Satya Nadella's father a high achiever himself; has strong left leanings

When ET called B N Yugandhar for a reaction to news that his son may become the third CEO of Microsoft, the former bureaucrat’s reaction was telling. “Why are you asking me? A father will only say nice things about his son,” he said, implying that the journalist should go elsewhere for an independent view. Besides, he remarked, “The news is not official yet, so let’s not count our chickens.”

By any standard, Yugandhar, 76, is a high achiever, a trait also possessed by his son Satya Nadella.

An IAS officer of the 1962 batch, he was a member of the Planning Commission, a secretary to the prime minister and also chief bureaucrat in charge of rural development, an area close to his heart. “He has been an outstanding public servant. He is upright, principled, non-partisan with pro-poor, strong left leanings,” said Jayaprakash Narayan, an MLA from Andhra Pradesh and president of the Lok Satta Party.

By all accounts, Yugandhar is possessed of a fine strategic mind which was employed in the cause of the poor throughout his career. In case, when Narasimha Rao was the prime minister, Yugandhar, who secretary for rural development, employed a series of stratagems to push through guidelines which would institutionalise money flow for watershed development direct to districts from the national government, bypassing states.

“I have always admired Yugandhar for all the support he has extended to the NGOs that have been working for protecting the rights of the marginalised sections of the society,” said Narinder S Bedi, president of civil society organisation Young India Project.

Chennaiah Poguri, secretary of Andhra Pradesh Vyavasaya Vruthidarula Union, a federation of unions of agricultural workers, marginal farmers, fisherfolk and rural workers, recounted that Yugandhar played vital role to protect the rights of agricultural workers. By tirelessly advocating their case in the Planning Commission, he made sure that amendments to the Agricultural Workers Welfare Act that were pending for thirty years were passed, said Poguri. “Even though he is not keeping well these days, he will be the first person to come to our programmes.”