HOW INDIA GOT ITS WAY ON KISHANGANGA

Retired civil servant, Subash Chandra Garg, 1983 batch Indian Administrative Service officer from the Rajasthan cadre, has released his seventh book—No Minister!

- Subhash Chandra Garg

NO, MINISTER: Navigating Power, Politics and Bureaucracy with a Steely Resolve Author: Subhash Chandra Garg Publisher: Juggernaut Pages: 432 Price: ₹799

It's a riveting account of his life and times as a babu, both in the state of Rajasthan(the cadre that he was allotted when he joined the IAS) and in the centre, as well as postings overseas. What makes this book extraordinarily interesting is the almost clinical and no-holds-barred manner in which the author has detailed his various assignments, taken names, and written about his fellow babus in complimentary and, in many cases, not so complimentary terms.

It's civil servants like Subash Garg who've truly made the civil service the steel frame that keeps this country together and helps the wheels of a varied and highly complex bureaucracy grind slowly but surely to deliver services to the people. Their mantra for almost every decision they take is for the people, by the people and of the people

This book is a story of his experiences as a civil servant in the districts, in the state capital, Jaipur, in Delhi and in Washington as India's Executive Director in the World Bank. It is a book full of policy pow wow, the long hours in negotiating with institutions, unions, ministers and even fellow bureaucrats to craft policy or undo bad policy. The exhausting and excruciating give and take, and Garg's own disdain to kowtow to power, and the steel to record his perspective on file, irrespective of where the buck stopped.

It is remarkable that someone like him, who is not inclined to suffer fools gladly, actually rose to be Secretary to the government of India. Mostly, bureaucrats of his ilk find themselves out in the cold because they have the great ability to say no to their masters and end up in the cold. Not so with Garg, who held the best of assignments and got every opportunity to serve the people.