Col R Hariharan
It is hard for me to think of Dr Chandrasekharan, as the Late Dr Chandrasekharan. I have limited professional knowledge of him based on our interactions during Sri Lanka operations, and later in the course of my fortunate association with him, I understood his deep knowledge of Nepal, Myanmar and Bangladesh. when he inspired me by example to write in South Asia Analysis Group website.
Online writing was still in its infancy, but thanks to my post retirement exposure as Director of the Madras Management Association for a decade, my online skills improved. I also had a few stints teaching management communication skills in business schools including two IIMs. These enabled me to gain a wider world view and broaden my perspective.
I should confess my ignorance in rating his career in the Cabinet Secretariat, because I never believed in finding out about it. As John Le Carre, the ubiquitous MI6 man turned novelist quipped in one of his novels, "It is the oldest question George, who can spy on the spies?" We hardly knew each other, other than two professionals. We rarely exchanged personal details, or professional palaver of past experience. I gathered nuggets of analysis and assessments in our conversations during his busy Sri Lanka days.
During my MI years, I had gathered both field and staff experience from the highest to the lowest echelons of MI in the army. By the time I was involved in Sri Lanka operations, I had experience of dealing with around 22 insurgent groups operating in India and its neighbouring countries. It was more by accident than intent, I became a specialist of sorts in terrorism, thanks to MI exposure with Velupillai Prabhakaran, the founding father of Tamil Tigers, who melded terrorist methods into separatist insurgency.
I owe the LTTE leader also for two other things that changed my career curve. I was inducted into Sri Lanka in August 1987, after Indo-Sri Lanka Accord was signed. By then, I had received advance notice of my impending retirement by end March 1988. However, after Prabhakaran decided to take on the Indian army and suc into the Sri Lanka ethnic quagmire, the Army Headquarters decided to extend my service by three years, though I had not thought of asking for it.
But Prabhakaran's overkill, also brought on the good fortune of meeting Dr Chandrasekharan. I continued to keep my contact with him after both of us exited the Sri Lanka scene in 1991. Sri Nagar was "hot" in those days, with Pandits exodus and Sikh militancy was peaking in Punjab. As an intelligence pointsman of the Army's reserve Corps, I had to keep track of both the situations, even as the chimes of my retirement were ready to ring. But it was after my retirement, my association with Chandran firmed up.
I am speaking here today to remember him, not only because of his professional prowess, but because of his human quality of inspiring others to do things they never thought of. Before I took up my military career, like the late B Raman, I was a journalist both by qualification and experience. In spite of my background, it was Dr Chandrasekharan's encouragement that made me turn my writing skills to analyse, on a broad spectrum, strategic security affairs of India's neighbourhood based upon my quarter century of MI experience. He opened the portal of South Asia Analysis Group for my writing around 2004 and I have continued writing for nearly two decades now.
Thanks to Dr Chandrasekharan's inspiration, writing has come to stay as an indispensable part of my life. I realise Graham Greene, another MI man turned novelist was true, in saying "The great advantage of being a writer is that you can spy on people. You're there, listening to every word, but part of you is observing. Everything is useful to a writer, you see - every scrap, even the longest and most boring of luncheon parties." Graham Greene is so true, particularly in times when your horizons are constricted by lockdowns and masks.
How are we going to remember Chandran?
He was a true friend of Sri Lankan Tamils. Unfortunately, his dream of Tamils getting their just rights in Sri Lanka remains unfulfilled. I would appeal to the innumerable Sri Lankan Tamil friends to remember him when they write the history of Sri Lanka Tamil struggle for equity.
A fitting remembrance for him would be to continue the South Asia Analysis Group, with more vigour and professionalism. It can bring out perhaps edited volumes of his writings on Sri Lanka and Nepal. I am not privy to other documentation available with the SAAG and the family; they will be invaluable sources of history. I am also not aware whether Cabinet Secretariat documents its personalities in their history, if it exists. If so, I am sure Dr Chandrasekharan will find a special space in it.
A rare quality of Dr Chandrasekharan was that he never judgemental when we differed in our assessments, many times. He respected my military knowledge, which guided my assessments during military operations. I remember every second day or so during Sri Lanka operations in the last Eelam War, I had been sharing my assessments with him. They found their way to both the Sri Lanka government and the LTTE.
He kept me informed of the broad contours of his
line of reasoning, whenever I was stumped in understanding tricky political
moves. I will miss him in sharing our views of the world at large, without our
personal prejudices colouring our metaphor. On the human side, I will always
remember his equanimity and smiling presence and, of course, his partiality for
ghee roast, which I shared. Its taste still lingers when I think of both of us
had it in Ratna Café. Bravo Dr Chandrasekharan! There is a special niche for
you not only in my memories, but in many other friends’ too.
[This text was used for my speech at a memorial
meeting organised by Dr Chandrasekharan’s friends on May 24, 2021]
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Visit Hariharan's Intelligence blog at:
https://col.hariharan.info
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