He was chief secretary of U.P. in the period immediately after the Babri Masjid incident. He rose to the post of Cabinet Secretary in Government of India, the highest civil service position in the government, and worked under three prime ministers in this capacity
T.S.R. Subramanian's book is anecdotal, combining wit with irony. It incisively pieces together the gradual decay in public administration in post British India. The growing subservience of the bureaucracy to the political system unravels, step by step. A self serving elite is formed that is preoccupied with its vested interests. The voice of the common man goes unheard. The poor continue to remain in poverty. The humor and crispness of the narrative barely conceal this underlying theme TSR bases his book on his rich repertoire of experience and a prodigious memory for detail.
