B G Deshmukh, who died last Sunday, made a mark as a bureaucrat with a difference. The last few years of his service with the central government coincided with economically as well as politically turbulent times. Not surprisingly, his journey from Pune – where he spent his childhood days and breathed his last at 84 – to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on Raisina Hill is a story that will inspire many young bureaucrats.
Rarely does the government recall an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer from his state posting and make him the Cabinet secretary. B G Deshmukh was one of those rare officers. In 1985, soon after Rajiv Gandhi became prime minister, P C Alexander, who was then the principal secretary in the PMO, called Mr Deshmukh to his office. Mr Deshmukh was then secretary in the ministry of labour and was hoping to become the home secretary. Instead, Mr Alexander told Mr Deshmukh that he would have to go back to Maharashtra, his parent cadre, as chief secretary.
Mr Deshmukh had an uneasy relationship with P C Alexander. Without mincing words, he told the principal secretary that he thought he deserved to be the home secretary. However, that was not to be. Mr Deshmukh had to go back to Bombay, but not before registering his protest with Arun Singh, who was then Rajiv Gandhi’s political aide. A year-and-a-half later, Mr Deshmukh returned to Raisina Hill as Cabinet secretary. Just before he was to attain the retirement age in September 1989, Mr Gandhi asked him to stay on in the government and made him principal secretary in the PMO.
He was with the Rajiv Gandhi government during its most turbulent period, caused largely by the scandal over payment of bribe for the purchase of Bofors guns. Mr Deshmukh was close to Rajiv Gandhi, but not really part of his inner circle. In his memoirs, Mr Deshmukh makes that very clear. This is also why among all the autobiographical accounts of senior bureaucrats associated with Rajiv Gandhi during those days, Mr Deshmukh’s was the most forthright. In his book, Mr Deshmukh wrote quite frankly about the government’s deal with an Italian company for training security forces with the prime minister, payments for which were to be made in a suspiciously secretive way.
On the issue of the controversial Bofors deal, Mr Deshmukh wrote that although Mr Gandhi’s personal integrity was not in doubt, the prime minister seemed to know the names of the recipients of the bribe, but was reluctant to expose them. Did Mr Gandhi know of this before the deal or after the contract was signed? Mr Deshmukh’s version was that Mr Gandhi came to know about it later as he was too decent a person to be dishonest. Mr Deshmukh did have a soft corner for Rajiv Gandhi.
In spite of this, Mr Deshmukh managed to stay on in the PMO even when Rajiv Gandhi’s arch rival Vishwanath Pratap Singh was the prime minister. After Mr Gandhi lost the elections in 1989, Mr Deshmukh too decided to pack his bags. However, Singh had other ideas and asked Mr Deshmukh to continue with him as principal secretary. This was unusual. Mr Deshmukh would perhaps be the only bureaucrat who served two prime ministers belonging to different political parties.
He served Chandra Shekhar also as his principal secretary and would have continued to do so until the end of his tenure in January 1991 but for some misunderstanding between them. Once Chandra Shekhar took charge as prime minister and a new council of ministers was in place, Mr Deshmukh met him and offered his resignation letter. However, the newly sworn-in prime minister told Mr Deshmukh that he would like him to continue in the job. Mr Deshmukh was pleasantly surprised and decided to stay on in the PMO until the end of his tenure. A fortnight later, however, Mr Deshmukh received a telephonic message that the government had appointed his successor.
That came as a rude shock for Mr Deshmukh. He decided to confront the prime minister and demanded why the government did not accept his resignation, why the government asked him to continue and why now the government had appointed his successor. There was no explanation. It became clear that the Chandra Shekhar government was keen to present Mr Deshmukh’s departure as part of the secretarial reshuffle that the new government had planned to effect. Mr Deshmukh resented that, but had no option. A clever politician had trumped an upright bureaucrat.
Mr Deshmukh had another humbling experience while dealing with Chandra Shekhar. Mr Deshmukh had a job offer from J R D Tata to join the corporate group in an advisory position after he quit the government. However, Mr Deshmukh was aware of the mandatory two-year cooling off period before a government official could take up a job with the private sector. He, therefore, asked Chandra Shekhar if the government would make an exception in his case since in his view no conflict of interest would arise from his job with the Tatas.
According to Mr Deshmukh, Chandra Shekhar had agreed to make the exception, which prompted him to send in his request. However, what pained him was that in spite of the prime minister’s promise, the Chandra Shekhar government turned down his request and Mr Deshmukh had to wait for the mandatory two-year cooling off period before he could join the Tatas. In his long unblemished service tenure of almost 40 years, that experience must have rankled Mr Deshmukh, apart from making him sad and wiser.
