When Indira surprised her ministerial staff
K. Natwar Singh
I worked in the Prime Minister’s Secretariat (not yet PMO) from May 1966 to April 1971 when Indira Gandhi was the PM.
If I recall rightly, it was in the summer of 1968 when I suggested to the PM that she might consider paying surprise visits to one or two ministries in South and North Blocks. She readily agreed.
I had informed no one of my (in retrospect a foolhardy thing to do) scheme. I was then in my mid-thirties, full of energy, enthusiasm, irrepressible zeal and with near recusant tendencies. I first took her to the second floor of the Ministry of External Affairs, where lower division clerks and assistants worked in rooms unkept, floors unswept and with no coolers. When they saw the PM, they thought it was a dream. She asked one of them, what work he was doing, his speech deserted him. His hands were shaking. It was then that reality hit them. Yes, she was really the PM. Nervously grinning, they all clapped. Their day had been made. The PM was not pleased to notice their work conditions.
The next target was the North Block, which housed the ministries of Home, Defence and Finance. The Defence Ministry was ‘spic and span’. The lot of the clerks and the assistants was the same as in the South Avenue. After recovering from the shock and surprise to seeing the PM in person, they too clapped, not sure whether their eyes were playing tricks or was it an ethereal entity had appeared. The PM put one or two questions. She got a reply from a girl, a lower divisional clerk, who was pasting envelopes.
Finally, I took her to Safdarjung Hospital. She was appalled to see how the wards were kept. Some patients were lying on the floor and the toilets stank. The doctors were as nervous as they could be. The PM insisted to see the kitchen. Just then Health Minister KK Shah turned up. The PM said, in colloquial terminology, ‘let him have it’.
As we were departing, Shah took me aside, “Natwarji, why did you not inform me?”. “Sir, then you would have spruced up the place.”
I was entering the danger zone. By now, word had got round that I intended to take the PM for a DTC bus ride. Her Principal Secretary PN Haksar told me, “Natwar, stop your hazardous and irresponsible pranks.” I did. Looking back more than 50 years ago, I realise how asinine and unwise I had been.
Those were the carefree and relaxed times. No NSG, no Black Cats, no terrorism. The PM had two security officers. Each working eight hours. People had easy access to the PM. Ministers and senior civil servants were never given any security cover.
Of course, now things are very different. Tight and fool-proof security is attempted. Actually, there is no such thing as fool-proof security. No
security or CCTV camera can do anything against a suicide bomber, who is willing to blow self up for destroying a church, school, even a mosque. We do live in very dangerous times. Only one country has a near full-proof security set up — Israel. At times, even Israel too is successfully targeted. In such
rare instances, the Israeli response is immediate and merciless. Yet, Israel was taken by surprise during the
Yom Kipper holiday in 1973. Egypt and Syria attacked it. Security was breached. Intelligence had failed. It was a close shave.
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The other day a rabid deshpremi declared that it was unpatriotic for cricketer Virat Kohli to get married in Tuscany, Italy. He will, I guess, pronounce that no student should study in the UK, US, France, Germany etc. Well, there is no scarcity of fools in the world. Alas! they are in a majority.
