Freed of his ministerial responsibilities, Jairam Ramesh has turned prolific author – since 2014, he has written books on subjects ranging from ecology to the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh to the seminal reforms of 1991. Last year, he published an excellent book on Indira Gandhi’s commitment to environmental issues, a facet of the prime minister that had been forgotten.Now he brings back into the limelight another forgotten man, P.N. Haksar. There is much about Haksar available online, but it barely does him justice. It does not show, for example, that more than just a civil servant and diplomat – and once the most powerful bureaucrat in the country – Haksar was a polymath, an intellectual, a man steeped in history and refinement and, most of all, a consummate liberal.Ramesh’s book fills those gaps, and Haksar emerges as a sensitive, loyal and patriotic man whose chief quality was his full commitment to both, the national cause and to his leader. Most of all, he was not in it for himself – there are no delusions of grandeur, no grasping effort to utilise the power for personal gains or glorification. That puts him heads above all other ‘loyalists’ of the time and since then. For Haksar, serving his prime minister was all – only she could be in the limelight, his job was to advise, suggest, clarify and, on many occasions, subtly nudge.Ramesh has access not just to Haksar’s personal papers but also to his memos in various archives. So one gets to read not only his views in his words but also understand his thought process. Haksar himself published only the first part of his biography, One More Life 1913-29, the next two remaining unpublished.Ramesh, it appears, got to read the manuscripts. This helps in providing clarity to many of the major decisions taken during Indira’s prime ministership – from bank nationalisation to even the policies to be adopted by the Congress, the one she had split and assumed supreme command of.Regrettably, this reliance on the memos sometimes does not help in moving the story forward; quoting the memo sometimes remains the end of the story. But what stories!Intertwined Lives: P.N. Haksar and Indira GandhiJairam RameshSimon & Schuster 2018For the reader, it is a first hand glimpse of decision making at the highest levels, with a long list of key Indian and international players flitting in and out. Haksar is of course at the centre of it all, but Ramesh maintains a detached tone, except occasionally to provide background and context and interpret Haksar’s actions; happily, though the author is full of admiration for his subject, he does not hesitate to do a critical assessment of some of his ideas.Referring to a memo by Haksar to Indira Gandhi on the licensing of additional capacity of scooter production to the private sector and his opposition to the manufacture of the small car, Ramesh writes: “By today’s standards or even by the yardstick of the 1980s these views of Haksar could certainly be considered antediluvian. His views on priority to public transport were and continue to be unexceptionable. His views on encouraging Indian designers too were commendable. But his opposition to the manufacture of a small car, by latter day standards, was certainly to be proved comprehensively wrong, as was his opposition to expansion of scooter manufacturing in the private sector. The cross that Haksar has to bear that he did nothing really to free India from the licence-quota-permit raj when he was in a position to do so.”This antipathy towards the car brought Haksar into direct conflict with Sanjay Gandhi, who was a kind of ward of his during his days as a reluctant trainee with Rollys Royce in Britain. The young Gandhi instantly saw him as an enemy and Haksar’s opposition to the Maruti sealed it – it created a chasm between Sanjay’s mother and Haksar.Haksar’s views against granting too much leeway to the private sector were driven by his ideological bent. The son of a judicial officer who was transferred all over the central provinces, Haksar was not a particularly bright student, but he managed to go to London to study law. Britain and Europe in general were in great political ferment in the 1930s, and Haksar came under the influence of Communism along with other Indians such as Mohan Kumaramangalam and Rajni Patel. His circle of friends included Feroze Gandhi and Indira Nehru; these bonds were to last a lifetime.Jairam Ramesh. Courtesy: Jairam RameshThe ‘intertwined lives’ of both P.N. Haksar and Indira Gandhi were sealed first when Haskar joined the diplomatic service at the behest of Jawaharlal Nehru and then prime minister Indira Gandhi’s secretariat. His quiet but forceful advice, mostly taken seriously by Indira – Ramesh calls him her alter ego – had a lot of impact on political and economic policies. From the Congress split and subsequent developments to bank nationalisation to the Indo-Soviet Friendship Treaty of 1971, Haksar was there, behind the scenes, preparing arguments and analysis for her. His note to her (stray thoughts, he calls it), fed into the economic policy document circulated among AICC delegates in 1969, which had a seminal influence on the direction of the country’s political economy. The Young Turks in the party – Chandrashekhar, Mohan Dharia, Satyendra Narain Sinha – were clamouring for more pro-people and anti-big business policies; Haksar proposed policies that went beyond that. He pointed out that land reform was essential, especially in the context of rising Naxalims.Probably his finest hour came in 1971 as Pakistani forces went berserk in East Pakistan and refugees poured into India, creating a humanitarian crisis. It called for skilled diplomacy in the face of domestic pressures, a belligerent neighbour and a hostile United States led by Richard Nixon and his key aide Henry Kissinger. Ramesh tells the story in detail, showing how Haksar bested the secretary of state – it is one of the highlights of the book.After that high point, things gradually went south. Sanjay Gandhi got his revenge during the Emergency when Pandit Brothers, a textile dealership that had started in 1927, was raided and his 82-year old uncle Inderbhai and 78-year old brother-in-law were arrested for alleged malpractices. His own wife, Urmila, a small shareholder in the company, risked being would be taken into custody. Haksar principally refused to intervene into an official matter. It was left to his friend D.P. Singh, an MP from Bihar, to appeal to Indira Gandhi to do something. She appeared reluctant but finally relented.All through, Haksar continued to attend work; his wife Urmila was to write later: ‘My husband came back from office looking tense and angry. He dropped in a chair. “There was a Cabinet meeting. I am coming from there straight. I was sitting just opposite Mrs Gandhi and all through the meeting I was staring at her. She would not meet my eyes and kept her gaze averted.’” His residence was searched twice but he “bore all this with stoic silence attending Cabinet meetings chaired by the prime minister and opposing proposals coming to the Cabinet to amend the Constitution to consolidate the Emergency and pass laws to deal with the consequences of Justice Sinha’s verdict…” writes Ramesh. It demonstrates his own commitment to the constitution and fundamental rights but also a touching loyalty to Indira Gandhi the prime minister even though he had ceased to be “starry eyed about her.”In Ramesh’s telling, Haksar is a renaissance man, well versed in politics, international affairs, diplomacy and leftist theory but also immersed in culture and literature. He pushed for state awards to filmmaker Ritwik Ghatak and author Yashpal, against much resistance from officialdom. As for himself, he declined the Padma Vibhushan.The book sometimes has an episodic quality, with short and long bits on a vast range of subject. The overarching story is of course that of a remarkable man who contributed much to the growth and development of India at a crucial time, bringing not just intelligence and ideas but also sensitivity and humanity.Books about India’s recent history are few and far between. Intertwined Lives stands out as one that must be read, in full, by all those who are keen to know where India was, how it survived during very difficult years and how its patriotic civil servants ensured that no matter what, national interest would always remain paramount.