'My Father': Arvind Panagariya pays tribute to his father's hard work

The former vice-chairman of NITI Aayog has written a biography of his father that is very much a son's perspective

“Like the story of any person who has lived a noble life, my father’s life offers lessons in what makes a good human being and what parents must to do make good citizens out of their children,” writes economist Arvind Panagariya, former vice chairman of NITI Aayog, in his new book titled My Father: The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man.

The book is a biographical account celebrating Baloo Lal Panagariya (1921-2006) — the author’s father — who was a newspaper editor, civil servant, and historian of Rajasthan. It aims to remedy the fact that its protagonist “was barely known outside his own state”. Therefore, it ends up being more descriptive than analytical.

The author has written it from a son’s perspective, and not as an academic who is a Professor of Economics and Jagdish N. Bhagwati Professor of Indian Political Economy at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. His affection and regard for Panagariya senior is palpable in his selection of events and choice of words. He pays tribute to his father’s hard work, courage, humility, self-respect, honesty and persistence.

Baloo Lal Panagariya grew up in Suwana, a village in the Bhilwara district of Rajasthan. He lost his father at the age of five and his mother at the age of 14. Meagre financial resources did not stop him from pursuing his dreams. He studied law, and found employment in the offices of various court magistrates. Later, he transitioned into journalism and worked with publications such as Lokvani, Bombay Chro­n­icle and the Mewar Praja Mandal Patrika.

The book presents him as a patriot who was deeply influenced by M K Gandhi. He wore khadi and frequently led chants of “Gandhiji ki jai” in his village in the years leading up to India’s freedom from colonial rule. Journa­lism gave him an opportunity to expose the tyranny of the British colonisers and rulers of princely states.

The author’s father “got to observe, from a ringside seat” how the United State of Rajasthan (USR) was created by a covenant signed between the princely states of Rajputana and the Government of India. As a man of integrity, he was upset that this “integration” ensured that “those who had been close to the former rulers of the covenanting states were placed in senior positions, regardless of their academic qualifications, experience or seniority”.

Under this government, Baloo Lal Panagariya was asked to head the Directorate of Publicity and was later moved to the Department of Commerce and Industry as an undersecretary.

Apparently, one of his earliest initiatives was to remove barriers in the process of industrialisation. He wanted to promote small-scale units. The author writes, “My father suggested that when an entrepreneur was not seeking any assistance or concessions from the government, he should be given permission to set up industries freely and promptly.”

The senior Panagariya served in Rajasthan until his retirement in 1976. He worked in the departments of health, irrigation, public works and appointments. He also helped set up the Malviya Regional Engineering College, now known as the Malviya National Institute of Technology.

There is a note of lament in the author’s voice when he points out that his father got “only one promotion, to the post of deputy secretary” and also lost out to rival candidates when the state government recommended him for selection to the Indian Administrative Services. However, being in Jaipur allowed him to be close to his family.

After retirement, he was associated with the Rajasthan Economic Association, and served on the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s taxation committee. His long years of work in Rajasthan stirred his interest in writing books about the history of the state — Rajasthan Ka Itihas, Rajasthan Mein Swatantrata Sangram, and State Politics in India. He also wrote an autobiography titled My Little World. Arvind Panagariya admits that “much of the source material” for his book comes from his father’s autobiography.

Surprisingly, the author gives little insight into what Baloo Lal Panagariya’s wife, children (other than the author), grandchildren, colleagues, friends and other contemporaries thou­ght of him. This is a significant absence in a biography that intends to fill gaps and educate contemporary readers about the man’s contributions to public life. There is no list of published sources or references for future researchers to explore.

Is this book a hagiography? Perhaps. Fully aware that it may be perceived as a “one-sided” narrative “focusing only on what was positive in my father’s life and carefully screening out what was negative”, the author clarifies that writing about his father’s “flaws” for the sake of “balance” would have “only subtracted from rather than added to the core of his story”.

To Arvind Panagariya’s credit, he addresses a dimension of his father’s life that few sons would be willing to talk about publicly. He writes, “Remarkably, soon after my birth on 2 October 1952, my father got a vasectomy done. In this respect, he was well ahead of his time. In those days, few underwent the operation in a place like Jaipur.” Apparently, Baloo Lal Panagariya also persuaded “relatives and those working under him” to undergo vasectomies.

The book does not clarify whether he held Indira Gandhi in high esteem because of their shared enthusiasm for family planning but it mentions that “even her imposition of Emergency in 1975 had not diminished his admiration for her”. He dedicated his first book to her because she had “added a golden chapter to the nation’s history by inflicting bitter defeat on the enemy on his own soil in the Bangladesh War”. What did he think of his idol Gandhi’s views on India-Pakistan relations? The book is silent on this matter.