Rarely in the history of Indian Administrative Service (IAS) comes a man so correct, so proper, so tough, and yet so kind that he is admired, respected, and feared, all at once. Venkat Lakshmi Ratan (IAS, 1967, Tamil Nadu) epitomised all these and more. He suddenly passed away in Chennai on Saturday just a few months after losing his wife.
When I was preparing for the National Civil Services Examination I had the privilege of meeting him for the first time and we hit it off instantly.
I spent many afternoons in Room.193 North Block watching him from a distance and learning how to govern, how to manage men and matters. My training had begun, even before my selection for the IAS.
I saw in those two years, VLR coming to the rescue of countless officers, many of whom he never had even met. If he heard any officer, anywhere in India was in trouble, he would work the phones, ascertain the facts, and then act decisively.
In fact, on one occasion he helped do justice to a young dynamic, straightforward officer from the clutches of his own batchmate in West Bengal who was harassing him.
In another case, he helped a colleague from Karnataka get selected for the prestigious Mason Program at Harvard, having it restarted many years after it was formally stopped for IAS. In yet another case, for an officer who was being harassed by his estranged wife and not being allowed to proceed on a prestigious foreign assignment, he went and sat in protest, post-retirement, in his batch mate’s office who was Secretary, DOPT and refused to leave the room, till such time that a ‘missing’ file was traced and the correct orders were issued. No wonder he was worshipped by the good, everywhere.
He went after the corrupt with an iron hand — be it among politicians or civil servants. I have seen some of the top most legal brains sitting with him getting briefed before appearing in front of the Supreme Court of India in many cases. He was so effective that in one case when a lady IAS officer from UP cadre was caught shoplifting in London he had the show cause notice delivered to her upon arrival at Delhi airport and despite huge pressure from then Defence Minister he refused to bow down till she was removed from the Service. He paid the price of not being made Establishment Officer and perhaps Secretary Personnel, which were both well within his grasp.
To tell you how much he shook up the system, the DMK made it a condition that he should be repatriated before his tenure was over and sent back to the State, prior to their alliance with the Centre. Sadly, it happened and he went back to TN and languished in a sick corporation, which he wound up and later went back to Delhi and retired as Secretary, Parliamentary Affairs, Government of India.
A titan
VLR was a titan in thought and deed. He even paid for personal phone calls that he made from his official phone and led an austere simple life. In later years, he took to Art of Living and in a sad irony, a man with such strong spine of steel, faced all kinds of spine and back problems.
He is survived by his three children Shankar, Meenakshi and Vidya and countless other “boys’ as he called them, who worshipped the ground he walked on, including this writer to whom he was a role model. Nothing can be a greater tribute to him than if we imbibe his qualities of head and heart in every civil servant of this generation, who would do well to emulate him. Rest in Peace sir.
( The author is an IAS officer. The views expressed here are personal.)
