CMs could count on his `memory' of their words

BANGALORE: A medley of voices resonates in the mind.When 58-year-old K.C. Natarajan retires from the chief minister's secretariat this month, he will carry home bittersweet memories and a weatherbeaten tape-recorder. In a career spanning 23 years, he has served 10 CMs from Devaraj Urs to S.M. Krishna as their official recordist capturing their voices more to project the probity of these men than for posterity.``The CMs I worked for might have had their fallacies, but each one of them had a noble streak in them.All treated their personal staff with great respect. The insensitive ones are the bureaucrats who are completely unconcerned about the travails of the common man. Unlike politicians, they are not men of the masses,'' says Natarajan.The infamous Gundu Rao-Arun Shourie spat of the early 80s, when editor Shourie published what was said to be Chief Minister Rao's off-the-record observations, would perhaps not have happened if Natarajan was allowed to tape the conversation.``I was there at the CM's residence early that morning. But Rao asked me to stay out as it was an informal breakfast meeting. My recorder could have averted this unpleasant event as Rao was a man who exercised restraint whenever he spoke formally,'' maintains Natarajan.On another occasion, at a public rally in Mangalore, Gundu Rao is supposed to have remarked that journalists disseminating inaccurate information should be thrown into the Arabian sea. Next day, one newspaper conveniently omitted a few words and quoted Rao as saying that ALL journalists should be drowned. ``The minute I landed in the bus stand, the police escorted me to the CM's house. Rao sat anxiously with senior officials waiting for me to play the tape and clear the air. I switched on the recorder with trembling hands unsure whether I had even caught the relevant portions. Finally, it crackled through crystal clear,'' says Natarajan.His favourite is J.H. Patel: A man with a golden heart and a silver tongue. Patel's compassion, rapier wit and an ability to take swift decisions made him unique.In the same breath, he adds, ``Krishna is a true gentleman. I have no complaints or comments.''When Natarajan met with an accident on duty and underwent surgery, the government refused to reimburse his expenses on grounds that he availed of treatment from a private hospital. Bangarappa, the then CM, impulsively dipped into his pockets and doled out Rs 25,000.In all these years, Natarajan has not taken leave even for a day. ``I have never given a single petition to any CM for my personal work. I'm most unpopular among my relatives because I've never solved even their most minor of grouses,'' he says. But all his decades of toil have not been rewarded with a single promotion.