Subramanyam, IAS who died with YSR was an IRS officer – RADHA ARUN pays a Tribute
DR. P. SUBRAMANYAM, a 1983 batch IAS officer – Principal Secretary in the AP Chief Minister's office was one of the officers who died along with Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy in that unfortunate air crash tragedy. Subramanyam spurned a permanent UN job to work for the people of his state. Subramanyam always remained committed to the cause of the underprivileged. Subramanyam also worked for people suffering from disabilities.
Radha Arun, his batch mate in the 1982 IRS batch pays a tribute.
It is not widely known that P. Subramanyam, the Principal Secretary to the government of Andhra Pradesh who perished with YSR, was an IRS officer of the 1982 batch of the Customs & Excise Service before he joined the IAS in the 1983 batch.
Legal Corner Icon — the image was hosted by the publisher and was not captured.‘Subra', as some of us fondly called him during the brief months in which he was our colleague, was with us in Sibsagar in February 1983 to conduct the violently disputed elections in Assam. In that month, plane-loads of probationers of all the civil services had been flown to various parts of Assam for the purpose, as state government personnel had boycotted the elections but Mrs Gandhi was determined to carry out the polls.
The atmosphere of tension and danger in which we found ourselves brought out the true nature of most of us. Subramanyam was seen to be a man of few words, cool and level-headed, quite removed from the boyish boisterousness of many of our batch mates. He kept his own counsel, but was unfailingly helpful, understanding and empathetic. We were friends for that brief time. I lost touch with him after he left our department, each of us being preoccupied with the minutiae of our own lives; but I always thought of him with warmth and friendship. Recently, for some unaccountable reason, I had felt the urge to renew contact and had asked a friend with secretariat contacts to find out his numbers for me. It was too late. I am filled with regret and sorrow as his photographs look out at me from the newspapers.
Rest in peace, friend. You did good in this world and are now in a better one.