Shri Naresh Chandra passes away

[Y I Patel]

Some more sad news on an already grim day - Shri Naresh Chandra, one of the true giants of post-independence India's governing class, passed away today. Among the posts he served in were Defense Secretary, Cabinet Secretary and Ambassador to United States. But that hardly begins to describe the massive imprint and legacy he leaves behind - perhaps unsung and unheard of because he was such a doer, and not much of a talker.

To get some idea of his contributions, say to the nuclear weapons program, consult Raj Chengappa's excellent Weapons of Peace. He was later responsible for heading two enormously influential committees - one on reforming defense purchases, and one on corporate governance and ethics. Some of what we see today in terms of India's capabilities in missiles and nuclear weapons, and the revolution of Make in India now about to sweep through the defense scene, are among his legacies.

My own humble tribute to him was penned long ago, when I modeled a character after him in my contribution to Possible Military Scenarios:

in the link below, refer to the episode War Council - Part 1, where I model the character Mahesh Chandran after him. Incidentally, in War Council - Part 4 I proceed to introduce a character called Rajit Kumar Dhaval. I devoutly hope that the real person that particular character was modeled after continues to serve his country for a long long time to come.

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But enough of that, back to Shri Naresh Chandra. Sir, you and your brothers have been a blessing to your motherland. May your Atma be richly blessed with the punya of your karma in this life.

[SBajwa]

May Waheguru give the eternal peace and place in its feet and make free of births!! aka Moksha!

[Y I Patel]

I realized that in the same thread, I had presented some thinly veiled material from Naresh Chandra's actual contributions - in the episode titled "Bhishma Pitamah"

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[Y I Patel]

A much better tribute than my own fumbling attempt:

http://indianexpress.com/article/opinio ... a-4744813/

[Dumal]

A true gem from this land! The image of him that is etched in my mind is that of a slouching (or rather deeply slouching), somewhat corpulent (I thought, typical of Indian babus), speaking an English that was anything but westernized, when I first saw him defending our nuclear tests on the TV channels in the US. But even then, having had no idea of his standing, I had a warm, glowing feeling of safety as he so clearly articulated the Indian Government's position.

[vickyiyer]

May his soul rest in peace. A great son of India. A man of few words, but when he spoke people listened to him.

A fitting tribute to him in Economic Times today.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/new ... 534992.cms

[g.sarkar]

I remember him from the time of Pokhran II. He came across as competent and patriotic. I did not know he was such a gentleman. May he come back to serve India again.
Gautam

[SSridhar]

Om Shanthi. You were a great son of India, sir.

[schinnas]

Om Shanthi. May your stories and legends inspire dozens of talents officers to serve their motherland with devotion and skill.

[DrRatnadip]

RIP Sir..

[Prem]

RIP!
He was familiar face on US Tv channels explaining Indian's position on Pokhran 2.

[Rudradev]

When Indian citizens many centuries from now remember our "founding fathers", I hope they will recall and honour the generation that included K Subramanyan, KPS Gill, B Raman, and Naresh Chandra. Such men built the foundations of the Indian state's policymaking apparatus, working tirelessly to preserve and nurture a vulnerable infant of a nation, thinking constantly on their feet with no guide-book or formula to follow, staying mostly behind the scenes except when duty called, and never seeking personal glory for themselves. Chandra ji may be the last of that generation.

Let these men, and not the preening Banditji Die-nasty (or its sycophantic hangers-on) be remembered as the true founding fathers of modern Bharat.

[ramana]

Om Shanthi!!!
He was truly a great man.

One memory is his coming on PBS after POKII and saying to the news anchor
"India is in a tough neighborhood!"

He gave many young IAS officers their first stint in the MHA as the Deputy Secretary Internal Security.

In 1989, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi decided that the time had come for India to build a nuclear weapon. Our secretive nuclear programme was then entirely run by scientists. Since politicians come and go, Rajiv realised he needed one outsider to continually oversee the programme, regardless of which prime minister was in power. After some thought, Rajiv summoned the then defence secretary — a man who could, in the words of a scientist running the programme, “keep his mouth shut”. From then on Naresh Chandra, who died on Sunday, served as the chairman of the nuclear weapons committee — one so secret that no record exists of it within government.

Even prime ministers would not be fully briefed, but the scientists — R. Chidambaram, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, V.S. Arunachalam — were duty bound to keep Chandra in the loop. Chandra would climb down bunkers to check plutonium stock himself. With little political oversight, he was the keeper of the flame. In 1998, when Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee decided to test nuclear weapons, Naresh Chandra was conveniently our ambassador to the US. An American official later joked that when a furious Washington DC demanded an explanation, they only had to make a local phone call. Chandra’s pivotal role in India’s nuclear project is enough to write him into history books. But his role in economic reforms is as critical.


The blueprints for liberalisation had been prepared through the 1980s. They were finalised by the Chandrashekhar government — in which Naresh Chandra was cabinet secretary. When P.V. Narasimha Rao (a lifelong economic protectionist) came to power in June 1991, it was Chandra who handed the new prime minister a note on the looming catastrophe, and briefed him on what needed to be done. If Rao’s genius was to turn crisis into opportunity and navigate the politics of change, to Chandra goes the credit of providing Rao and Manmohan Singh with ready blueprints. To meet Chandra was to encounter a corpulent man, with the vernacular English of Allahabad University rather than the smooth flourish of St. Stephens College.

To listen to Chandra, however, was to engage with a potent intellect synthesising history, government rules, and calls to action. His penchant for sharp analysis came, a college friend suspects, from his early degree in physics. His selection in 1992 to head the Babri Masjid special cell within the prime minister’s office — a black mark in an otherwise unblemished career — owed much to the fact that he had an encyclopedic knowledge of land tenure rules in Uttar Pradesh. A life-long bachelor, he took an avuncular interest in the careers of young bureaucrats. He knew how to “create a court around him. to make you feel special”, a junior officer remembers. He also knew how to dominate meetings, all the while seeming subservient to politicians.

Around 2006, Sanjaya Baru (then press secretary to prime minister Manmohan Singh) met his boss to discuss names for a new principal secretary. “I suggested Naresh Chandra, but it did not happen”. Baru speculates: “Sonia [Gandhi] would not have been happy with that. Naresh Chandra was a tough guy.There is no way Naresh would have allowed 10 Janpath into government policy making.”

Chandra’s virtuosity was to combine this toughness with likeability; he was revered in the bureaucracy and earned the trust of four prime ministers. He was also unobtrusively decent. In early 1991, cabinet secretary Chandra was walking into Parliament along with commerce secretary Montek Singh Ahluwalia. Montek was not just an outsider to the caste of IAS officers, he was a turbaned Sikh in the years after Operation Blue Star. As they entered Parliament, the security man beckoned only to Montek to step aside for frisking.

Chandra, standing behind, quietly motioned to the guard to frisk him too so that Montek would not feel singled out. While Montek did not notice, Narasimha Rao — then an out of work opposition leader strolling in Parliament — saw what had happened. Rao later told his secretary that the incident etched in his mind “the kind of person Naresh is”.

Chandra’s contributions to Rajasthan (where he served for many years), economic liberalisation, and, above all, to India’s nuclear programme, would have made him a household name. But Chandra kept a low profile. He preferred to be trusted rather than celebrated, preferred a strong India to a loud India. In my last meeting with him, early this year, I remember him switching off a news TV channel as I entered. He said with gentle irritation, “Today, a uniform and flag are all you need to become a patriot”. He did not need either; he was the real deal.

Sitapati teaches at Ashoka University, and is the author of ‘Half-Lion: How P.V. Narasimha Rao Transformed India’

And his brother Girish Saxena's contributions to RAW are also legendary.