When N. Lakshman Rau, IAS, the man who built the best parts of Bangalore, including all the 10 blocks of Jayanagar, retired as the City’s top administrator, he moved into rented accommodation on Museum Road.
Rent: Rs 700 per month.
Unlike today’s bastards and bandicoots, Rau-saheb had not spent his tenure ripping off people to build a bungalow, denotifying a civic amenity site to gobble it up, or quietly stashing up cash for a “country home”.
When the end came, as it will for all of us, for Rau-sahab in 1988, and a year later for his wife, Indira, they did not have a single piece of “property” in Bangalore in their name.
Lakshman Rau, if you didn’t know, was the son of the Dewan (chief minister) of Mysore, ‘Rajamantrapravina’ Nyapathi Madhav Rau, the very same person after whom the circle is named in Basavangudi.
Agartala is 1881 km from Bangalore, but this image of Manik Sarkar, chief minister of Tripura for 20 years, with his retired wife, Panchali, in their new home—a room of the CPI(M) guest house—tells us plenty.
If we want to listen.
It reminds you, also, of A.B. Bardhan, the CPI general secretary, the sum total of whose assets at his death was an almirah, a coat, a couple of shirts, a pair of shoes, a few books, and a fine head full of concern and empathy.
In an age when Narendra Modi spends Rs 3,755 crore to promote himself; when Amit Shah’s darling son Jay Amit sees a 16,000 times jump in turnover; when Siddaramaiah is “gifted” a Rs 70 lakh Hublot watch, Mr and Mrs Sarkar present a contrasting picture.
A far cry from the buccaneering politicians and the bureaucratic brigands ! You can throw out the
netas once in 5 years,but what do you do with the termites in wood-work,sarkari karmacharis?
Touching tribute. Now it’s a safe bet that all our prominent prajasevaks who breathe and dream seva in Bengaluru are not content that they own a quarter of our town containing prime real estate. I have heard of a former chief minister of Karnataka who used to boast that he had amassed enough wealth to feed seven upcoming generations of his family. Would like to think the tale is probably apocryphal, but it may not be. And it may be appropriate here to render a humble salute to Justice Shailendramurthy of the Karnataka high court who incurred the wrath of his fraternity when he declared his assets to the public. Unbidden, that is.
i’m very happy to know that, someone is rising about this topic.
Sir..good post but the circle you mentioned ( Madhav Rao Circle) is not named for N. Lakshman Rau’s father. It is named after the great mathematician Dr. BS Madhav Rao
Madhav Rao Circle is named after Dewan of Mysore
The sentiments in this article is appreciated.
N. Lakshmana Rau died in 2005 and not 1988. He lived in the Museum Road residence for practically all his life. I used to meet him atleast 4 – 5 times a week there. He moved to his daughter’s house in his last days. Bangalore’s most renowned son had no personal property and that is a special reason to remember him.
Having said that, how can an individual businessman making money on import – export trade be compared with public servants? Jay Mehta did not get any government largesse or contracts, but he exported grains worth a couple of crores. In real terms, it is one container of food grains. He lost money on that deal. What makes that corruption?
Why do you expect relatives of politicians to be content as public parasites and not be successful as independent entrepreuners?