Parmeshwar Narayan Haksar was an Indian bureaucrat and diplomat, best known for his two-year stint as Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's principal secretary. In that role, Haksar was the chief strategist and policy adviser behind his inexperienced prime minister's rise to near-absolute power in the mid-1970s. After this he was appointed deputy chairman of the Planning Commission and then the first-ever chancellor of New Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University. An advocate of centralisation and socialism, he was a Kashmiri Pandit who became Gandhi's closest confidante in her inner coterie of bureaucrats, the so-called "Kashmiri mafia". Prior to this, Haksar was a diplomat of the Indian Foreign Service, who served as India's ambassador to Austria and Nigeria.
Personal life
Haksar was born in 1913, Gujranwala in a Kashmiri Pandit family. He studied Sanskrit at home and obtained an M.Sc. from University of Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh. He went on to study in the London School of Economics. As a student of Allahabad university, he was a resident of Mayo Hall and made frequent visits to the Anand Bhawan, the house of Motilal Nehru. Parmeshwar was a voracious reader of art history and also a connoisseur of paintings. During his interlude in London as a student, he was influenced by Fabian socialism and later become associated with Marxists. During the latter years of his life, Haksar became associated with the Delhi Science Forum, initiatives on human rights, and opposition to neo-liberal policies and secularism. He lost his eyesight during the last 10 years of his life. Haksar died at the age of 85, on 25 November 1998.
Career
Early career
Haksar had already made his mark as a prominent lawyer in Allahabad, before he was selected in the Indian Foreign Service in 1947, and was close to fellow-Kashmiri from Allahabad Jawaharlal Nehru, the latter who would go on to become independent India's first prime minister. A one-time student at the London School of Economics, he was a junior colleague of V. K. Krishna Menon at the India League in London.
Civil services
P. N. Haksar served as the India ambassador to Nigeria and Austria. In the 1960s, he also served as a deputy high commissioner in London. After twenty years in the Indian foreign service, he was appointed as an aide to the then prime minister, Indira Gandhi. In 1967, he replaced L. K. Jha as Secretary to the Prime Minister of India, and was promoted to the newly formed post of Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister of India in 1971, thus becoming the most powerful and senior civil servant in the prime minister's office. He authored the 'Stray Thoughts Memorandum' at the Congress Working Committee meeting in Bangalore which ultimately led to the defenestration of her political rivals such as like Morarji Desai.. Until he vacated the position of Principal Secretary to Indira Gandhi, Haksar exercised significant influence on the formulation of domestic and foreign policies in Raisina Hill. As Principal Secretary, Haksar fashioned Indira Gandhi's decision about the timing and level of support to be given to Bangladeshi freedom struggle, issuing directives from her private office to the top military leadership in some cases.
Upon his retirement from the civil service in 1973, Indira Gandhi offered Haksar India's second highest civilian honour, the Padma Vibhushan, for his numerous distinguished services to India; however, in a letter to Govind Narain he declined the honour stating that "Accepting an award for work done somehow causes an inexplicable discomfort to me." The prime minister duly rescinded her offer.
