and always fair
Despite the attempts of political adversaries and some ambitious bureaucrats in positions of power, none could sully his reputation for integrity. When I met him for the first time after assuming charge as Cabinet Secretary, he told me," Whenever anything is going wrong, whenever you come across cases of corruption, you must tell me. Even if it is my own family…"
On one occasion, I felt that an officer was being unfairly posted as Director of CBI, ignoring the claims of another officer who was already a Special Director in the organisation. I rang him up late in the evening to express my misgivings. He was at dinner when my call was put through to him. He stopped eating and asked me to come over immediately.
On my way, I picked up his Principal Secretary, TKA Nair. When we reached the PM's residence, the Minister of State in the PMO, Prithviraj Chavan, and Additional Secretary Pulok Chatterjee were already there. I explained my reservations about the proposed posting. Prithviraj Chavan called the Special Director the following day and offered him the position of Member of the Central Information Commission, which gave him another five years of work after his retirement. The special director came to know of my involvement, and he thanked me personally.
Fighting the Great Recession and a famous victory
Dr Manmohan Singh, the architect of the 1991 reforms, proved his mettle once again during the "Great Recession" of 2008-9, triggered by the sub-prime loan crisis in the US. As our economy began to feel the heat, the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, prepared a stimulus package. The PM passed it on to me and, in discussion with Ashok Chawla, then Finance Secretary, we refined it.
The purpose was to stimulate demand both through fiscal measures and government spending to facilitate the revival of industries in distress. As directed by the PM, we also showed the package to Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Home Minister P Chidambaram. Subbarao, then governor of the Reserve Bank, strongly supported us with measures on the monetary side. Together, we were able to bail out the economy before severe damage was inflicted.
Manmohan Singh had to face an election in 2009. He was not confident of winning. I felt that the firm decisions he had taken during his first tenure would result in his re-election. It was no surprise to me, therefore, when he won with comfort.
The Squadron Leader who predicted his rise
After the election, there was a send-off dinner in his house for an air chief. It was here that Gursharan Kaur ji, his wife, told the story of a Squadron Leader, a friend of theirs and an amateur astrologer when Manmohan Singh was still a lecturer in Punjab somewhere.
The Squadron Leader cast his friend's horoscope and told him that he would become Finance Minister and then Prime Minister. As extraordinary things stick in my memory, I remember this prediction whenever astrology is mentioned.
Salvaging the Games
At the dinner, he also told me that he was extending my tenure by another year. One year became two years primarily because my continuance was considered necessary until the Commonwealth Games of October 2010 were over. This was another event that caused much stress to him and all of us.
The Organising Committee, headed by Suresh Kalmadi, was reputed to be corrupt and inefficient. Venues were unprepared. Accommodation for the athletes was in bad shape. It rained in Delhi until almost the end of September, making it challenging to prepare venues.
The PM told me to take over all the operations a couple of months before the event. With his approval, I appointed Joint Secretaries and Additional Secretaries. They worked around the clock, and somehow, we managed to be ready by the due date. There was a lump in my throat as I watched the sleek, new buses carrying the athletes to the spanking new stadium on October 3 for the opening ceremony. My country had overcome a stressful situation and delivered to the world a perfectly choreographed Games.
An area where he could have done more
There was one area in which I thought Prime Minister Manmohan Singh could have done more.
India's administrative system continues to be archaic and essentially retains its colonial structure. Many countries, starting with Margaret Thatcher's UK, have introduced outcome-oriented governance.
The Cabinet Secretariat took the initiative to start a Result Framework Document system where the work of each Ministry would be evaluated primarily by themselves in measurable terms. This system had no chance of success without political ownership.
After he had won the 2009 election, I told him," Sir, this is your victory. You should take the lead now in redesigning governance." He replied, " Yes, we must do things differently." However, he did not follow up on this, and the system collapsed shortly after I left the position of Cabinet Secretary.
Corruption allegations and the final blow
The deluge of corruption allegations against the government, initiated with little substance by the CAG and taken up vociferously by the media, by a couple of justices in the Supreme Court and by the likes of Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev, with strong political support, made the PM withdraw more and more into his shell. This was visible to me when I occasionally called on him as Vice Chairman of the Kerala State Planning Board.
The final blow that broke him was probably his public humiliation at the hands of Rahul Gandhi when the latter denounced an Ordinance approved by the Cabinet and tore up towards the end of September 2013.
One last time... and final thoughts
I have no occasion to visit Delhi presently. I have not met him, therefore, for the last couple of years. At our last meeting, he gave me a simple vegetarian lunch at his house. As I left, he walked me to my car and told me how much he valued the work I had done for him.
I was gratified, but it was also an excellent opportunity to work with the highest authority in the political executive and to be part of debates and discussions in the highest decision-making body in the country, the Central Cabinet. And that too at a time when it was headed by a simple, transparent, honest man who rose from an Indian village to become, first, a great economist, then Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Finance Minister and Prime Minister.
For me, he was my leader who never put any pressure on me and allowed me to work freely and happily.
