Intertwined Lives P N Haskar and Indira Gandhi : A fantastic Biography of P N Haskar.

Intertwined Lives P N Haskar and Indira Gandhi : A fantastic Biography of P N Haskar.

Mrs. Indira Gandhi had become a Prime minister of India in 1966 when India was facing lot of political and economic crisis. Parliament was attacked by Gau Rakshaks, there were shortage of food and due to this India was depending upon USA for food. Devaluation of Indian Rupee brought political and economic disaster. Congress Party started losing its control in important states which resulted slowly split in the Party.  India’s policies regarding economic and politics became fragile due to this there was a challenge to the external situations. Prime minister, Indira Gandhi, was too young and inexperienced. She was yet to come of her own. She was surrounded by so many opponents within the party and government. During this time, one man came to bring harmony by resolving these issues not only by helping Prime minister but also to pull out the India remarkably from the internal and external crisis. This man was nothing but Parmeshwar Narayan Haskar who was most influential and powerful civil servant. There is not much written about contemporary history of India and the contributions of many personalities. Jayram Ramesh, Ex Union minister under Manmohan Singh government, has written wonderful detailed biography of P N Haskar titled as, “Intertwined Lives P N Haskar and Indira Gandhi” which tells us the great events of 1960s and impact of these events on development of the Nation.

From Yogesh Gogwekar

Parmeshwar Narayan Haskar was born on 4^th September 1913 in Gujranwala, Punjab (Now in Pakistan)  in Kashmiri Brahmin Family. He completed his M.Sc. degree from Allahabad University and went to England to get his degree in Economics and law. He learnt the Sanskrit at home only. During his student life, he was frequent visitor to Anand Bhavan which was the house another Kashmiri Brahmin i.e. Nehru family. Thus, he knew Mrs. Gandhi from his student days. 

He started his career as an eminent lawyer in Allahabad court in 1947 but very soon he has been called in Delhi to join Indian Foreign Service by India’s first Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. He worked in IFS for nearly twenty years. During his tenure in Indian Foreign Service, he was an ambassador to Nigeria and Austria and also served as deputy high commissioner in London. In 1967, Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, appointed him as a Secretary to Prime Minister. From   1967 to 1973, P N Haskar had done the amazing work. He asked Mrs. Gandhi to appoint intellectuals in the government and give them free hands. His advice was seriously considered by Mrs. Gandhi which had lot of impact on political and economic policies. He used to prepare the notes which fed into the economic policies which helped her to define the directions of country’s political economy. Through his guidelines, Mrs. Gandhi achieved magnificent success in nationalization of banks, abolition of privy purses, victory over Pakistan, signing of Indo-Soviet Treaty of 1971, integration of Sikkim in Indian Union. In 1971, Mrs. Gandhi promoted him to the newly post of Principal Secretary to Prime Minister of India. Therefore, he becomes most powerful and senior civil servant in PMO office. According to his daughter Nandita Haskar, her father was Secular Nationalist with a song of socialism in his heart and he always wanted India as a secular nation.

Haskar was formerly retired from government service in 1973 but he was an informal adviser and personal emissary to Mrs. Gandhi. But this relation started deteriorated after the rise of her son Sanjay Gandhi. Sanjay Gandhi was having a direct conflict with Haskar from his days as a reluctant trainee with Rollys Royce in England. Later on Haskar opposed his project of manufacturing of Maruti Car and also opposed the Emergency in 1975. Therefore, Sanjay Gandhi started considering him as an enemy and harassed Haskar and his relatives during the emergency. To take the revenge, Sanjay Gandhi arrested his uncle 82 years old and his Brother-in-law 78 years old. He also did the searching of Haskar’s house on flimsy grounds. Even after this, Haskar did not criticize Mrs. Gandhi in public for her misdeeds; but his wife never forgave Mrs. Gandhi. Such a honest civilian and intellectual had been treated badly during emergency.

According to Jayram Ramesh, there are three important things to take into consideration about P N Haskar. One, he never hesitated to speak with Mrs. Gandhi on variety of the subject on important matters of the country. Second, he was reluctant to speak in public even after holding most powerful position. Third, he never used his office for his personal benefits as he was a man of great integrity.

After his retirement, Mrs. Gandhi offered him India’s second Civilian award Padma Vibhushan for his work but he declined the same by saying that, “Accepting an award for work done somehow causes an inexplicable discomfort to me’. He died at the age of 85 on 25^th November 1998.

Besides diplomat, P N Haskar was very good photographer, an excellent cook, devoted gardener, an avid reader and connoisseur of paintings. Jayram Ramesh has placed some Haskar’s photographs of Mrs. Gandhi, J R D Tata, Raja Ramanna, K N Kao and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in this book.  Other than English language, he was scholar of Urdu, Hindi and Sanskrit and some knowledge of Bengali, French and German. 

Jayram Ramesh was Congress MP and honorable minister under the Prime Minister of Manmohan Sing. He has written this book with lot of research and gone through the available papers in NMML. Even though the MP on Congress ticket, he did not hide any information about misdeeds of Mrs. Gandhi and her son Sanjay Gandhi during the course of emergency. It is a fantastic attempt to bring the biography of India’s most powerful and influential civil servant by providing the actual truth. Earlier to this book, Ramesh has written books like ecology of bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh and Indira Gandhi’s commitment to environmental issues.

Through this book, he highlighted the contributions of great Civil servant who has been completely forgotten. This is a useful book for those who want to know the contemporary history of India. One must read this book to understand the life of Patriotic Civil servant.

Thanks to Jayram Ramesh to provide us useful materials through Intertwined lives P N Haskar and Indira Gandhi.

Mumbai

04/06/2020