A Diplomat In The Cockpit!

Hardeep Puri is the man in command as the country's new Civil Aviation Minister. A profile.

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The story goes that Hardeep Puri gave the Prime Minister a presentation on urban infrastructure that so impressed Narendra Modi that months later he appointed him as the Minister for Urban Development and brought him to the Rajya Sabha. That was in the NDA-2 or the Modi-1 era, call it what you like.

Now only the Minister or the Prime Minister can confirm this, but his friends are quite happy to tell you that the 67-year former diplomat (he was a 1974 batch Indian Foreign Service officer) is quite capable of that sort of academic and administrative excellence. Add to that dollops of courage.

Old timers who have served with Puri or were colleagues in South Block mention the time he spent under his guru the late J N (Mani) Dixit (former Foreign Secretary and the National Security Advisor) in Sri Lanka at the height of the Tamil insurgency and the fearlessness that he brought to his job in dealing with the Tamils and traveling to areas where none dared to go. That is the mark of the man.

No wonder he ordered the resumption of Air India’s additional flight to Sri Lanka from July 15 with a flourish and a couple of tweets:

WICKED SENSE OF HUMOUR: This tweet from the minister soon after the election.