Padinjarethalakal Cherian Alexander who served as Principal Secretary to Two Prime Ministers died

Padinjarethalakal Cherian Alexander, a former IAS officer who served in Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s staff died of cancer on 10 August 2011 in Chennai.

Born in 1921, at Mavelikkara in Kerala, Alexander post-graduated from the then Travancore University. and joined  the Indian Administrative Service in 1948. He served in the then Madras and Travancore-Cochin states before moving to the Central Government in 1955.

P.C. Alexander was at different times Principal Secretary to two Prime Ministers- Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, Indian High Commissioner in the United Kingdom, Governor of Tamil Nadu and, Maharashtra, a United Nations civil servant and even a Rajya Sabha MP.

A 1948 batch Kerala cadre IAS officer, Alexander was picked by Indira Gandhi in 1980, she had to become Principal Secretary and, in the process, he became her political adviser, conscience keeper and administrative trouble-shooter. After her assassination in 1984, Rajiv Gandhi, who succeeded his mother kept him on in the same post. However in 1985, he was forced to quit after a spy scandal surfaced.

He also served as the high commissioner in London. He had held senior posts in the UN civil service for 10 years. He was a Senior Adviser to the UN in New York during 1963-66. He served as principal secretary from 1981-85. He also served as Indian High Commissioner to the UK in 1985-88. He was instrumental in acquiring Gandhi’s 260-odd letters to Herman Kallenbach.

Alexander was appointed Governor of Tamil Nadu (1988-90) and Maharashtra for two terms (from January 1993). He was also briefly in charge of Goa. He resigned as Maharashtra governor in July 2002 after he lost out in the race for the President’s post to Dr A P J Abdul Kalam. Alexander’s name was considered for the post of President during the NDA rule in 2002 to succeed K.R. Narayanan but he lost the race, leading to the election of A.P.J Abdul Kalam.

Alexander authored several books, including My Years with Indira Gandhi and The Perils of Democracy and Through the Corridors of Power.