Vajpayee PMO’s pointsman Ashok Saikia passes away

Because of his honest, no-nonsense approach, Saikia was referred to by many colleagues as the prime minister’s conscience keeper. They say he wasn’t one to suffer red-tape and if he felt something needed to be done, he would go ahead and get it done. Given the good rapport he maintained with colleagues and bureaucrats in other ministries, he rarely ruffled feathers.

Brajesh Mishra, who was principal secretary in the PMO when Saikia was there, described him as a “very intelligent and valued colleague.”

Shortly before its term ended, the Vajpayee government had nominated him for a deputation with the Asian Development Bank, Manila. This ran into some opposition with the UPA government that took over, but eventually Prime Minister Manmohan Singh cleared it and Saikia joined the bank in July 2004.

When he returned on completion of that posting in August this year, he had a few months to go before retirement. He sought extension of the ADB posting but it wasn’t cleared by the UPA government. Rather than wait for the government to decide on a new posting, he went on leave and was living in Gurgaon. He would have retired tomorrow.

Saikia had gone to see a doctor about severe backache and was told after tests that he had 90 per cent coronary blockage. He underwent heart surgery at Escorts Hospital but died early on Sunday.

His body was flown to Titabor town in Assam, where the last rites will be performed. He is survived by his wife Ranjana and two sons.

Saikia’s acquaintance with Vajpayee went back to the late sixties, when he was a history student at Ramjas College and Vajpayee a friend of his professor. He was selected to the Indian Revenue Service in 1970 and the next year to the IAS. He also had a Masters in Social Administration from London School of Economics and had been a consultant to the United Nations for development projects in Vietnam.