External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Sunday reflected on his early days in public service, sharing a vivid recollection of his UPSC interview experience from nearly five decades ago. Speaking at an event in New Delhi, Jaishankar said, “My interview was on March 21, 1977. That was the day the Emergency was revoked. Revoked! So, I go in for an interview at Shahjahan Road… First person that morning.”
Jaishankar, recounted how the political atmosphere at the time — with election results pointing to the end of Emergency rule — had a palpable impact. “The sense of the defeat of the Emergency rule was coming into understanding. In a way, that is what got me through the interview,” he noted.
Jaishankar said, in the interview, he was asked about what had happened in the 1977 elections. Citing his association with JNU as a student and his subject of political science, the EAM reminisced, ”I was lucky.” ”We had taken part in the 1977 election campaign. We had all gone there and worked for the defeat of the Emergency,” Jaishankar said. So, in response, ”I forgot I was in an interview”, and at that moment, ”my communication skills somehow came together,” he added.
Jaishankar, a veteran diplomat who earlier served as foreign secretary and has widely travelled, said at that time, to explain to people who were ”quite connected, sympathetic to the government, what had happened, without offending them, was actually quite a challenge”. And, the second thing he said, he learned that day, of this ”Lutyens’ bubble”. ”These people were really shocked, they could not believe that this election result had happened, whereas for us, the ordinary students, we could see that there was a wave against the Emergency,” the EAM recalled of the interview experience.From that day, he said he learned how to communicate under pressure and to do it without offending people.
He recalled being 22 at the time and coming away from the interaction with two lasting impressions: the value of staying composed while communicating under pressure, and the realisation that those in power may often operate in a “bubble.”
Addressing a gathering of the latest UPSC qualifiers, Jaishankar described the civil services exam as a true test of endurance. “It is an ‘Agni Pariksha’,” he said, adding that it’s “a very unique testing system in the world” to select candidates for such critical roles, according to news agency PTI.
"How do you persuade, how do you explain. This was one carry-away. The second carry-away was that important people may be living in a bubble and not realising what is happening in the country,” the Union minister said. And, people in the field, because students like him who were part of the campaigns, and had visited places such as Muzaffarnagar, ”we had picked up a sense on the ground”, but, people sitting in Delhi, with all the information from all the systems, ”somehow they missed it,” he said.In his address, he also asked what the barometer is to assess a successful democracy, saying it is not by voting record or voting percentage.”To me, a successful democracy is when opportunity is given to the entire society; that is when democracy is working. They have the right to express themselves, but it is not a few people, on behalf of the whole society… expressing themselves,” Jaishankar said, without elaborating.He exhorted the gathering of successful UPSC candidates to remember that they are all ”entering into a service”. ”This Amrit Kaal of 25 years is your era. Your era, because you will have to work, you will have to deliver, and you will be the beneficiaries of this era, you will be the leaders of this era,” the EAM said.
He urged them all to contribute to the vision of a Viksit Bharat by 2047.”I want you to think 20 years ahead… When we move towards the journey of Viksit Bharat, what will be your contribution? And, the mindset that you have to bring to realise that dream of making a developed nation,” he added.He emphasised that good governance is also related to national security.To new entrants to the civil services, he emphasised that ”representing India abroad, representing India before the world, is the greatest privilege, the greatest honour that any Indian can have”.
The EAM said he had ”no doubt that by 2030, we will become number 3, economically. But, moving to number 2 and eventually up, will be a big deal, and it will be tough, and will need big, national efforts”.In the next 20 years of your service, you have to know that ”big changes” will be coming. The coming era will be of AI, drones, space and EV and green hydrogen, he asserted.The external affairs minister said in the Indo-Pacific region, ”Our capabilities should be such that whatever challenges come, India is ready to step forward and assume responsibility, we call it a first responder. How do you prepare India to be a first responder?”.
*With Agency Inputs
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