Secret document Lost and Found

Gyani Zail Singh, the then President of India had, in the year 1982, undergone heart surgery. He was advised rest and could not to discharge his functions for six weeks. In accordance with the provisions of the Constitution of India, Justice Hidayatullah, the then Vice President of India, was to perform the functions of the President during that period.

The Vice President would go to Rashtrapathi Bhavan for an hour or so every day and attend to the papers in the President’s office. I accompanied him on these visits. Justice Hidayatullah also continued to attend to the work of the Vice President from his office at 6, Maulana Azad Road, New Delhi.

One morning I discovered to my horror that a secret communication, addressed to the President of India from one of our Missions Abroad, was missing. I had, on the previous evening, left it somewhat carelessly on my desk while going home.

I ransacked the desks, cupboards, drawers etc. both in the office and at home. No matter how assiduously I searched, the paper could not traced.Quite apart from the embarrassment of having misplaced an important paper, I was really and truly face to face with the consequences of gross negligence in a highly sensitive matter.

I asked around discreetly whether anyone else in the office had stumbled upon the paper by chance. There was no sign of the letter. My dilemma was whether or not to bring the Vice President into the picture at that stage. In that mood of apprehension I told myself that I would never have been in such a predicament had I not been posted as Secretary to the Vice President in the first place. I was not there of my own volition. The series of events that had to the present situation flashed before in my mind’s eye.

I was the Collector of Guntur district in 1977, when Sharda Mukherjea (wife of the late Subroto Mukherjea, the first Indian to be Chief of Air Staff ofindependent India), a former Member of Parliamentwas the Governor of Andhra Pradesh state. She was visiting the Nagarjuna Sagar Dam which lies intheneighboring district of Nalgonda. A museum of Buddhist artefacts, edicts, statues etc. is the prime attraction there.It is situated in an island in the Krishna river, which is part of Guntur district.

In accordance with protocol I was present for the Governor’s visit to the museum,all dressed up in a galabund despite the sweltering heat and oppressive humidity. The Governor’svisit lasted for about forty minutes and, after seeing her off, I returned to headquarters.

News came within a few days that Sharda Mukherjea desired that I be posted as the Secretary to the Governor. Chief Minister Vengala Rao was on a visitto Guntur district at that time.He confirmed the information-also adding that he had been averse to my being disturbed from my post (I had barely been there for a few months after looking forward for quite some time to being in-charge of a district). Apparently the Governor was quite firm about the posting.

I have covered elsewhere some interesting events relating to my tenure in the Raj Bhavan, Hyderabad. A year after I joined the Governor’s Secretariat, Sharda Mukherjea moved as the Governor of Gujarat state. Even as I was fancying my chances of reverting to a field posting came the news that K.C. Abraham, the new incumbent Governor, had (apparently following a briefing by Sharda Mukherjea) made it clear that he wishedthat I remain as the Governor’s Secretary.

Abraham, who was in his late seventies by then, had had little administrative experience and I was reconciled to respecting theneed he felt for someone who was trusted by his predecessor to assist him in a new and unfamiliar environment. For what it was worth I tried to impress upon him that it would be good for my career at that time to serve in a more active assignment and also that many willing and able officers were available to be posted in my place.

He, however, refused to budge. Wethereupon struck a deal that I would continue for a year and then be sent off to a district. In due course I was moved as the Collector of Krishna district and, after a somewhat premature curtailment of my stint there (details of which event I have narrated separately), was posted as the Managing Director of the Andhra Pradesh Fisheries Development Corporation (APFC).

As luck would have it, I was not to last even in that relatively obscure posting.Once more, I wasfacing orders of transfer.It was then that I received intimation that the Vice President of India wished to see me. I learnt later that Sharda Mukherjea, while on a visit to Delhi, had called on the Vice PresidentHidayatullah and was somewhat concerned at chaotic state of affairs in the Upa Rashpathi’s office They were very close friends.

Sharda Mukherjea apparentlyadvisedthe Vice President to get a young IAS officer to work for him and set things in order. Hidayatullah had not known me in person.He valued Sharda Mukherjea’s word. He also knew that my father had been a judge of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh. This was enough for him to overcome his native distrust of career civil servants. He requested.

Anjaiah, the then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, to relieve me to join the Government of India for being posted as Secretary to the Vice President. Anjaiah, had known me, as did many others, as K. Mohan and as my father’s son.He did not realize that it was I who was the Mohan Kanda referred to by the Vice President.

When I went to take leave of the Chief Minister he looked surprised and said “I did not realize it was you whom Vice President was asking for”. It was by then too late to change anything. Yet again, I was on the move. And, as in the case of Guntur and Krishna districts I wasleaving behind me at APFC a good deal of unfinished business on account of the abruptness of my departure. As in the past, I was moved out just as I was beginning to enjoy my work. Another laid back assignment lay in store for me and I had been drawn into it for no fault of mine.

And, here I was, extracting a reasonable degree of excitement from an otherwise placid job!I prayed hard that I should survive the crisis as I was guilty, at most, of carelessness and had not intentionally precipitated the situation in which I found myself. While I was rueing my fate thus, my thoughts strayed into the realm of philosophy.

Regular exercise has always being part of my daily regimen. Some warming up, followed by vigorous cardio training,light weight training and at the end the yogic shavasan (when one lies down flat with limbs loose and the mind goes blank), was my customary routine. I have trained myself at that time to think of the stretch of space and time from the beginning to the (so called) end,and fromthe nothingness at the origin to the ever expanding vastness of the infinite cosmos.

Those familiar with the principles of particle physics, cosmology and the theories of relativity and quantum mechanics will be familiar with the quest on, at Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléair - European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Switzerland, for recreating the scene at the beginning of the universe nanoseconds after the so-called “big bang”. “God’s particle” or the Higg’sboson was discovered recently there.

The space occupied by a human being, and period his life time, represents but a spark of fire in dimension as well as duration, viewed against the scales of time and space in the cosmic context. And, as I write this, comes the news that the hither to elusive irreconcilabilityof the theories of quantum mechanics and general relativity, is to end and the “Theory of Everything” or “The Grand Unification Theory” (GUT) will finally emerge,thanks to the discovery of “gravitational waves”.

Also as I write this, the scientific world is agog with the announcement at CERN that the quark-gluon – the fundamental stuff of which the universe is believed to be made – has been successfully created through the collision of atomic nuclei in the Large Hydron Collider situated there.

With the mind kept active by the stimulation which a career in the civil service constantly provides and the body in shape, thanks to regular exercise and relaxation, I have always tried to keep the soul in good condition with positive spiritual contemplation. Father was an agnostic. And I, until my late teens, had not been quite sure about the value of what seemed to be the fatalistic approach that came with the Vedic prescriptions that my forefathers had been heir to.

After a couple of unexpected setbacks, including a failure at the undergraduate level in a practical examination in Chemistry (always a favourite subject of mine until then) I chose to play safe and began to accept a God and cultivated faith in Him. Ghalib the Delhi based nineteenth century Urdu poet was an atheist.

Towards the end of his life, still unable to come to terms with the preachings of Islamic scriptures, lamented, “Kaaba kis munh se jaaoge Ghalib, Sharam tumko magar nahi aati”. I,however, managed to steady the trim of my spiritual ship fairly early on in life.

The combination of my faith and the deep impression made upon me by the study of and the infinitesimally small and the infinitelylarge dimensions of space and of time had combined, over the years, to leave me with an acute sense of appreciation of the insignificance of a single human being’s existence in the overall scheme of things. I have therefore never felt superior to those engaged in what society regards as humbler callings; nor have I felt the need to stand with folded arms in front of superiors, feigning awe and deference towards them.

As for respect I have always shown to elders the regard due to them on account of their age. The trick, I have learnt, is to remain at peace with the ambient personal and professional environment in which one finds oneself. As one presses on in life the ferocity of desires mellows, dispelling, as a result, the frustrationthat alwaysfollows disappointment. One no longer feels the burden of responsibility as authority and the weight of office sit lightly on one’s shoulders.

In regard to the missing letter my duty under the circumstances was clear to me.I decided to inform the Vice President about the loss of the document, steeling myself to accept the consequences. The toughest part always is the decision to act. Consequences of the right thing to do rarely prove as dire as anticipated. The Vice President quickly grasped what had happened, realizing that someone was clearly intentionallytrying to cause embarrassment either to me, or tohim or to both of us. V.K. Dar a senior officer of the Andhra Pradesh IAS cadre was then the Secretary to the President of India.

He was also assisting the Vice President in the discharge of his presidential functions. Hidayatullah summoned him to his chambers and bluntly told him that he believed that some mischief was afoot, making it clear he wished the guilty to be brought to book. He made it clear that he would not hesitate to entrust the matter to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for a probe.

That really, would have created an unprecedented situation, a government agency conducting an inquiry into the internal matters within the hallowed precincts of within the highest office in the land!As days passed and no light was thrown upon the matter, the Vice President grew visibly restless. As we were approaching the end of his additional responsibility as the acting President of India he,one day, told Dar that he would wait no more than another twenty four hours and then proceed to carry out his threat of ordering an external investigation.

Lo and behold! The elusive document promptly appeared on my desk in the Vice President’s office the next morning – all neatly sealed in an envelope addressed to me!I sighed with relief and said a silent prayer of thanks to the Almighty. The courage of my conviction and Hidayatullah’s unfailing faith in my integrity were finally indicated. Sticking to the straight and narrow path,listening to the dictates of the Biblical “still small voice” and following the dictates of myconscience had, after all, proved to be the best possible course of action.