I first met Gopi when I joined the Planning Commission in 1973. He was at that time D.P. Dhar’s Special Assistant according to the plate on his door. But he was actually much more than that – more a political adviser than just an assistant particularly as the 73-75 period was a difficult one for the government with the oil crisis, the Railway strike, the JP movement, the problems with the food economy, major policy failures like the takeover of the trade in foodgrains and so on. DP Dhar became the lightning rod that attracted much of this criticism within the government because no one dared to criticize Indira Gandhi. Gopi articulated a response that met the criticism headlong and even tried to spell out a left agenda for the beleaguered government.
Gopi built a network of young professionals working in different parts of the Planning Commission as a sort of ginger group to orient the work on the ambitious Fifth Plan and to support D.P.Dhar with drafts of speeches and policy briefs for discussions with government colleagues. I became a part of this group and that was the beginning of a much valued friendship. Gopi gave me an opportunity to work on matters of high policy that otherwise would have never come my way. More than that he helped me to work out how a left agenda could be tailored to fit with India’s complex politics.
It is true that this left experiment of the early seventies failed and was abandoned by its principal patrons. Gopi too moved away from this and I think his stint in Moscow was partly responsible for the change as he saw there the weaknesses of a Statist socialism. When he came back and worked in Rajiv Gandhi’s office the shift in views was clear. We worked together briefly in the Finance Ministry towards the end of Rajiv Gandhi’s Prime Ministership and stayed in touch through our divergent career paths thereafter. We all changed with the times (only obstinate fools don’t!). But one dimension of Gopi’s thinking remained constant – the belief that economic policies that try and cut loose from internal or external political realities will sooner or later fail.
Gopi’s intellect, his sterling honesty and integrity and his dedication to public service are of course what many will always remember. But those of us who got to know him and Kakki as friends also remember their hospitality, particularly when we visited Moscow. Gopi was the most informal diplomat I ever met – I remember walking into his Moscow flat with the chief guest, Prof. Bachurin, who was the Deputy Chairman of Gosplan, with both of us carrying bags of raw vegetables from India.
Rest in peace Gopi. You touched many lives and will be remembered fondly by a legion of friends.
05 December 2009
A Wonderful Boss
It was a joy to work for Mr. Arora when he was Executive Director at the IMF.
Some of my memories:
When I first started working for him, I had a hard time with the cigarette smoke. So after about a month, I asked him if he would mind if I brought in an air purifier because the smoke was affecting me. Without any hesitation he said that he would not smoke in the office. Soon after, the Alternate ED came back from the Board meeting one day and remarked that the Boss was walking the corridors because he did not want to smoke in the office!
He asked me once to draft replies to letters he received of a general nature because of the volume of mail and his busy schedule. After drafting the letters, I put them up to him for his approval with a note saying, “Your style and language are inimitable. Please feel free to make changes.” In his characteristically generous way, he approved them all saying that they were fine.
When he wanted to make an intervention in the Board on a particular topic, we would borrow from the library all the journals and books on that country that were issued for the previous 3-5 years. He would thoroughly research the matter before writing out his intervention which was usually quite brief. But when he delivered it, I understand, people listened.
Whatever he wrote, whether it was a Board intervention, a personal letter, or a performance evaluation for his staff, it was a piece of literature. He was a wordsmith and had just the right word to give something the right meaning and color. It was a joy to take dictation from him.
Mr. Arora was kind, gentle, soft-spoken, intelligent, and generous. But the characteristic that I admired most was his humility. He exemplified that a person who was highly intelligent and influential could also be humble.
Hepzhi Ohal
Some of my memories:
When I first started working for him, I had a hard time with the cigarette smoke. So after about a month, I asked him if he would mind if I brought in an air purifier because the smoke was affecting me. Without any hesitation he said that he would not smoke in the office. Soon after, the Alternate ED came back from the Board meeting one day and remarked that the Boss was walking the corridors because he did not want to smoke in the office!
He asked me once to draft replies to letters he received of a general nature because of the volume of mail and his busy schedule. After drafting the letters, I put them up to him for his approval with a note saying, “Your style and language are inimitable. Please feel free to make changes.” In his characteristically generous way, he approved them all saying that they were fine.
When he wanted to make an intervention in the Board on a particular topic, we would borrow from the library all the journals and books on that country that were issued for the previous 3-5 years. He would thoroughly research the matter before writing out his intervention which was usually quite brief. But when he delivered it, I understand, people listened.
Whatever he wrote, whether it was a Board intervention, a personal letter, or a performance evaluation for his staff, it was a piece of literature. He was a wordsmith and had just the right word to give something the right meaning and color. It was a joy to take dictation from him.
Mr. Arora was kind, gentle, soft-spoken, intelligent, and generous. But the characteristic that I admired most was his humility. He exemplified that a person who was highly intelligent and influential could also be humble.
Hepzhi Ohal
Obituary of a Romantic
This, a broken column, is written in the shadow of death. Originally designed to honour Faiz Ahmad “Faiz” on the 25th anniversary of his death on 20 November 2009, the column has become an obituary to record the passing of a wonderful friend, a legend of our times — Gopi Arora, a formidable intellectual and creative bureaucrat who remained undiminished by objective reality including a lifetime in the Indian Administrative Service.
The verse quoted is from the Sabaq-i-hindee [Indian school] of mellifluous Persian.
Haiyf dur chashm zudun sohabatey yaar aakhir shud
Saiyreiy gul khoob neh deedeiym bahaar aakhir shud
[Shock, sorrow and surprise — in the blinking of an eye the wonderful company of the beloved friend has ended, I had not enjoyed my fill of Spring when it suddenly ceased to be.]
Read on Akhilesh Mithal's piece in Covert magazine
The verse quoted is from the Sabaq-i-hindee [Indian school] of mellifluous Persian.
Haiyf dur chashm zudun sohabatey yaar aakhir shud
Saiyreiy gul khoob neh deedeiym bahaar aakhir shud
[Shock, sorrow and surprise — in the blinking of an eye the wonderful company of the beloved friend has ended, I had not enjoyed my fill of Spring when it suddenly ceased to be.]
Read on Akhilesh Mithal's piece in Covert magazine
Of head and heart
By the time this article appears, Gopi Arora would have been cremated, mourned and grieved by thousands of admirers and friends. As a close friend, and one with whom I had the good fortune of sharing a worldview, I feel it important to share with readers a deeper view of a bureaucrat who adorned the service with his unparalleled qualities of head and heart.
Gopi joined the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in 1957, with a single-minded purpose: to serve the country. He grew in the ‘idealistic’ Nehru years and came to be known later as the most powerful bureaucrat in the corridors of power. It was a different kind of ‘power’ — one which was used to help the right people, to take correct decisions in the interest of the country and to never get politically influenced.
Gopi’s beginnings were humble and his family espoused simple living and high thinking. At a very early age, he assimilated these principles which he manifested in his educational career. After he finished his academic education in Allahabad University he became a professor of history. It is said that his students were taught not only history but also literature because of the way he communicated thoughts and historical events.
Gopi had the great advantage of being taught as an undergraduate by two celebrated poets: Harivansh Rai Bachchan and the great Urdu lyricist, Raghupati Sahai ‘Firaq’. This helped him to nurture his love for verse. His conversation was always peppered with shayaris. The tiniest gesture from a person could prompt him to write beautiful notes. His choice of words, command of language could be seen even in the smallest of his scribblings I was often privy to.
I happened to meet P. Chidambaram some years ago and I casually asked him how his team in the Finance Ministry was. His one line reply was “They are good, but we no longer have officers like Gopi Arora.” It is a testimony to Gopi’s calibre as an officer even 15 years after he retired.
Another bureaucrat friend of mine, R.C. Sinha, who served in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting when Gopi was Secretary would tell me about Gopi’s notations that weren’t merely orders but visionary statements. After his IAS career, he joined the International Monetary Fund for three years. Officials there discovered the mettle of Gopi, occasionally calling him ‘Dr Gopi Arora’. On any complicated issue he would write out a long note that his colleagues defined as the ‘Arora formula’.
Gopi’s passing away is not only a loss to his friends and admirers, but it’s also a loss for the country. His grasp of economics was such that practising economists were wary of contradicting Gopi’s opinions. He was possibly one of the most respected economists of his time without having had any formal education in the subject.
When he witnessed some thing wrong being pursued, he would just smile and mutter why ‘simple things’ are not understood. He was often proved to be right, but sometimes the ‘damage’ had already been done.
The words of Shakespeare come to mind while remembering Gopi: “How long a time lies in one little world!/Four lagging winters and four wanton springs/ End in a word; such is the breath of kings.”
Suresh Neotia
Gopi joined the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in 1957, with a single-minded purpose: to serve the country. He grew in the ‘idealistic’ Nehru years and came to be known later as the most powerful bureaucrat in the corridors of power. It was a different kind of ‘power’ — one which was used to help the right people, to take correct decisions in the interest of the country and to never get politically influenced.
Gopi’s beginnings were humble and his family espoused simple living and high thinking. At a very early age, he assimilated these principles which he manifested in his educational career. After he finished his academic education in Allahabad University he became a professor of history. It is said that his students were taught not only history but also literature because of the way he communicated thoughts and historical events.
Gopi had the great advantage of being taught as an undergraduate by two celebrated poets: Harivansh Rai Bachchan and the great Urdu lyricist, Raghupati Sahai ‘Firaq’. This helped him to nurture his love for verse. His conversation was always peppered with shayaris. The tiniest gesture from a person could prompt him to write beautiful notes. His choice of words, command of language could be seen even in the smallest of his scribblings I was often privy to.
I happened to meet P. Chidambaram some years ago and I casually asked him how his team in the Finance Ministry was. His one line reply was “They are good, but we no longer have officers like Gopi Arora.” It is a testimony to Gopi’s calibre as an officer even 15 years after he retired.
Another bureaucrat friend of mine, R.C. Sinha, who served in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting when Gopi was Secretary would tell me about Gopi’s notations that weren’t merely orders but visionary statements. After his IAS career, he joined the International Monetary Fund for three years. Officials there discovered the mettle of Gopi, occasionally calling him ‘Dr Gopi Arora’. On any complicated issue he would write out a long note that his colleagues defined as the ‘Arora formula’.
Gopi’s passing away is not only a loss to his friends and admirers, but it’s also a loss for the country. His grasp of economics was such that practising economists were wary of contradicting Gopi’s opinions. He was possibly one of the most respected economists of his time without having had any formal education in the subject.
When he witnessed some thing wrong being pursued, he would just smile and mutter why ‘simple things’ are not understood. He was often proved to be right, but sometimes the ‘damage’ had already been done.
The words of Shakespeare come to mind while remembering Gopi: “How long a time lies in one little world!/Four lagging winters and four wanton springs/ End in a word; such is the breath of kings.”
Suresh Neotia
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
