The Hindu Business Line : Barnala I know

JUST because Mr Surjit Singh Barnala, in 1990, when he was the Governor of Tamil Nadu, refused to comply with the wishes of the then Prime Minister, Mr Chandra Sekhar, to send a report to the President against the DMK Government to facilitate its dismissal under Article 356 of the Constitution and preferred to resign instead, sections of opinion in the State, including the media, are entertaining the notion that he is in the pocket of the DMK and he is here to carry out its bidding.

Nothing can be farther from Mr Barnala's independent character. He is one of those rare politicians who has no likes or dislikes, and who is his own man.

I am saying this on the strength of my experience of having worked with him in 1978-80 as his Food Secretary, when he was the Minister of Food and Agriculture in the Janata Government. I have found him professionally correct, and fair and impartial in dealing with issues even when they related to his own State of Punjab.

As is well-known, in those days, the bulk of foodgrains for keeping the public distribution system going throughout India used to be procured in Punjab and Haryana by the Food Corporation of India (FCI).

Those two State governments, and the powerful farmers' lobbies there, sometimes used to mount almost unbearable pressure on the Minister to ask the FCI to accept foodgrains not conforming to specifications in respect of weight, moisture, extraneous matter and the like. Mr Barnala never once succumbed to those pressures, but invariably had the representations gone into on merits, not hesitating to reject them if unjustified.

Even in regard to the ups and downs of Akali politics, he would rather stick to his principles and court the punishment of cleaning pilgrims' shoes at the Golden Temple, than play foul.

When it comes to the crunch, political parties in Tamil Nadu will find that he is no push over, and that his pleasant mien hides a tough personality. There has been no whiff of an imputation regarding him whatever office he has held so far.

Only Tamil Nadu politicians are giving free rein to their penchant of affixing labels and are casting him in their image. The Barnala I know will do only what he considers right and proper, from whichever quarter the pressure might come. I wish, though, he had avoided coming to the State, knowing its murky politics.

B. S. Raghavan