I remember to have met Shri Girish Chandra Bhandari at Allahabad for the first time in early 1988 when I was still a young officer with hardly about five years service experience. He was a senior officer and gentleman in true sense who had impressed me in the very first meeting with his composed and sober demeanour, a glowing face with sort of angelic aura and captivating smile. Then 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 during our long association during the rest of life.
In just a few weeks of interaction, we had developed strong mutual fondness and liking for each other, and this fondness and bonhomie only kept growing in the following years through our inter-ministerial assignments, 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 Head Quarters 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 2002-03. I never forgot what he told me once during one-to-one interface in Allahabad, “Look Jaipal, I don’t treat you my junior or subordinate owing to the difference in our age and service seniority 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 the government service. Even in formal communications to me, he concluded with “affectionately yours” on many occasions, while the commonly used official jargon is “sincerely yours”.
The office at Allahabad 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 problems, the government had adopted a two-pronged strategy: one, to automate key functional areas; and the other, to improve infrastructure and amenities for the workers in office and residential premises with an aim to maximize staff satisfaction level. Many officers made significant contributions at Allahabad but Mr Bhandari as CDA-in-charge of the “Technological Missions at Allahabad” (terminology coined by the Defence Ministry for its functional automation) and myself as in-charge of administration and computer wing carried out the maximum improvement through automation and infrastructural improvement in the organization those years. I had to even forego my deputation at the Under Secretary level to ensure efficient and effective development and implementation of the ongoing technological and infrastructural projects at Allahabad.
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 vengeful approach towards the staff members of the particular community (Kshatriya caste) supposedly to avenge some wrong doings against him during an earlier stint soon vitiated the atmosphere leading to serious unrest in the office. Situation took ugly turn when some unidentified people resorted to arson in a part of office at night; hostile staff associations blamed administration for the fire incident and started agitation in the premises from the following morning. As a recurring feature for days, some 500-600 staff members would assemble in procession in the forenoon, raise incendiary slogans against the Principal Controller and his key advisors, and gherao his office chamber to force certain unreasonable and 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 other officers including the Principal Controller could dare to face the agitating crowd for the fear of being publicly abused and manhandled. It was largely the managerial ability, popularity and acceptability of Mr Bhandari in the organization which came as handy tools in bringing the staff representatives to the negotiating table; peace and order was restored in a few weeks of onerous efforts in the organization.
He originally belonged to a well-known and respectable family from the state of Uttarakhand but subsequently settled in 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 problems in the organization at Allahabad.
During stay at Allahabad, we were frequently meeting during lunch time in his office to have 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; and he had distinction of having played with some national level chess players. I used to finish my normal lunch beforehand but he would take it while playing chess with me. His 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 Delhi too without much change in 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 being Joint Secretary, later upgraded in-situ to Additional Secretary, in the Ministry of Urban Development at Nirman Bhawan.
During my long association with Mr Bhandari, I had learnt many lessons from him in my professional and personal life including the spirit of “walk your talk” which I am so passionately and religiously committed to. I never saw him losing temper or being angry with anyone in 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 in difficult situations or harsh to anyone at the workplace; and, it is the latter attribute where I had difference of opinion with him. Personally, he was placable and forgiving to everyone while I favoured commensurate punitive action against persons who were not amenable to discipline and reform at the workplace but that does not mean that he ever compromised his 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; though to survive in a mediocre bureaucracy, I had compromised my passion for perfection in doing things to a considerable extent. Also, I had seen him contributing own hard-earned money to help or rescue people from difficult situations on many occasions; this is yet another attribute which 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 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. It was 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 so often 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 for tomorrow what you wish to do today”.
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