The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)

Former foreign secretary Muchkund Dubey dies at 90

FORMER FOREIGN secretary Muchkund Dubey died due to heart-related complicati­ons at a hospital in New Delhi on Wednesday aged 90. The 1957 batch IFS officer is survived by his wife and two daughters. His last rites will be performed at the Lodhi Road Crematoriu­m on Thursday evening.

“He was not keeping well for the past few weeks and had been admitted at Fortis (Escorts) heart hospital in Delhi earlier this month. He had heart-related complicati­ons and also some other health issues. Prof Dubey died at the hospital today (Wednesday) afternoon,” his close friend Manoranjan Mohanty was quoted by PTI.

The veteran diplomat — considered an expert on disarmamen­t and developmen­t cooperatio­n — served as India’s foreign secretary in 1990-91. He also served as India’s High Commission­er to Bangladesh and Permanent Representa­tive to UN Organisati­ons in Geneva.

Paying tribute, Union Minister Hardeep Puri on X recalled working with him in Geneva and later in New Delhi.

“Lakshmi (Puri) and I had the privilege of working with the stalwart early in our careers when he was India’s Permanent Representa­tive to the UN in Geneva and we were young first secretarie­s cutting our teeth in multilater­al diplomacy. We later worked underhisgu­idancewhen­hewasthe

Foreign Secretary,” he said. “We have lost someone about whom we could very well say, ‘If I have seen further [than others], it is by standing on the shoulders of giants’,” Puri said.

After retiring, he joined the JNU as a professor where he taught for close to eight years. Dubey also served as the president of New Delhi-based Council for Social Developmen­t (CSD).

According to the CSD website, Dubey was born in 1933 in undivided Bihar.