NEVER A DULL MOMENT

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Each individual carries a basketful of memories. In his career serving his country in various capacities the author was fortunate to have been associated with some important events and several great personalities. This book is a bouquet of flowers from his memory that include his personal association with persons and events.They include historic personalities such as Pandit Nehru, Nikita Khrushchev, Rajiv Gandhi, Zail Singh, Sri Prakasa, Morarji Desai, Y.B. Chavan, B.K. Nehru, Mizo rebel leader Laldenga and several others. Also of a house in Wardha with living memories of leaders who led India’s freedom struggle.Events include the unraveling mystery of a larger than life-size statue of elephants standing in the town square of Chambery in France and tracing the descendents of some great French soldiers-of-fortune who served late Madhavrao Scindia’s ancestors in the eighteenth century. Also of sensitive visitors and CIA agents who visited his office; of a superintendent of police who committed murder and shot himself; of a naval commander who brutally shot to death his wife’s lover and whose trial led to a historic judgement by the Supreme Court of India defining constitutional powers of a governor to grant pardon; of two headstrong criminals declaring intention to kill each other while lodged in jail; of an upright governor who refused to bow down to pressure from a powerful aide of a prime minister; of another governor who had to resign for seeking favours for his daughter; of a Chief of Army Staff who successfully avoided implementing the prime minister’s directive; of another chief who did not take a threat to his life seriously and died in vain.So far as the author is concerned all accounts are truthful. There is no malice nor self serving justification.R.D. Pradhan (b. 1928) joined the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in the erstwhile Bombay state in 1952 and had a varied and interesting career at the state, Union and as an UN civil servant.On 1 May 1960 he joined Y.B. Chavan, the chief minister of the newly formed state of Maharashtra as his private secretary. He went to Delhi when Chavan became the defence minister of India in November 1962.In 1965 he joined the Ministry of Commerce and handled several landmark negotiations. In 1967 he was appointed as India’s Representative in Geneva to UNCTAD and GATT and later joined the UN. In 1982 he became the chief secretary to the Maharashtra government. In January 1985 he was appointed Union Home secretary. He worked closely with Rajiv Gandhi, the prime minister and was awarded the Pa