I remember to have met Shri Girish Chandra Bhandari at Prayagraj (Allahabad) for the first time in the early 1988 while I was still a young officer with hardly about five years service experience. He was then a senior administrative grade officer and gentleman in true sense who had impressed me in very first meeting through his well composed and sober demeanour, a glowing face with sort of an angelic aura and a captivating smile. As a senior civil servant, he was about sixteen years senior to me which is considered a wide gap as per prevailing bureaucratic practices and norms in India but he, to the best of my knowledge and remembrance, never made me to feel this gap or pressure while working or interacting with him in our long association during the rest of service.
In just a few weeks of interaction, we developed a strong camaraderie, mutual fondness and liking for each other, and this fondness and bonhomie only kept growing in the following years during our inter-ministerial assignments, service headquarters and field postings. When he became Controller General of Defence Accounts & Ex-Officio Secretary to the Government of India, he inducted me as Deputy Controller General in the headquarters from my field posting while papers for the promotion of my batch to the Senior Administrative Grade had already been processed and that was the last of our direct official engagement in the year 2002-03. I never forgot what he told me once during one-to-one interface in Prayagraj, “Look Jaipal, I don’t treat you as my junior or subordinate owing to the difference in our service seniority and age simply because when I interact with you I never feel this gap; instead, it feels like I am dealing with someone of my own age and maturity”. To my view, this was the best ever compliment I received from any senior or mentor during my government service and academic career. Even in formal communications to me, he concluded with “affectionately yours” on many occasions, rather than the commonly used official jargon “sincerely yours”.
The office at Prayagraj was among the single largest establishments and organizations with over two thousand serving officers and staff those days, and because of the sheer complexity and volume of work, it was seized with many administrative and functional problems including frequent staff unrest. To tackle these issues, the central government had adopted a two-pronged strategy: one, to automate key functional areas of routine and repetitive nature; and the other, to augment and improve infrastructure and amenities for the employees in the office and residential premises with an aim to maximize staff satisfaction level. Many officers made significant contributions at Prayagraj but Mr Bhandari as CDA-in-charge of the “Technological Missions at Prayagraj” (terminology coined by the Defence Ministry for its functional automation) at the decision level and myself as in-charge of administration and computer wing at the execution level made maximum improvement through automation and infrastructure development in the organization during those years. I had to even forego my Under Secretary deputation to ensure smooth, efficient and effective development and implementation of the ongoing technological and infrastructural projects at Prayagraj.
There are umpteen incidents, episodes and anecdotes worth remembrance and citation from those eventful years but for the brevity sake, I would just mention one here to illustrate Mr Bhandari’s managerial acumen, humanitarian approach and popularity among the staff members:
The new Principal Controller had joined after the upgradation of the organization, and his biased and often vengeful approach towards the staff members of the particular community (Kshatriya caste) purportedly to avenge some wrong-doings against him in an earlier stint in the same organization soon vitiated the working atmosphere leading to serious unrest. Situation took an ugly turn when some unidentified people (miscreants) resorted to arson incident in a portion of office at night; hostile staff associations blamed administration for this fire incident and started agitation in the premises from the following morning. As a recurring routine for days, an estimated 500-600 staff members would assemble in procession during the forenoon, raise incendiary slogans against the Principal Controller and his key advisors, and gherao his office chamber to force certain unreasonable and rather humiliating demands. Only two officers who could stand unruffled and unharmed among this unruly crowd during all this pandemonium were Mr Bhandari and myself. The atmosphere was so vitiated and charged that none of other officers, including the Principal Controller, could dare to face the agitating crowd for the fear and apprehension of being publicly humiliated, or even manhandled. It was largely owing to the managerial ability, popularity and acceptability of Mr Bhandari in the organization that came as handy tools in bringing the staff association representatives to the negotiating table. It took a few weeks to restore peace and order in the organization through our onerous efforts by engaging both hard and soft options.
Mr Bhandari originally belonged to a well-known and respectable family from the state of Uttarakhand but subsequently he settled in New Delhi. Years later, once I visited Ranikhet in Uttarakhand, where I was impressed to see his parental palatial house but in his personal life, he was so simple and easy to get along without even an iota of ego or pride of his background, status and achievements. I have not seen many people with so many positive attributes and divine qualities combined in one persona such as being very competent, truthful, optimist, fair, warm, caring and forgiving. His original aptitude and out of box thinking helped to solve some decades old functional problems in the organization at Prayagraj.
During our stay at Prayagraj, we were frequently meeting during the lunch time in his office chamber to have a few chess quickies as both of us were passionate about this brainy game: Had I not quit the game owing to compulsions of higher studies and mundane life, perhaps chess would have become my career for life; and he had distinction of having played with some national level chess players, too. I used to finish my normal lunch beforehand but he would take it while playing chess with me. His simple lunch comprised of merely one or two sandwiches, some seasonal fruit(s) and curd. Our lunch time rendezvous in pursuance of the aforesaid passion continued in the national capital Delhi too without much change during the mid-nineties onward, whenever I found time from my rather heavy desk of Director (Budget & Planning) in the Ministry of Defence at South Block and he then as Joint Secretary, later upgraded in-situ as Additional Secretary, in the Ministry of Urban Development at Nirman Bhawan, New Delhi.
During my association with Mr Bhandari, I learnt several life lessons from him in my professional and personal life including the spirit of “walk your talk” which I have so passionately and religiously committed and adhered to. I never saw him losing temper or being angry with anyone in the office or outside. He was one person who would like to count on even one virtue in the man rather than cribbing or complaining about his many negative attributes. I had never seen him being tense and upset in difficult situations or harsh to anyone at the workplace; and, it is the latter attribute where I had occasional difference of opinion with him. Personally, he was placable and forgiving to everyone while I favoured commensurate punitive action against person(s) not amenable to discipline and reform at the workplace but that does not mean that he ever compromised his official duty as disciplinary authority at work places. I was also greatly inspired by his command on language, vocabulary and drafting skill, a not so common attribute in bureaucracy, which incidentally had been my passion too since my student days, thanks to my competent supervisor and guide; though to survive in a mediocre bureaucracy, I had moderated my passion for perfection in doing things to a considerable extent in later years. Also, I had seen Mr Bhandari contributing own hard-earned money to help or rescue people from difficult situations on many occasions; this is yet another attribute where I tried to imbibe and emulate him.
I have often found that many officers keep visiting their old work places after retirement to maintain some kind of liaison despite occasional unpleasant experiences and not so well treatment but I never saw Mr Bhandari coming back to office environment on any occasion after superannuation. Instead, he focused and devoted his time on his other passions such as the humanitarian work, reading and writing work post-retirement, etc. He kept on frequently contributing articles, stories, children’s stuff, and so on in reputed newspapers and magazines, without indulging in any publicity for self. After his retirement, I visited him once to his house in Vasant Vihar, South Delhi to inquire about his well-being and pay regards while I was posted at Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh. This had been a long gap and I was contemplating to see him again; when, sadly, the news came about his passing away on 28 March 2020 for his heavenly abode. During all these years, I have remembered and quoted him as “a saint in bureaucracy” on many occasions. Having missed one last rendezvous, his sad demise has taught me yet another life lesson i.e., “never postpone it for tomorrow what you wish to do today”.
3,533 total views, 2 views today
No Comments
Leave a comment Cancel