Virendra Dayal (born 29 January 1935) is a retiredIndian Administrative Service officer andUnited Nations civil servant who served asChef de Cabinet toSecretary General of theUnited Nations for more than a decade.[1] He has served as the director of theDepartment of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs of the United Nations and as thespecial envoy who probed the allegations levelled against a number of India politicians includingNatwar Singh, a formerMinister of External affairs, in thePaul Volcker Committee report of 2005.[2] A formerIndian Administrative Service officer and aRhodes Scholar of 1956[3] Dayal sat on theNational Human Rights Commission of India as a member for two terms from 1998 to 2006.[4] The Government of India awarded him the third highest civilian honour of thePadma Bhushan, in 1992, for his contributions to society.[5]
Born on 29 January 1935 in theAllahabad district of the Indian state ofUttar Pradesh,[4] Dayal did his early schooling atSherwood College inNainital.[6] Subsequently, hegraduated fromSt. Stephen's College at theUniversity of Delhi in 1954 and continued there to secure hismaster's degree (MA) inhistory in 1956. He was selected for theRhodes Scholarship for the year,[3] which assisted him in pursuing his higher studies atUniversity College at theUniversity of Oxford, which he completed in 1958.[citation needed]
Dayal is married to Indira Gupta and the couple has two daughters, Divya and Jaya.[6]
Returning to India, Dayal entered theIndian Administrative Service and started his career as thedistrict magistrate and collector (DM) ofNainital district, a Himalayan resort location. He is known to have worked for the rehabilitation of the refugees during his stint at Nainital and after two more DM postings atRampur andMoradabad districts, he was transferred to theGovernment of India.[4] In 1962, whenNobel laureate,V. S. Naipaul, and his wife, Patricia, visited India, Dayal hosted theTrinidadian and Tobagonian couple.[7] At thecentre, he was posted as a director in the now erstwhileMinistry of Community Development and Cooperation, a post he held till 1965 when he moved to theUnited Nations.[citation needed]
Dayal's career at the United Nations (UN) started at theOffice of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and a year later, he was appointed as the chief of the UHCR's Asia Desk at Geneva. In 1968, he was promoted as Deputy Regional Representative and in 1971, he became Regional Representative when he was a member of the UNHCR Focal Point Team, working for the rehabilitation of refugees who fled to India during the1971 Bangladesh genocide.[4] In 1972, he continued his work in the region as a part of theUnited Nations Relief Operations in Bangladesh for one more year, serving as the special assistant to the chief of mission,[1] but, he returned to UNHCR in 1973, after being posted at the New York Office as Regional Representative.[citation needed] It was during his tenure there, he was involved in the airlifting of refugees in South Asia and in theboat people crisis of Vietnam in his capacity as theexecutive assistant of the High Commissioner on Refugees.[4] In 1979, he was appointed as the director of theOffice of Special Political Affairs,[8] and three years later, he becameChef de Cabinet toJavier Pérez de Cuéllar, fifth Secretary-General of the United Nations.[6]
As Chef de Cabinet, Dayal was given the rank of anunder-secretary-general and he attended several diplomatic conferences including the8th Summit of theNon-Aligned Movement inHarare in 1988. He continued at the post during the tenure of the next secretary-general,Boutros Boutros-Ghali, until his retirement from UN service in 1993.[1] It was during Boutros-Ghali's incumbency that Dayal assisted the secretary-general in preparingAn Agenda for Peace: Preventive diplomacy, peacemaking and peace-keeping, which was presented at the Summit Meeting of theSecurity Council on 31 January 1992.[8] He was also involved in two diplomatic missions to South Africa, accompanyingCyrus Vance, formerUnited States Secretary of State in July 1992 and then visiting the country asSpecial Envoy of the Secretary-General in September 1992.[4] On these diplomatic missions, he metF. W. de Klerk andNelson Mandela a number of times as a part of thenegotiations to end apartheid in South Africa which were reported to have helped in arranging a meeting of the two leaders and in the eventual transition of power through theSouth African general elections of 1994.[6]
In 1990, Dayal was proposed to becomeUnited Nations High Commissioner for Refugees by the UN secretary-general,Javier Pérez de Cuéllar,[9] but, Dayal's nomination was blocked by the United States due to opposition fromRonald Reagan, thecountry's president.[9][10] On this Dayal commented:
Japanese diplomat and academic,Sadako Ogata, was eventually appointed to the post ofUnited Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.[11]
Dayal returned to India in 1993 and soon was included in the Indian delegation to theVienna Conference on Human Rights of June 1993 which precipitated theVienna Declaration and Programme of Action.[1] Later that year, he was appointed by thePresident of India—on the advice of a committee headed by thePrime Minister of India—as a member of theNational Human Rights Commission of India (NHRC) for a five-year term;[12] his term was extended by the president for a further of five years in 1998.[12][13] His stint with NHRC allowed him to be a part of committees such as theUnited Nations Commission on Human Rights, theInternational Coordinating Committee of National Human Rights Institutions and theAsia Pacific Forum and to attend several international conferences on human rights, which included theWorld Conference against Racism of 2001, held inDurban, South Africa.[1] He also served as a commissioner on theCarnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict, a UN appointed commission which submitted its final report in 1998.[14]
In 2004, thePaul Volcker Committee set up byKofi Annan, then Secretary-General of the United Nations, reported that some Indian politicians were beneficiaries in the IraqOil-for-Food Programme, in repose to this, theGovernment of India set up a machinery with Dayal, as aspecial envoy,[citation needed] to liaise with the United Nations agencies[15] and probe the alleged involvement of Indian politicians includingNatwar Singh,[16]Minister of External Affairs at the time.[17] He reportedly submitted four notes of his findings in 2005 and 2006, based on 1,200 pages of documents received from the United Nations,[18] but, the reports were never published as theSupreme Court of India, after protracted litigation,[19][20] accepted the contention of thePrime Minister's Office that the contents could only be used for investigation of possible violations of law.[17]
Dayal is currently serving as the chairperson of the scholarship selection committee of Inlaks Shivdasani Foundation, and is the chair of theboard of trustees of Rajeshwar Susheela Dayal Charitable Trust.[21]
