THUS SPOKE P.K. BASU, IAS

Friends and Countrymen! As an IAS officer I have always kept myself equidistant from all political parties. My allegiance was ONLY to the Constitution of India and my Conscience.

In the course of my career I have seen several political parties and their leaders. In my allotted state Bihar, I have seen Karpoori Thakur, Jagganath Mishra, Chandrashekhar Singh, Bindeshwari Dubey, Bhagwat Jha Azad, Sachidanand Singh, Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar as Chief Ministers.

At the centre I had Kalpnath Rai, N K P Salve, Venugopala Chari, Y K Alagh, Arun Shourie, P.  Chidambaram and Sharad Pawar as my Ministers.

Apart from this, I had to face ministers like Pranab Mukherjee, Jaswant Singh, Arun Jaitley as well. Of course, I do not expect anyone of them to remember me.

I also saw from close quarters Devi Gawda, R K Gujral, Narasimha Rao, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh as Prime Ministers.

I retired as Agriculture Secretary in May 2012. The above would indicate that, statistically speaking, I have a reasonable sample size to draw conclusions.

I have been keenly observing the functioning of the present Prime Minister since he came to power. In fact, after I retired as Member, Central Administrative Tribunal, I had this desire to meet him because I saw a heavy Nationalistic Fervour in the man, of the kind shown by great leaders such as Subhash Chandra Bose, Lokamanya Bala Gangadhara Tilak, Sardar Vallabhai Patel, which I had not seen in anyone so far.

I asked PMO for an appointment, after I retired from CAT in May, 2017. I got an appointment once I clarified that I am not trying to meet him to seek a post-retirement job. I met him on the appointed date and time on 22nd July 2017.

He rose from his seat to welcome me and shook both my hands, the Indian way. He spent about 15-20 minutes with me, me doing most of the talking. He listened to me very very attentively and asked relevant and pointed questions.

When I left, he again got up and shook both hands. All along he was extremely courteous and polite.

I had NOT got such dignified treatment earlier. I never felt that here was the Prime Minister of India talking to an ordinary citizen!

Well friends, I have seen it all in my long career. This man is 'sui generis'. He is here to give India its pride of place in the world.

His first and last priority is the Nation. Look at how his close family members still live. Look at how hardworking he is.

Look at the bold, long pending, decisions he has taken - against corrupt tycoons, GST, Bankruptcy law, Swacch Bharat campaign, the Ayushman Scheme, Farmers' Insurance Scheme, DBT, crores of houses for the poor, Rural Electrification, roads to each nook and corner of the country, the drubbing to belligerent Pakistan, taming the aggressive Dragon, Infrastructure Galore, strengthening our Defence, high image of India in the world.

The list is unending. Let me also share another thing. Corrupt ministers and bureaucrats are scared to ask for bribes now. You can trust me on that.

You may be wondering why I chose to write this. The reason is simple. Elections are near. From my experience I can assure you that this is the last chance for India to reach heights of development and power.

PLEASE, PLEASE DO NOT SQUANDER IT!  You will leave a much much better India for your children and grandchildren. I have seen all parties. They are more or less the same. BJP also has its share of corrupt, unprincipled and self serving leaders.

In fact, I hear rumours that many stalwarts in BJP want him out. Friends, trust me, this PM is different. He is not the 'NETA' we have seen till now. We should not let him go. It is not relevant which party he belongs to. In fact, if a Prime Minister  could be directly voted to power, it would have been better. But in our democracy a political party is a must. So we have to vote him through a party.

I hope you will heed to my appeal. I assure you, you will be proud one day. Jai Hind!