“If I seem to take part in politics, it is only because politics encircles us today like the coil of a snake from which one cannot get out...
“If I seem to take part in politics, it is only because politics encircles us today like the coil of a snake from which one cannot get out, no matter how much one tries. I wish, therefore, to wrestle with the snake.”
It is believed that the office of PM Jawaharlal Nehru was assisted by the secretary general of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office as well as by the Cabinet Office. This office had some joint secretaries assisted by a small secretarial staff known as the PM’s personal staff. In Reminiscences of the Nehru Age, MO Mathai writes that “The staff of the Prime Minister’s secretariat are not responsible for advising on policy or for executing the Prime Minister’s decisions on policy. They are only gatherers and conveyors and, in short, mechanics men.” This being so, the PMS did not seek to substitute the advice being rendered by the cabinet secretary on administrative and other matters with any alternative advice or options.
Hirubhai Mulljibhai (HM) Patel, a distinguished member of the ICS, was the first Indian civilian to be given an important position in the Secretariat when he was appointed joint secretary of the Viceroy’s Executive Council. He had risen to become the effective secretary in...
