At a time when politics is widely seen as a route to power, privilege, and personal gain, My Days with Chaudhary Charan Singh offers a rare counterexample. Written by Tilak Ram Sharma, who served as Private Secretary to Chaudhary Charan Singh during the 1960s, this book records what Sharma witnessed at close quarters: a public man who exercised authority as moral responsibility, not entitlement. Written without hindsight or hero-worship, and published only after Charan Singh’s death, the account carries the authority of lived observation.

Through everyday decisions – about work, money, protocol, discipline, and the treatment of others – Charan Singh emerges as a leader of uncompromising honesty, relentless work ethic, personal simplicity, compassion, and respect for subordinates. These were not convenient virtues but daily habits, often practised at political cost. Preserved with minimal editorial intervention, this book reminds us that integrity in public life is not impractical or obsolete. It has existed before, and can be chosen again.