A gem of a bureaucrat
MADHAV GODBOLE and I belonged to the 1959 batch of the All-India Service — he in the IAS and I in the IPS. In those days, both sets of trainees used to visit each other’s training institutions — the IAS in Mussoorie and the IPS in Mount Abu. However, our batch was deprived of that opportunity of exchange visits as the government’s training branch was busy setting up a new system of the ‘foundation course’ from 1960 onwards for which All-India Service probationers were summoned six months in advance for collectively undergoing that assimilation course.
Consequently, I met Madhav only in the early 1960s in Nashik, Maharashtra. I was the senior Assistant Superintendent of Police, officiating as SP while he was the newly appointed Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Zila Parishad. The late Yashwantrao Chavan, the then Chief Minister, had introduced a pioneering example of devolution of powers through Zila Parishads by an Act of 1961, made effective in 1962.
Yet the bureaucracy considered CEO as only No. 2 in the district after the Collector/District Magistrate. However, that did not bother Madhav, who, through his sheer brilliance, created a new aura about the CEO’s job by initiating startling development work at the village level. In all the district coordination meetings he was the star speaker, putting across concepts of governance in a simple, direct language which politicians of all hues easily understood.
The next milestone in his career was when he was selected by Chavan as his Private Secretary. Chavan had by then moved to the Central government, first as Defence Minister and later as Finance Minister. On completion of this tenure, Madhav was selected as a key Joint Secretary in the Finance Ministry.
He again went on deputation to the Government of India as Secretary. However, the Babri Masjid episode put the brakes on his brilliant career when he chose to retire from the IAS prematurely. At that time, I was abroad on a ‘special assignment’. He sent word to me that he was taking compulsory retirement. He would not relent despite my appeals. He was very hurt by the way he was abandoned by the then PM and Home Minister. All this he had described in his poignant memoir Unfinished Innings.
Retirement did not stop his thinking or writing. He produced nearly 27 books in English and Marathi covering every facet of governance. Till his last days, he would send messages to me from Pune to attend his various Zoom lectures. We were amazed at his energy and devotion to the subjects close to his heart. To me his passing away is the end of an era.
