Karma Chameleon

THE devout Brahmin from Tamil Nadu always had a knack for letting words get the better of him. In the corridors of power, it is whispered th...

THE devout Brahmin from Tamil Nadu always had a knack for letting words get the better of him. In the corridors of power, it is whispered that ‘‘LV’’—as Lalgudi Vaidyanatha Iyer Saptarishi, 60 in July, is known to fellow bureaucrats—often made his resentment loud and clear, much to the chagrin of seniors. Despite that, Saptarishi managed postings at the Centre for more than three-quarters of his 36-year career. That’s an IAS officer’s dream graph.

There is this famous tale of how Saptarishi, upset at not being empanelled for secretary to the government of India, badmouthed the then principal secretary in the PMO, Brajesh Mishra. His rapier tongue spared none. Deepak Chatterjee, at the time Saptarishi’s boss in the Ministry of Commerce, was ticked off for a minor reason. So was Vijay Kelkar.

Even during the NDA regime, Saptarishi was reverted back to West Bengal—his parent cadre—but managed to stay back in Delhi. Some say he ‘‘persuaded’’ then chief election commissioner T S Krishnamurthy to help him out on ‘‘humanitarian grounds’’. Krishnamurthy accorded him the status of special observer at the Election Commission and kept him in Delhi.

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The 1969 batch officer, despite the oath of secrecy that IAS recruits take, was keen to be heard and seen. So it was not surprising that at the fag end of his career, instead of walking quietly into the sunset—or the India International Centre library—Saptarishi sought one last dance with fame. In a dramatic gesture, he accused the Election Commission of ‘‘caste bias’’ and prejudice against Yadavs in the Chhapra Lok Sabha election in 2004.

THAT Saptarishi enjoyed the patronage of CPI(M) leaders and even former West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu was an open secret in the bureaucracy. In the BJP-NDA years, his Sanskrit discourses on the Ramayana and Mahabharata at the Sarojini Nagar Vinayak Temple in south Delhi spoke volumes for his knowledge of the scriptures. Perhaps they sent a political message too. At least one listener once likened him to a tele-evangelist.

In 2002, Saptarishi delivered an address at Delhi’s Siri Fort Auditorium at a function in honour of Jayendra Saraswati, Shankaracharya of the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam. The civil servant enthralled then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee by comparing him with Adi Shankaracharya and Ramanujacharya. He went on to touch Vajpayee’s feet.

Cut to the Congress-led UPA government’s arrival, and Saptarishi rediscovers secularism and the rule of law. As director-general of CAPART, he wanted to hold a conference of NGOs on the National Common Minimum Programme at the cost of Rs 1 crore.

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When the Rural Development Ministry refused finance, Saptarishi went straight to the minister, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, and got him to write a letter to President A P J Abdul Kalam, requesting the first citizen to preside over the conference.

This was the beginning of a rapport with the minister. It led to Raghuvash recommending a three-year term for the director-general of CAPART. Saptarishi was on job extension mission.

EVEN in his reply to the show-cause notice the government has sent him, Saptarishi scurries to the high moral ground: ‘‘I will continue to draw inspiration from Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, who was thrown out of the train in South Africa by upper classes…’’

Good point, except Saptharishi forgets he’s about as upper class as it gets in India. Right now he’s on the train to oblivion.