P. N. Haksar

Condolence message and Speech on Haksar's demise (K. R. Narayanan)
Memories of P. N. Haksar (Mulk Raj Anand)
The last of the Nehruvians (Praful Bidwai)
The P. N. Haksar story (Ashok Mitra)
Obituary (Kuldip Singh)
Haksar is relevant (Harish Khare)

`P. N. Haksar takes pride in the fact that in all the years he worked with Indira Gandhi there was only one photograph showing him with her-- and that was when the Simla Agreement was signed.'
-- H. Y. Sharada Prasad, `The Book I won't be writing and other essays', p. 80.

"These developments were extremely disturbing for me. I was torn by conflicting considerations and could not decide what I should do in the circumstances. I knew my friend and former colleague P. N. Haksar, who had taken charge of the Planning Commission as deputy chairman a few months earlier, would be in similar mental turmoil. When I consulted him about my dilemma he told me that, as far as he was concerned, he had decided not to resign and had been meaning to tell me this. `We must stay in the system and try to reverse the process, or at least prevent further degeneration. Outside the system you will count for nothing, although it will certainly bolster your ego to resign.'"
-- P. N. Dhar, in "Indira Gandhi, the `Emergency', and Indian Democracy", Oxford University Press, 2000, pp. 305.

"We learn from B. N. Tandon’s memoir `PMO Diary-I: Prelude to the Emergency' that the Prime Minister’s trusted aide, the formidable P. N. Haksar, bitterly regretted her pressure on him to influence Judges of the Supreme Court. Tandon records his meeting with Haksar on December 9, 1989, when Siddharth Shankar Ray’s wife, Maya, also a lawyer, walked in. `I am mentioning this meeting in the Diary for a totally different result. There is an indication in various places in the Diary that the Judges of the Supreme Court had been approached from Indira Gandhi's side in her case. Today Haksar himself told Maya Ray this. He said, "Maya this was not really necessary. Indira Gandhi had herself disposed of the case against her through amendments to the Constitution, etc. But I was forced to go to every judge."'

I was surprised that this emerged in print, but was relieved that what Haksar had said to me in private was now on record. He had a couple of years earlier said exactly the same thing to this writer; namely, that he had met all the judges hearing the appeal-– except one judge, whom he named. The writer was in a bind. It was said in confidence. I fully reciprocated Haksar’s affection, extended despite my known differences of view. But the disclosure was of historical significance. I had decided to reveal it to two persons, a close associate of Haksar and a trusted colleague at the bar. Now, it was in print."
-- A. G. Noorani, `Justice with a fine balance', Frontline, 25(8), Apr. 12-25, 2008.

`I spent four years of apprenticeship under Krishna; this might be as good an occasion for me to acknowledge publicly what I owe to him. What little I learnt about the art and science of diplomacy, it was at his feet. From him I learnt the art of negotiation. I learnt from him that in diplomacy the most important thing was courage, a non-negotiable sense of dedication to the interests of one's country; a capacity to see what your opponent has in mind and to discern whether there was a basis for linking your opponent's concern with your own.'
-- P. N. Haksar, in `Krishna: As I knew him', Broadcast, All India Radio, 6 October 1974.