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Born in Lahore in 1941, Mani Shankar Aiyar received his education at the Doon School, Dehra Dun; St. Stephen's College, Delhi; and the University of Cambridge, UK. He joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1963 and served in Brussels, Hanoi, Baghdad and as India's first-ever Consul General in Karachi. From 1985 to 1989, he was Joint Secretary to Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. He made the transition from the civil service to politics in 1989 and was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Mayiladuturai constituency of Tamil Nadu in 1991, and again in 1999 and 2004. in may 2004, he was named Minister of Petroeum and Natural Gas, and of Panchayati Raj. He is also a well-known author and columnist who, for a decade from 1989 to 1999, penned the popular weekly column 'Mani-Talk' in Sunday magazine, later resumed in the Telegraph of Kolkata. He has also written journals. His books include remembering Rahiv (1992), One year in Parliament (1993), Pakistan Papers (1994) and Knickerwallahas, Silly-Billies and Other Durious Creatures (1995). Mani Shankar Aiyar is the founder president of the Society for Secularism.