Rajan Kashyap’s memoir is an engaging journey in corridors of power

Sandeep Sinha

The memoir of a civil servant is expected to offer ‘colourful vignettes of events behind the drab door of officialdom’, breaking the staid mould in which the permanent executives of India’s mighty steel frame seem to have been cast, burdened by the task of governance.

An accomplished administrator whose tenure spanned the early decades after Independence to the more recent tumultuous times in the history of Punjab and India, former Punjab Chief Secretary Rajan Kashyap in his understated style has tried to live up to the promise with his succinct but detached observations.

From life with his grandfather Bharpur Singh, a confidant of the Maharaja of Kapurthala, to accounts of the early years spent with his parents father a senior police officer and mother an educationist the author offers a glimpse of contemporary times. The princely state was more advanced than some of the places where his father came to be posted later and the administration there comparable with the areas directly under the British rule.

It was from his grandfather, who shared the court with the Maharaja of Kapurthala, that Kashyap imbibed his love for the game of tennis and went on to promote it in his capacity as a sports administrator.

The author describes in detail the period when terrorism was at its peak in Punjab and the impact that the suspension of political activity had. It was also the opportunity to observe the behaviour of individual leaders in stressful and sedate situations. There was a succession of Governors and a change in responsibilities accordingly.

After Operation Bluestar in 1984, as the Administrative Secretary for the Department of Local Government, the author was assigned two inter-related tasks in Amritsar. The first was to rehabilitate residents and shopowners whose buildings in the periphery of the Golden Temple had been destroyed. The second task was to improve the physical environment of the land surrounding the Golden Temple. With the help of a brilliant civil engineer, NS Sodhi, who was the key executor of the ambitious plan, the project was completed a month ahead of schedule.

The author mentions his long stint as the Finance Secretary of the state even though he had no experience in finance. He admits his failure to rein in the deficit in budget and explains in detail the mechanism governing the Centre-state financial model. However, he enjoyed the confidence of his Chief Ministers. Parkash Singh Badal recalled him to the post even though he had served on it during the Congress regime. There is mention of how Beant Singh trusted him; the day the CM was assassinated, Kashyap was in his office at the Secretariat. Capt Amarinder Singh comes in for effusive praise because of his approach. Bureaucrats provide both continuity and change in the administration and as the Chief Secretary, Kashyap says he discovered that the system runs on auto-pilot.

Replete with quotes, the book describes Kashyap’s encounters with eminent personalities like Mother Teresa and APJ Abdul Kalam, who subsequently went on to become the President of India. Kalam presented a plan for changing the rural landscape of Punjab through emphasis on technology, but it could not see the light of day. The Kashyap family’s attachment to Dera Radha Soami at Beas as a centre for moral and spiritual advancement finds mention. There are reminiscences of close family members, an acknowledgement of how well-knit they were.

An entrant into the Indian Administrative Service at a very young age, Rajan Kashyap rose to the highest position in the hierarchy and retired after nearly four decades in service. Writing the book, he says, found him locked in a struggle between lucidity and creativity. A memoir describes what happened during a lifetime. Written during the Covid pandemic, the description of the journey in the corridors of power is engaging and impassive, meant to captivate and not offer retribution.