He was more than the intelligence and police services, he was devoted to all his life. In the passing of R Govindarajan on September 30th morning in Chennai, India has lost a highly regarded official from the founding batch of the Research & Analysis Wing (RAW), India’s premier intelligence agency.
Survived by his wife, Mythili, one daughter and three sons, he was revered by all albeit each one either knew him or had known of him differently. To those from the banking and finance arena, Govindarajan was the former central banker Raghuram Rajan’s father, to those in the environment and sustainability space, he was Mukund Rajan’s father and so on. But then, it is perhaps expected when each child is a doctorate and hugely respected in his or her domain of expertise.
Within his field, Govindarajan is always thought of as that astute, upright IPS officer and a popular batchmate of A K Verma, the former RAW chief & Julio Francis Ribeiro, the former police commissioner of Mumbai who, in his time, was in the news most of the time for the several operations, especially in Punjab.
Those who knew Govindarajan closely speak of him as the first of the ‘Kaoboys’ in keeping with the reference to R N Kao who set up RAW. Govindarajan had resigned from the IPS to join the newly set up agency. A loyal and committed bureaucrat, Govindarajan had also chaired the joint intelligence committee and post his retirement chose to settle down in Chennai.
SR Iyer, the former managing director of the State Bank of India and the father of Soumya Rajan (married to Mukund Rajan), Govindarajan has been that dear family member who is thought of the fine gentleman, decent, affectionate and one that many could learn from and emulate.
Those who know Govindarajan’s family closely say he had undergone a very brief illness but left peacefully leaving behind a mountain of memories, a life well-lived and a journey to be remembered and cherished.