M.A. Vellodi, who as an Indian Foreign Service officer witnessed up-close several momentous events in the 1960s and 1970s while working at the United Nations and also back home in India, died in Chennai on Thursday night. He was 90, and was ailing.
He was also a rare diplomat who was hand-picked to guide the nascent Indian nuclear and space programmes.
The former Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, had a remarkable career until he retired from service in 1979. Mr. Vellodi was posted in Switzerland, Pakistan and Tanzania. He was India's first Ambassador to Tanzania when it gained independence in 1962.
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He headed the Indian Mission to the U.N. and was associated with the U.N. for 45 years. An associate of Secretary General U Thant, he functioned in the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the Trusteeship Council, the Human Rights Commission, and the International Atomic Energy Agency. He was Chairman, Expert Group of the UNSG on Nuclear Weapons, and Chairman, U.N. Disarmament Commission. He was in the International Commission for Supervision and Control in Indo-China.
On Vikram Sarabhai's invitation — the two had studied together at the Indian Institute of Science — Mr. Vellodi was deputed to the Department of Space. Thereafter he was with the Department of Atomic Energy.
For Chennai residents, Mr. Vellodi was a social worker: he was associated with the Guild of Service, the Schizophrenia Research Foundation (SCARF) and The Banyan. “If I have another life, I will be a social worker,” he once said. “These 25 years of social work, I have found far more rewarding than 35 years of life as a diplomat.”
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Born in Kottakkal in Kerala, in 1921, he studied in Kerala, Bangalore and Madras. An alumnus of Loyola College, Madras, he later did research in Chemistry at Presidency College, before entering the IFS in 1948.
He came into social service thanks to Mary Clubwala Jadhav. “She asked me what I intended to do after retirement,” Mr. Vellodi narrated once. He was in Mumbai to meet her when Clubwala-Jadhav was in her deathbed. “She, in a low but clear voice, suggested that I consider helping the Guild of Service in whatever way I could.” He did join the Guild. Later, SCARF, founded by Dr. Sarada Menon, caught his attention. His association with The Banyan came later.
His wife, Kamala, died in 2007. He is survived by a son, Ashok Vellodi, who is a medical doctor.