Informative volume

 He rushed to the newspaper office and with great difficulty the team managed to get a few 100 copies of a special edition printed before the rotary ground to a halt. Most Delhi dailies failed to come out next day as power was cut off. This was the first taste of press censorship to be enforced ruthlessly for months. Soon, he was sacked. Arbitrary detentions created a climate of fear and uncertainty prevailed. Sanjay Gandhi and his storm-troopers wielding extra-constitutional powers were running amok bulldozing slums and rounding up people for forcible sterilisation.

Illuminating the darkest chapter in independent India is just one of the inspiring accounts narrated in First Draft: Witness to the Making of Modern India, memoirs of B G Verghese.

With over six decades in the print media as correspondent, editor and columnist in major dailies, he has seen it all, the march of a resilient India from a fledgling democracy to an economic power. His long association with NGOs, including the Gandhi Peace Foundation, and experience as a member of several commissions and fact-finding teams, as well as stints with the government as Information Advisor to Prime Minister and Information Consultant to Defence Minister, have provided him with rare insights into contemporary events. Scion of an illustrious Syrian Christian family from Kerala, born in Burma and educated at Doon School, St Stephen’s College, Delhi, and Cambridge, Verghese had a chequered career. Beginning with vignettes of his childhood and school and college days, First Draft delves deep into issues and events that have shaped India. The dawn of freedom, Nehru’s focus on planning and public sector, India-China war, Indira Gandhi’s rise to power and Congress’ decline, Bangladesh liberation, institutional decline, end of Congress dominance and emergence of coalition era, formation and disintegration of Janata Party government, the strife in Punjab, J&K and North-East, India’s disastrous Lanka adventure, Naxalite problem, growth of Hindutva, economic reforms, Indo-Pak relations and  shift in India’s foreign policy are all dealt with.

Known as the father of development journalism, Verghese has written passionately on development projects, agrarian issues, famine, floods and the green revolution.

Magsaysay Award that he won in 1975 was in recognition of his ‘superior developmental reporting of Indian society .’ Verghese is convinced that at the root of agrarian unrest is the land right. He faults politicians for their inability to initiate meaningful land reforms.

Water resource development is a pet subject of his. With a bewildering array of statistics backed by expert studies, he argues that harnessing of river waters is crucial in fighting hunger. Regional co-operation among India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Tibet to tap Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna basin with huge hydro-electrical potential can do wonders, he says. Another agenda of his is the North-East, which has been cold-shouldered by policy-makers in Delhi. Verghese headed the Committee on Autonomy for Broadcasting after the Emergency and relentlessly pursued the cause of public broadcasting, but to no avail.

First Draft is more than instant history. It gives insights into unrecorded events too. About his tenure in government, Verghese says he was enriched as well as frustrated by the experience. He has found too much secrecy inhibiting government activities. As the Information Advisor of Mrs Gandhi, he found her gradually losing faith in her advisors. After the 1966 devaluation of the rupee, she became suspicious and started keeping aloof, listening more and more to immediate family members. She became dismissive of corruption as ‘a global phenomenon.’ He is roundly critical of Mrs Gandhi’s policy of hounding independent media, personalisation of power and meddling in states, including Punjab, with disastrous consequences.

 Journalists’ dilemma in reporting from conflict zones gets due prominence. At the height of Punjab insurgency, media was compelled to follow a ‘Panthic code’ to report from the ‘land of Khalistan.’ In a situation of terror, it is difficult to sift truth from falsehood. Human rights violation charges are often exaggerated. On new trends in journalism, Verghese says: “There is a great deal of  editorialising in the news columns and headlines and many journalists have become activists or propagandists for promoting a cause rather than portraying the news as it is giving all sides and leaving it to the reader to form his own judgement.” The growth of Hindutva has caused disquiet among liberals. He terms Gujarat riots “an act of barbarism never before witnessed in post-independent India with state complicity and deliberate plan to thwart investigation, prosecution and justice.”

First draft is a balanced, seminal work that complements contemporary history. Verghese is no arm-chair journalist. He is an optimist who believes that India’s resilience, diversity and values will ultimately triumph. He belongs to the vanishing breed of editors who are liberal, erudite, unbiased and uncompromising on principles and truth. Marked by rare felicity of expression and replete with interesting anecdotes involving leading lights, this highly informative volume enriches the reader.

FIRST DRAFT:WITNESS TO THE MAKING OF MODERN INDIA
B G Verghese
Tranquebar
2010, pp 573
695