By TN Ashok / New Delhi
The Vice President, Mr Venkiah Naidu, today condoled the death of former Social Welfare Secretary PS Krishnan IAS (86) and described him as a crusader for the rights of the poor and underprivileged. He was a 1956 batch of IAS officers from the Andhra Pradesh cadre.
Speaking at a memorial meeting organised by late Krishnan’s family at the chinmaya mission here, Mr Naidu, said Krishnan was a brilliant IAS officer who dedicated his life to the elevation of the depressed sections of society and was instrumental in many historic legislation adopted by the government. Most of the surviving members of the IAS cadre of the 1956 batch were present at the meeting and paid tributes.
CPI -M leader Sitaram Yechury and CPI leader A Raja were also present at the meeting. Mr Naidu personally meet Mrs Shanty, wife of late Krishnan, his daughter Shubha ex-IPS, and son in law Chandrasekhar and conveyed his heartfelt condolences to the family.
A Hindustani Carnatic vocal recital preceded the VPs tributes even as a ppt presentation chronicled Krishnan’s illustrious service in the government that was climaxed by his appointment as Social Welfare secretary to the government then headed by Prime Minister V P Singh and Social Welfare Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, with both of whom he was closely associated. Renowned author Vasanthi has penned his career in the form of a book called conversations with P S Krishnan. Perungulam S Krishnan (86), an IAS officer of Andhra Pradesh cadre, passed away recently after a heart valve surgery at the Apollo hospital in Delhi.
He lived with his wife Shanti and only daughter Shubha Sekhar , an ex IPS officer and son in law Chandrasekhar, a former officer of the external affairs ministry. He was one of those rare dedicated civil service officers, who worked ceaselessly towards the betterment of social justice. He was the man behind the implementation of the Mandal Commission (appointed by the then BJP government) report in Toto that caused a nationwide stir. His death at the age of 86 (1932 – 2019 RIP), in Gurgaon, leaves a deep void for the underprivileged and the crusade for a classless society. Krishnan was also associated with many landmark legislations such as a grant of constitutional status to the National Commission for SCs and STs and SC &ST (prevention of atrocities) act 1989. He knew almost all the 23 officially recognised languages of the constitution; he was quick to learn foreign languages such as French, Spanish, and Italian etc.
Krishnan was an admirer and follower of the father of our constitution Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Mahatma Gandhi and Karl Marx ( Kerala influence?). He claimed Swami Vivekananda influenced his life very much. He believed in a tradition of social justice that included revolutionary poets such as Sant Ravi Das, and Basaveswara. A dialogue within tradition among Mahatma Gandhi, Ambedkar Karl Marx and Periyar was essential to strengthen anti-caste politics. His epitaph should read: Here lies a MAN who led a relentless crusade towards the destruction of the caste order exposing its institutional manifestations and hypocrisies that is the malaise of our society”.The world of underprivileged will miss a great missionary cum visionary.