K.Subrahmanyam-nation lost a pillar of versatile strategist

During a book release function I had an opportunity to meet him and his wife in the mid of 2010. His talk was very interesting as he spoke about his career and the march of India’s strategic affairs. His talk is really memorable to me.

Particularly, what he had mentioned was as Ritu Sarin wrote in January 9, 2000: 

• Interestingly, none other than Dr K. Subrahmanyam, presently convenor of the National Security Council Advisory Board (NSCAB) was on the hijacked plane in 1984 and was a key witness for the prosecution. And just as Pakistan is insinuating that the hijack of IC-814 is the handiwork of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and that there was an agency official on board, Jain's judgement shows that after the 1984 hijacking, a similar canard was raised against Subrahmanyam. Six of the seven hijackers had told the Ajmer court that it was K. Subrahmanyam who (to quote the judge), ``planned the entire hijacking to supervise and examinethe nuclear installations of Pakistan.''

• The judge, of course, dismissed such There are other similarities between the two hijackings, separated by a period of 15 years.  

Unlike today’s seasoned economists, experts, etc Dr.K Subrahmanyam turned down Padma Bhushan in 1999 and believed that bureaucrats and journalists should not accept any award from the government because they are more liable to be favoured. 

Nitin has already posted one of his interview with KS sir. C Uday Bhaskar has nice obituary in ET.  Professor Sanjay Subrahmanyam is the son of KS.

From the BS Report:

• He is survived by his wife, Sulochana, a Tamil scholar, and three sons, S Vijay Kumar (secretary, mines, Govt of India), S Jaishankar (India’s ambassador to China) and Sanjay Subrahmanyam (a distinguished historian).

The IDSA page is here and according to ToI He was suffering from cancer and diabetes but his end came after a heart attack, family sources said.