Brajesh Chandra Mishra (29 September 1928 – 28 September 2012) was an Indian diplomat from the

Indian Foreign Service The Indian Foreign Service (IFS) is the diplomatic service and a central civil service of the Government of India under the Ministry of External Affairs. The Foreign Secretary is the head of the service. Vinay Mohan Kwatra is the 34th and the ...

and

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

, best known for serving as Prime Minister

Atal Bihari Vajpayee Atal Bihari Vajpayee (; 25 December 1924 – 16 August 2018) was an Indian politician who served three terms as the 10th prime minister of India, first for a term of 13 days in 1996, then for a period of 13 months fr ...

principal secretary The Principal Secretary is a senior government official in various Commonwealth countries. * Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister of Pakistan * Principal Secretary to the President of Pakistan * Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister of Ind ...

and

National Security Advisor A national security advisor serves as the chief advisor to a national government on matters of security. The advisor is not usually a member of the government's cabinet but is usually a member of various military or security councils. National sec ...

from 1998 to 2004. He received

Padma Vibhushan The Padma Vibhushan ("Lotus Decoration") is the second-highest Indian honours system, civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "exceptional and distinguished service" ...

for his contribution

Early life and family

He was born in

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

Brahmin Brahmin (; sa, ब्राह्मण, brāhmaṇa) is a varna as well as a caste within Hindu society. The Brahmins are designated as the priestly class as they serve as priests (purohit, pandit, or pujari) and religious teachers (guru ...

family on 29 September 1928 to

Dwarka Prasad Mishra Dwarka Prasad Mishra (1901–1988) was an Indian politician, writer and journalist. He was a member of the Indian National Congress and served as the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh for two terms during the 1960s. An Indian freedom fighter an ...

, who was a former

Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh The chief minister of Madhya Pradesh is the chief executive of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. In accordance with the Constitution of India, the governor is a state's ''de jure'' head, but ''de facto'' executive authority rests with the ch ...

. His father was considered a staunch politician from the Congress Party and very close to

Indira Gandhi Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (; Given name, ''née'' Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and a central figure of the Indian National Congress. She was elected as third prime minister of India in 1966 ...

though they fell out later.

Diplomatic career

Brajesh Mishra joined the

in 1951. He served as ''

chargé d'affaires A ''chargé d'affaires'' (), plural ''chargés d'affaires'', often shortened to ''chargé'' (French) and sometimes in colloquial English to ''charge-D'', is a diplomat who serves as an embassy's chief of mission in the absence of the ambassador ...

'' in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

after the 1962

Sino-Indian War The Sino-Indian War took place between China and India from October to November 1962, as a major flare-up of the Sino-Indian border dispute. There had been a series of violent border skirmishes between the two countries after the 1959 Tib ...

and was India's ambassador to

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. He was also ambassador and India's Permanent Representative in Geneva. Mishra's last posting was as India's permanent representative to the United Nations from June 1979 to April 1981. As permanent representative, he voiced India's position on the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan at the

sixth emergency special session of the United Nations General Assembly The sixth emergency special session of the United Nations General Assembly was held between 10 and 14 January 1980 to consider the situation in Afghanistan. As the Soviet–Afghan War began members of the United Nations General Assembly requested th ...

, but his disagreement with that position was part of the reason why he resigned from IFS and joined the United Nations in 1981; serving as 6th

United Nations Commissioner for Namibia United Nations Commissioner for South West Africa was a post created by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in 1966 to assert the UN's direct responsibility for South West Africa which was then under illegal occupation by apartheid South Af ...

from 1 April 1982 to 1 July 1987.

Principal secretary and National Security Advisor

In April 1991, Mishra joined the

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Modi ...

and became head of its foreign policy cell. He resigned from the party in March 1998 on becoming the 9th

Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister of India The Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister of India (PS to the PM) is the senior-most bureaucrat in, and the administrative head of, the Prime Minister's Office. The officeholder is generally a civil servant, commonly from the Indian Adminis ...

. After Brajesh Mishra, the post of

became such a powerful one that it eclipsed the status of

cabinet ministers A cabinet is a body of high-ranking state officials, typically consisting of the executive branch's top leaders. Members of a cabinet are usually called cabinet ministers or secretaries. The function of a cabinet varies: in some countrie ...

. As Vajpayee's troubleshooter, he was one of the most powerful principal secretaries the PMO had ever seen. From November 1998 to 23 May 2004, he was also the first National Security Advisor and was instrumental in creating an institutional structure for national security management. His batch as an

officer was the same as the

Indian Administrative Service The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) is the administrative arm of the All India Services of Government of India. Considered the premier civil service of India, the IAS is one of the three arms of the All India Services along with the Indian ...

batch of

K. Subrahmanyam Krishnaswamy Subrahmanyam (19 January 1929 – 2 February 2011) was a prominent international strategic affairs analyst, journalist and former Indian civil servant. Considered a proponent of ''Realpolitik'', Subrahmanyam was an influential vo ...

, widely considered as the doyen of India's strategic affairs community, and made him the first convener of the

National Security Advisory Board The National Security Council (NSC) ( IAST: ''Rāṣṭrīya Surakṣā Pariṣad'') of India is an executive government agency tasked with advising the Prime Minister's Office on matters of national security and strategic interest. It was es ...

where they worked closely on many issues. He was the key motivator of foreign policy and principal spokesman on all major issues. And the opportunities for him were endless. From Pokhran-2 to Kashmir, and from Vajpayee's historic visit to Pakistan to engaging the United States in a strategic dialogue, he was behind a never-ending series of foreign policy and security manuever. He is stated to have played a major role in pushing and supporting the

Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainous ...

to undertake

Operation All Clear Operation All Clear was a military operation conducted by Royal Bhutan Army forces against Assam separatist insurgent groups in the southern regions of Bhutan between 15 December 2003 and 3 January 2004. It was the first operation ever conducted ...

Final years and death

After demitting office, Mishra had initially expressed reservations against the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal. Following this, the then prime minister,

Manmohan Singh Manmohan Singh (; born 26 September 1932) is an Indian politician, economist and statesman who served as the 13th prime minister of India from 2004 to 2014. He is also the third longest-serving prime minister after Jawaharlal Nehru and Indir ...

briefed specially to address his concerns about the deal. However, support to nuclear deal was Mishra's last tribute to Vajpayee. Thereafter, Mishra extended his support and publicly endorsed the deal. This position of his was at variance with the

's, the party to which he once belonged to and in whose government he had been the National Security Advisor of the country, which was opposed to the deal. In 2011, he was awarded

(the second highest

civilian award This list of civil awards and decorations is a partial index to articles about notable civil awards and decorations. It excludes Law enforcement awards and honors and ecclesiastical decorations, which are covered by separate lists. See :Civil aw ...

). Mishra died on 28 September 2012 at

Fortis hospital Fortis Healthcare Limited (FHL) is an Indian multinational chain of private hospitals headquartered in India. Fortis started its health care operations from Mohali, Punjab, where the first Fortis hospital was started. Later on, the hospital ...

Vasant Kunj Vasant Kunj is a posh neighbourhood located in South West Delhi district, Delhi, India. Its nearest Metro Station is Vasant Vihar metro station. The area is home to several prominent personalities, one being the former prime minister of India, ...

in New Delhi.

References

External links

Articles at Outlook India on Brajesh Mishra

Brajesh Mishra (1928–2012) – An Assessment by B Raman, Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India

Man who was ‘Bharat sarkar’ – Gopalkrishna Gandhi

Brajesh Mishra: India's First Intelligence Tsar
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mishra, Brajesh Vajpayee administration 2012 deaths Recipients of the Padma Vibhushan in civil service 1928 births Permanent Representatives of India to the United Nations Indian Foreign Service officers Madhya Pradesh politicians Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Madhya Pradesh Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister of India