"Gopi was a warm-hearted individual'

I was indeed a very close friend of Gopi. I knew him from 1989 when I joined the GOI as Economic Adviser, Commerce. We always kept in touch since then. He invited me for dinner on September 12, 2009. We spent 2 1/2 hours talking about global and Indian economic issues.

Gopi inspired me to work in India. He read everything I wrote, and provided detailed insightful comments. He had an excellent command over the English language.
Gopi and I spent hours discussing India's economic policy and what are its shortcomings. Governance, lack of transparency, massive transaction costs were the things that worried most.

We both were thrilled when UPA won this time with a massive public support. I indicated to him that UPA would surely now address these issues since they have the total support of the voters. He was not as optimistic. He said

"Indeed, it was a very very big surprise. I had speculated that the UPA will be the largest pre-poll aliance but this is a landmark election result. I don't know whether the Congress will have the gumption to do what needs to be done to fix the economy in the short- run and to lay the foundations for a strong medium-term growth and to restore some degree of transparency in economic decision making. they have the opportunity and the mandate. We shall know in the next few months. The temptation to relapse into the business-as-usual will be very very strong."

That was Gopi. He knew that Indian Governments are basically risk averse.

I learnt from my IAS friends and relatives that Gopi was a model IAS officer. A Defence Ministry Joint Secretary told me that Shri Pronab Mukherjee (he was the Raksha Mantri then) told them that when he was the Finance Minister, he had a Joint Secretary named Gopi Arora who was so brilliant that the Minister could blindly sign on the notings put up by him. He could rarely add a word. It was so perfect. Gopi could put this thoughts so beautically in the best prose. Some people, including my wife, felt that he was a great loss to English literature.

With all this brilliance Gopi was a warm hearted individual. He listened to my problems, and always offered the best guidance. He could feel what was bothering me.

With his untimely departure, I lost one of my real few friends. I wanted to spend many more evenings with him, drinking single malt, albeit in moderation, and discussing how India could attain its top spot in the global economy.

Jayanta Roy