Everything had to be built up right from scratch in a period plagued by constant crises that affected both supplies and prices. An altogether uncharted sphere, it offered an area for experimentation, trial and error in the creation of new organisations and procedures for the discharge of responsibilities where failure was almost immediately apparent in the supply line to consumers. It is not possible, for lack of space, to describe his pioneering role through various levels, culminating in his appointment as Director General Food and Civil Supplies in 1947. Suffice it to say that at the start of his career, he was representing the unpartitioned Punjab—a surplus state where at the Government of India’s insistence on the introduction of rationing and what goes with it was unwelcome to the agricultural producers. His opposition, on behalf of the state government, to the introduction of rationing was overruled by the Government of India’s mandate which was actuated by considerations of macro-economic management.

He was later to find himself in a scenario where it became a deficit state after Partition. Matters got complicated as the Government of India alternated between decontrol and recontrol. The problems faced during these nine years and his responses are a fascinating study, indicating a fresh and innovative mind and his capacity for participative management in a hierarchical administrative set-up. Mangat Rai managed to get the cooperation of private trade in foodgrains. He also evolved various methods of ascertaining public responses to policy and its implementation so as to ascertain whether the intended beneficiaries of government policies were not its unwitting victims. This management approach stood him in good stead in his many subsequent assignments.

As Finance Secretary, he infused a fresh approach to bear upon a highly traditional and negatively inclined department. In this capacity, he was part of the team that provided leadership and direction to the Chandigarh Capital Project right from its inception. Another very large project was the Bhakra Dam Project where he played a very crucial role in preventing a rupture between Slocum (the dam’s American executive head) and the Punjab administration. This would have resulted in his appointment as its General Manager but he advised Government against displacing the state’s able chief engineers.

As Planning and Development Commissioner, he spelt out the concept and the blueprint for laying the foundation of the Panchayati raj. This was approved by the Cabinet in 1955 but faced resistance like the subsequent initiative of the Balwant Rai Mehta and Ashok Mehta Committee’s recommendations and even the constitutional amendment brought out by Rajiv Gandhi.

Mangat Rai’s finest years were those as Chief Secretary from 1957 to 1962. Partap Singh Kairon had become the Chief Minister in 1956. In the first four years of his tenure, Kairon wanted to revolutionise and accelerate the pace of development of Punjab. He had the necessary will, energy and vision to do things. The kind of equation Kairon had with Mangat Rai, he had with very few civil servants. He was impressed by Mangat Rai’s work during the latter’s tenure as Director General Food and Supplies and as Planning and Development Commissioner.

Kairon, the most powerful chief minister compared to his predecessors and successors to date, was impatient with procedures, conventions and the command structures. He was altogether unapologetic about the right of the chief minister to interfere in matters big and small. Therefore, despite his achievements, he unleashed trends and set traditions that were later to cost him and the state. However, Mangat Rai was a man of great courage and assertiveness. He was equally insistent on his right to caution and warn Kairon and advised him without mincing words. His five years as Chief Secretary saw the interplay of two strong personalities but, to Kairon’s credit, he could take almost aggressive dissent from Mangat Rai.

The case of R. P. Kapur, also an ICS officer, is an illustration of this interplay. Formerly in the good books of Kairon, Kapur fell out with him. Kairon pursued Kapur through criminal cases. One of these was on the basis of a private complaint from a lawyer. Everybody knew Kairon’s interest in the pursuit of Kapur and his violent hatred of the man. The case finally came through the Law Department to Mangat Rai. The Law Department was of the view that it was a borderline case. Mangat Rai asked for a categorical view whether it was a criminal case or a civil dispute. The Law Department’s advice was still not categorical. Mangat Rai then went through the case himself and noted that "it was not a case of an ignorant villager being taken gross advantage of by a scheming coloniser. Sethi, an advocate, and Kapur were former friends and knew exactly what they were in for in the deal. More likely than not, the case would fail. The stock of the Executive which was already low with the Judiciary in the context of the Karnal Triple Murder Case would decline further. It would, therefore, be unwise on the part of the Chief Minister to involve himself with the pursuit of the case."

The note proved to be prophetic and resulted in the prosecution of Kairon for the abuse of the processes of law. Kairon was assassinated a week before the commencement of the trial on the February 13, 1965. Again let it be said to the credit of Kairon that he did not show any rancour against Mangat Rai for a very damaging note.

Kairon was given to public rudeness in his treatment of officials. On one such occasion, at the meeting of the Punjab Tribes Advisory Council of Lahaul and Spiti at Manali, Kairon shouted at the irrigation engineers in a controversy in which they were not to blame. After hearing in silence for a while, Mangat Rai told the Chief Minister that he had bullied the engineers enough but without reason. Kairon then gave up and showed no annoyance that his Chief Secretary should tell him so in public.

As the first Chief Secretary who was introduced from outside in the unusual situation of Jammu and Kashmir, Mangat Rai did his best to lift the state’s administration from its heavily personalised and politicised functioning. He guided the administration of the state to respond to the Pakistani infiltration.

It is sad that such a brilliant career came to a sad end when he, as Special Secretary Petroleum, spoke up against the hounding of P. C. Naik, Secretary Petroleum in the Barauni refinery pipeline case. He took voluntary retirement when he was repatriated to the state without being made the Adviser to the Governor, an assignment to which he was entitled.