‘He was all a bureaucrat wanted in a CM’
Thinking of ND Tiwari brings to the mind myriad memories . He was all that a civil servant wanted in a chief minister -- polite, understanding, appreciating different view points and then coming with a quick decision, which was backed both by administrative and political logic.
He was a consensus leader, who wanted to take everybody along. He never forced a decision and that is why he was loved and respected.
As his Principal Secretary, when he was Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh I had occasion to watch him closely. Having risen from very humble background, he would meet every person who came to see him. The result was that the official work on files would start at about 10 in the night.
After finishing his file work, he would go to inspect the city roads being constructed in Lucknow. He would take samples of the materials being used and get them tested the next day.
Earlier, as his Director Information in UP, I found him to be very sensitive to public opinion. He would ring me up at six in the morning and having read 20 odd newspapers, he would make me note all the points on which he wanted reports. He would then take up with the individual secretaries and ensure that clarifications were issued on the points of criticism.
I was the District Magistrate of Lucknow between 1977 and 1980. It was the Janta Government in the Centre. The state Congress party had decided to take out a protest procession, even though permission had been refused.
I had to perforce arrest ND Tiwari along with Kamlapathi Tripathi and others. I sent him to the district jail in my official car. I telephoned him in the evening enquiring whether he wanted any facilities.
He said that he wanted only those facilities which could be given to his other arrested colleagues and nothing special. That was the greatness of this leader.
Of course in the evening, he rang me up asking for one favour -- whether he could get all the newspapers early in the morning.
Knowing his habits, I ensured that the newspapers reached him at 5am promptly.
When he became Chief Minister in UP after the resignation of VP Singh, he would ensure that he did not hurt VP Singh in any manner.
He would send me to VP Singh with all the transfer proposals of the officers, to get his concurrence!
I remember that as chief minister, ND Tiwari would go through the Assembly agenda and if he decided to intervene, on any particular matter, he would first go to the Secretariat Library, read about the subject thoroughly and then speak in the Vidhan Sabha.
This reading habit he continued in later years. I remember travelling on a flight in which he was also there. I was reading a book written by my colleague Bajaj on economics.
He asked me for the book, flipped through the papers, and asked if he could borrow the book for his personal reading. I never saw the book again! He was a vociferous reader and kept himself up to date.
I kept contact with ND Tiwari till he was in Uttarakhand. He never wanted to go as Chief Minister of Uttarakhand and was literally thrust by the Congress leadership to go there.
Once his name cropped up for the post of President of India, I hastened to congratulate him but he wistfully remarked that it was a ploy to ensure that he never got that post.
He was a loyal Congressman but the party, in the end, ignored him. He would give vent to his feelings privately but never said anything in the open.
ND Tiwari will always be remembered as a politician who gave a new thrust to the grammar of development. Noida, Greater Noida, export processing zones and so many other institutions stand as living tributes to his memory.