Vajpayee recalls his close bond with Ashok Saikia
>From Our Spl Correspondent Assam Tribune
NEW DELHI, Jan 14 Former Prime Ministe Atal Behari Vajpayee has mourned the
passing away of his most trusted aide, Ashok Saikia, describing him as one of
the most outstanding officers and a close family friend.
At a prayer meeting held at Chinmaya Mission here yesterday, Saikias family
members, friends and colleagues gathered to pay glowing tributes to the late
bureaucrat. The prayer meeting, presided over by former BJP minister Vijay
Goel, was attended by Saikias wife Ranjana Saikia, his two sons Anshuman and
Aditya besides his daughter-in-law, Aarti and other close family members.
In a message, read out by Goel, the former Prime Minister grieved Saikias
untimely death. Vajpayee recalled his close bond with Ashok. When I met him
little did I realise that relation with this 18-year-old lad from Assam would
grow into close family tie, the message read. The message also contained a
poem composed by him.
If Vajpayees message was emotional, his foster daughter Namita was
inconsolable. Recalling her association with Saikia since she was four years
old, she said, it started with a fight because he had taken away her tri-cycle.
This fight continued until he passed away on December 30, said a teary-eyed
Namita, paying him a rich tribute.
Vajpayees family members including his daughter and son-in-law Ranjan
Bhattacharya were personally coordinating the prayer meeting, receiving the
guests at the gate. Present on the occasion were top political leaders, senior
bureaucrats, lawyers, editors and journalists including former minister Arun
Jetley, Arun Shourie, principal secretary to the Prime Minister, TKA Nair,
Nobel Laureate RK Pachouri, former home secretary, VK Duggal, many retired and
serving officers of Assam Cadre.
Also those who attended the prayer meeting included Editor-in-Chief of The
Indian Express, Shekhar Gupta, Prabhu Chawla of India Today Group, columnist
Coomi Kapoor, among others.
Saikia was described as one of the most able bureaucrats with a great sense of
humour. His batch-mate Amitabh Pandey recalled their early years at the IAS
academy. His colleagues reminisced his role in the aftermath of the
super-cyclone in Orissa, how, as a joint secretary in the PMO, he had flown
down to the state to personally take stock of the situation. Once in Orissa he
shunned all formalities and reached the affected areas with the help of an NGO.
Saikias handling of the relief and rehabilitation in the aftermath of the
Kutch earthquake has become a country model for disaster management, his
colleagues recalled.
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