FM recalls advice of a ‘wise head’ who wanted India to develop fast
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday recalled the sage advice that she had received from the late veteran bureaucrat BS Raghavan soon after she became the Defence Minister.
Sitharaman recalled that Raghavan told her that the Defence Minister’s job would be particularly challenging. Not things like “border issues”, but “maintaining the harmony between the ‘uniformed’ and ‘civil’ arms of the Ministry. It was “very vital advice”, she said.
She was speaking here at a memorial function for Raghavan, who passed away recently.
ACTIONABLE ADVICE
She said that while she had consistently received “a lot of actionable advice” from Raghavan even before she joined the government (as BJP’s spokesperson), the one advice that he gave her when
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman at the memorial meeting for the late veteran bureaucrat BS Raghavan in Chennai on Saturday
she assumed o ce as the Defence Minister was particularly invaluable. Sitharaman said that not only did she benefit from Raghavan’s direct insights and suggestions, but also from reading his innumerable articles and columns.
Because Raghavan’s many pieces of advice came from “a wise head and a heart that felt for India to move fast towards development, they were sought by many people, regardless of the political dispensation,” Sitharaman said.
She said that even in Tamil Nadu most political parties sought Raghavan’s advice, adding that she used the word “most” only to provide deniability room for a political party that may not want to be known as having benefited from Raghavan’s counsel. Everybody sought his wise counsel because there was “never any prejudice, subjectivity, putting his personal interest forward or playing one against another”.
Sitharaman also recalled Raghavan’s strong stance over the colonial hangover, and quoted his 2016 writing that “India should make lot more eorts to rid itself of its colonial baggage.” She added that “he (Raghavan) felt that it was an opportunity missed since the first prime minister” and that “we did not do enough to remove the colonial hangover that is still bothering our administration, our systems, our laws, our bureaucracy.”