Ram D. Pradhan (27 June 1928[1][2] – 31 July 2020) was an Indian Administrative Service officer,[3] from the 1952 batch who served as Union Home Secretary and Governor of Arunachal Pradesh during the Rajiv Gandhi government.

The first major task Pradhan took up as Home Secretary in February 1985, was to assess the political situation in Punjab.

Politics in Punjab had become secessionist in nature and the Akali Dal party was calling for an independent country of Khalistan.

Following the previous Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's ordering of Operation Blue Star to flush out the militants, and her subsequent assassination by her own Sikh bodyguards sympathetic to the Khalistan cause, the situation in Punjab had become tense.

Pradhan also suggested involving the former Maharashtra Chief Minister Sharad Pawar in the Punjab negotiations.

Being from Maharashtra himself, Pradhan was aware of the political structure on his home state, and knew of Pawar's abilities, and his added advantage of being a friend of Parkash Singh Badal, one of the Akali strongmen.

Pradhan ordered the deployment of a contingent of Assam Rifles in the village for the safety of the enumerators, and so that political forces did not determine the outcome of the result.

It was as per that enumeration that the commission concluded that it could not make any recommendation for a suitable contiguous Hindi-majority area of villages that can be transferred to Haryana.

Pradhan formally resumed talks on the Assam problem at the insistence of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in April 1985.

Pradhan held five meetings with AASU in the first round of talks in May starting with a twenty-five-point discussion list.

The talks were held in confidentiality and even the Assam Chief Minister and the Governor were unaware of the progress made.

Following the accord the AASU formed their political wing Asom Gana Parishad which came to power in the elections held in Assam in December 1985, with P.K.

The talks started off roughly because Rajiv Gandhi had opposed some points of the agreement negotiated by Pradhan's predecessor with Laldenga.

The talks progressed slowly, but in June 1986, Pradhan made an offer for a quick resolution as he was retiring from government service that month.

Laldenga accepted this and in an hour's time all pending issues were cleared, and the draft of the agreement was prepared.

The state was having border problems with China at the time, and Pradhan's achievements in reaching the accords of northeast states of Assam and Mizoram and his previous experience in the Defence Ministry were the factors Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi considered before offering him the position.