PC Alexander

PC Alexander (1921-2011) passed away on 10 August.Alexander served as the principal secretary to former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1980 after a stint at the UN as Assistant Secretary General and Executive Director of the UN International Trade Centre, Geneva. He served as “her shadow and policy adviser” for the years after her return to power. His career at the office was cut short by a spying scandal in 1985 that involved five people from his office.[caption id="attachment_58507" align="alignleft" width="380" caption="PC Alexander (second from left). Reuters"][/caption]Police arrested Coomar Narain, the main accused in the scandal, regional manager of a firm supplying marine engines in collaboration with European companies, on 17 January 1985. An ex-employee of the department of economic affairs, he used informants in the PMO, president's secretariat, ministry of defence, and other strategic ministries to secure state secrets which he forwarded to foreign agents. Alexander resigned taking moral responsibility.The Hindustan Times writes, “A hard task master when it came to implementing government decisions, he acted as a buffer between Gandhi and central and state ministers and representatives of foreign governments.”He was a candidate for the post of Indian president in 2002. Frontline magazine reported at the time that his “career ambitions received a setback as a consequence of the National Democratic Alliance's flip-flop on the choice of its presidential candidate”. It further says, Alexander resigned:

... as Governor of Maharashtra on 9 July, upset about the treatment meted out to him by the NDA, which first proposed his name for the top post and then switched its choice to APJ Abdul Kalam. Instead of submitting the resignation letter to the President, as is the practice, Alexander gave it to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and a copy of it to the Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani... He did not pay the customary visit to the President.

He was the governor of Tamil Nadu from 88-90 and served two terms as the Governor of Maharashtra from 1993-2002. He also served as commerce secretary in the Janata Party government.Alexander authored many books, articles and research papers and “enjoys as high a reputation as a writer as he does as a speaker”. Some of his books are My Years with Indira Gandhi, The Perils of Democracy, India in the New Millennium.