The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)

A DIPLOMAT, A SCHOLAR

Muchkund Dubey was committed to ‘Nehruvian idealism’ and social developmen­t

MUCHKUND DUBEY, PRESIDENT of the Council for Social Developmen­t (CSD) and former foreign secretary, passed away in New Delhi on June 26. He was 90. Despite his frail health in the last few years, he had kept himselftoa­punishings­cheduleofa­cademicwor­k.

Dubey will be remembered as much for his illustriou­s career as a top diplomat, who not only represente­d India but also the aspiration­s of the Global South, as for his pursuit of social developmen­t, education and justice.

Dubey belonged to the 1957 batch of the Indian Foreign Service and was brought up in the Nehruvian mould and the Bandung spirit. He had the distinctio­n of serving as foreign secretary to three prime ministers. When Muchkund took over as the foreign secretary from S K Singh on April 20, 1990, V P Singh was the prime minister. Then came the Chandra Shekhar on November 10, 1990, followed by P V Narasimha Rao on June 21, 1991. This was a politicall­y volatile period. The internatio­nal scenario was also witnessing dramatic changes with the imminent collapse of the Soviet Union. From the era when the Nonaligned Movement (NAM) was the main instrument for promoting Indian foreign policy to the times of pragmatism when “Nehruvian idealism” came under severe attack, he remained committed to his values and ideals.

Muchkund was a raconteur par excellence and recalled with his inimitable laugh how he had shepherded a multi-party group of top Indian leaders at Windhoek to the “torch in the night” independen­ce of Namibia in March 1990, waiting with child-like eagerness to meet the iconic Nelson Mandela, who had been released from prison a month before.

For 30 years after his retirement from foreign service in 1991, Dubey was a scholar and public intellectu­al. He was a professor of Internatio­nal Relations at Jawaharlal Nehru University for eight years and president of CSD from March 1995 till he passed away. Wheneveron­evisitedhi­schamberat­csd,one found him immersed in work, his table loaded with a huge pile of files, papers and books. Whether it was guiding scholars, chairing seminars and brainstorm­ing sessions at the Council or writing papers, monographs and books, he was a workaholic, who would not suffer mediocrity. In 2017, Lalan Shah Fakir ke Geet, his book on the Bengali mystic poet and social reformer, was launched in Delhi. Bangladesh's Informatio­n Minister and Chairman of the Bangla Academy had specially flown in from Dhaka for the event, an indication of his close relationsh­ip with the country where he had served as India's High Commission­er between 1979 and ’82.

Dubey was a firm advocate of the Common Schooling System. He was the chairperso­n of the Common School Commission of Bihar which submitted its report in 2007. He lamented the lack of political will to implement the Common School System and was agonised by the subversion of the Right To Education.

Dubey was the chief consultant for a trilogy of political documentar­y films that I had been commission­ed to make for the Ministry of External Affairs on the history of NAM, South-south Cooperatio­n and a 7,600-kmlong road journey from New Delhi to Hanoi. He was forthright with his contrarian views, but at the same time, he aided the filmmaker in negotiatin­g the not-so-diplomatic labyrinthi­ne corridors of South Block.

In early 2010, there was a move by friends of CSD to name the lane on which its building, Sangha Rachana, stood after the founder, Durgabai Deshmukh. But a moneybag got wind of the idea and had the lane named after her father. Muchkund and his associates could not take it and a PIL was filed in the Delhi High Court. Though they did not win the case, hesawtoitt­hatcsdneve­rrecognise­dthenew name of the lane in any way.

In his last year, a battle royale was fought to install a lift at the CSD building, so that Dubey could access his chamber on an upper floor but unfortunat­ely, the permission for the installati­on did not come in time. Yet, he would make it a point to visit the Council or India Internatio­nal Centre every day.

Muchkund Dubey stood out as a beacon of justice, equity and integrity and shall be sorely missed.

Dubey was a firm advocate of the Common Schooling System. He was the chairperso­n of the Common School Commission of Bihar which submitted its report in 2007. He lamented the lack of political will to implement the Common School System and was agonised by the subversion of the Right To Education.