Parmeshwar Narayan Haksar
| P. N. Haksar | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister | |
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In office 1967–1973 |
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| Prime Minister | Indira Gandhi |
| Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission | |
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In office 4 January 1975 – 31 May 1977 |
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| Prime Minister | Indira Gandhi |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Parmeshwar Narayan Haksar 4 September 1913 Gujranwala, Punjab, British India (now in Pakistan) |
| Died | 25 November 1998 (aged 85) New Delhi, Delhi, India |
| Spouse(s) | Urmila Sapru |
| Children | Nandita Haksar, Anamika Haksar |
| Religion | Hindu (Kashmiri Pandit) |
Parmeshwar Narayan Haksar (4 September 1913 – 25 November 1998) was an Indian bureaucrat and diplomat, best known for his six-year stint as Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's principal secretary (1967–73). In that role, Haksar was the chief strategist behind his inexperienced prime minister's rise to near-absolute power in the mid-1970s. After this he was appointed deputy chairman of the Planning Commission and then the first-ever chancellor of New Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University.
An advocate of centralization and socialism, he was a Kashmiri Pandit who became Gandhi's closest confidant in her inner coterie of bureaucrats, the "Kashmiri mafia". Prior to this, Haksar was a diplomat of the Indian Foreign Service, who served as ambassador to Austria and Nigeria.
Haksar was born in 1913, Gujranwala (now in Pakistan) in a Kashmiri Pandit family. He studied Sanskrit at home and obtained an M.Sc. from Allahabad university, Uttar Pradesh. He went on to study in the London School of Economics. As a student of Allahabad university, he was a resident of Mayo Hall & made frequent visits to the Anand Bhawan, the house of Motilal Nehru. Parmeshwar was a voracious reader of art history & also a connoisseur of paintings. During his interlude in London, UK, he was influenced by Socialism and become associated with the Marxists.
During the latter years of his life, Haksar became associated with the Delhi Science Forum, initiatives on human rights, and opposition to neoliberal policies and secularism. He lost his eyesight during the last 10 years of his life. Haksar died at the age of 85, on 25 November 1998.
Haskar had already made his mark as a lawyer in Allahabad, before he moved to the Indian Foreign Services in 1947. and was quite close to fellow-Kashmiri-from-Allahabad Jawaharlal Nehru. A one-time student at the London School of Economics, he was a junior colleague of V. K. Krishna Menon at the India League in London.
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