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The man to emulate

N. R. Krishnan

IN THE untimely demise of Madhavrao Scindia, the country has lost a political leader of commendable dynamism and vision. Madhavrao belonged to a rare breed of politicians who combined high qualifications of birth, education and upbringing and ab ove all, a clean personal life and total probity in public life.

Madhavrao could have afforded a lavish existence on his vast family fortune and could have indulged in the wasteful pastimes that many of his ilk were prone to. Instead, he chose to devote himself to public service. Madhavrao was the common man' s leader. Whether it was the opening of relief works in Madhya Pradesh to provide employment to the drought-stricken or the improvement of civic amenities in urban centres, he was intimately seized of the problems and would not rest till the lo cal administration delivered results. A forceful speaker, he could move the lay audience and colleagues in the party and government with a barrage of facts, figures and logic. As a parliamentarian, he could be ranked among the best the c ountry has known.

One sure test of the competence of a politician-turned-minister is the way he handles hard-boiled career civil servants. As a minister, Madhavrao was more than equal to this challenge. His powers of analysis and penchant for facts and figures w ere much in evidence when he headed the Ministry of Railways. Woe betide the official who came unprepared for any meeting with him in the Rail Bhavan! The civil servants' early grudging respect for an exacting master soon gave way to genuine appr eciation. None can forget Madhavrao Scindia's lasting contribution to the working of the Indian Railways through the introduction of large-scale computerisation — no mean change in a bastion of colonial vestiges.

As Minister of Civil Aviation too, Madhavrao left an indelible mark. Under his leadership, the Ministry weathered the fallout of two major disasters, one, a devastating fire that burned down a good part of the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi, and, the other being the accident met with by a Russian airliner in Palam. In keeping with the highest standards of public accountability, Madhavrao resigned from the Ministry following the latter incident. It is ironic th at he who did much to promote air safety should meet his end in an air accident.

For all his wealth, Mr Scindia was thrifty to a fault. This writer recalls an incident when he directed his private secretary to surrender his air ticket from Bhopal to Gwalior well in time to claim a full refund from the airlines as the fl ight was cancelled that day. To him, public money was as worthy of being guarded as private wealth.

And, he was endowed with an impish sense of humour. Once, noticing an officer dozing in the officials' gallery in the Lok Sabha, he signalled to his private secretary to nudge the officer awake and then greeted the startled officer with a mi schievous smile from the floor of the house.

It is indeed difficult for this writer to reconcile himself to the fact that a warm friendship with an Oxford undergraduate that began in Chanderi in Madhya Pradesh 36 years ago should end so suddenly. Only memories remain now.

The author was former Secretary to the Ministry of Environment and Forests, New Delhi.