Top civil servant Tejendra Khanna recounts stints in ‘An Intent to Serve’

Karan A Singh

This is an autobiography by a distinguished civil servant who retired as Union Commerce Secretary in 1996 and thereafter served two stints as the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, including the period when the national capital hosted the Commonwealth Games in 2010. Tejendra Khanna was the Chief Secretary of Punjab in 1991-92 when elections were held in the state after a long spell of President’s rule.

A welcome addition to a sparse genre of biographies of civil servants in India, it covers Khanna’s entire career and contains numerous anecdotes, many of which are eye-openers on the inner workings of government. The first 10 chapters about his experiences in Punjab will be especially delightful for readers connected with the state. The latter part relates his experiences in the Government of India and as Lt Governor of Delhi.

The author relates with candour and without rancour several incidents about his disagreements with political leaders. He states with conviction: “While occasions may arise when a minister indicates his preference for a public contract to be awarded to a party enjoying his favour, the officer must take a merit-based decision in the most transparent manner possible and stand his ground.”

For the young, and for young civil servants in particular, this book has several sagacious observations. One of these arose during the author’s interaction with the Director of the National Police Academy in the early 1980s: “Today, the pressure has come, perhaps, from the political executive that they should be consulted before any action is taken, so that whatever is done is politically convenient for them and for the ruling party. This is wrong practice because the laws are meant to be implemented in an equitable way irrespective of the political colours of the citizens.”

Several innovative initiatives by Khanna, some of which have survived the test of time and have had significant impact, are narrated in an engaging, informal style. Amongst these, the Delhi Police initiative to train street children and find them a vocation, called ‘Yuva’, deserves special mention. Several out-of-the-box solutions to enhance the implementation capacity of government are described, including the deployment of ex-defence officers in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi.

Written in a conversational style, the book contains vignettes narrated with quiet humour, often from the other person’s point of view. For example, his interaction as DC of Sangrur (1966) with a Lieutenant who was visiting his village on leave, and met him with the panchayat: Khanna ordered the mutation of land for a link road on a piece of paper which was given to the Tehsildar by the panchayat! The author narrates a daring decision taken by him in public interest without worrying about obtaining approvals of seniors when he decided (as Irrigation Secretary, Punjab) to build a diversion channel for the Ropar thermal power plant to supply water from the Bhakra main line, which had to be completed within 10 days!

As Managing Director of PSIDC (1969), he structured a new venture, Punjab Tractors Ltd, by engaging a team of highly qualified and innovative technocrats from the public sector, despite reservations of his seniors.

This is a book written with modesty and fairness. Pick it up.