A journalist’s frontline account of India’s decades of conflict

At first instance, the title may lead the reader to an impression that the book in hand is a work of fiction. Yet, as the saying goes, truth is stranger than fiction, and this is what makes it an interesting read.

Spanning 400 pages and comprising a dozen chapters, this gripping narrative recounts the travails of a journalist who witnessed the turn of violent events that have pockmarked Indian history over the last four decades. Added in each of these events are candid observations by the author on the underlying factors behind the conflict, many of which remain unaddressed.

Organised chronologically as events that unfolded during the journalist’s voyage as a correspondent tasked to report on them for reputed media organisations, the book takes the reader through a journey beginning with militancy taking root in Punjab in the 1980s; in Jammu and Kashmir from the 1990s onwards; the Ayodhya Movement and the Babri Masjid developments; and the Kargil War. Interaction with an underworld don and meeting dreaded militants of J&K are some of the domestic events the author recounts.

Dexterously woven alongside are travels to Pakistan, a visit to Pakistan Occupied Jammu and Kashmir for a rare peep into the headquarters of Lashkar-e-Taiba in Muridke, a place that was the target of Indian jets during ‘Operation Sindoor’; a sojourn to war-torn Afghanistan under the Taliban towards the late 1990s; and, while on a scholarship in the UK, a freelance undercover assignment to work on the modus operandi of how agents operated the ‘donkey route’, a slang to facilitate illegal immigration, which till date remains a problem for countries across Europe and the United States.

Journalism today has increasingly found acceptance as a gender-neutral profession. The prejudices faced by pioneers who charted a course to join newsrooms in the 1960s have been worn down over the decades, although they can be seen popping up even now. The author does recall how the situation worked sometimes in her favour and at times against her.

Reminiscences of the latter could not have been starker than in the episode of her travel to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan in 1996. At a Minister’s press conference, she, along with other women reporters, was asked to get up from the seats around the conference table and stand at the end of the hall, with firm instructions that asking questions would deprive them of even a place in the room.

Having reported from different conflict zones—Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, and from the frontlines during the Kargil War—the author draws upon her published reports across publications, including interactions with key players. These have been juxtaposed with the march of history and contemporary developments during the last decade, and in the process offer her impressions on the current state of affairs.

With the benefit of hindsight, is the country better placed, and have the policy planners moved forward, drawing lessons from the experiences, are some of the questions the author attempts to look at.

Her journey as an enterprising and enthusiastic field person tasked to report from conflict zones is the core around which the book has been carved out. The life-threatening situations journalists face in areas where bullets are flying around, or the atmosphere of distrust is thick, are the challenges professionals have to endure.

For a journalist who entered the profession in the 1980s, when turbulence began in Punjab, and through the era when Mandal-Kamandal politics, or the deep and violent unrest in J&K was in full play during the 1990s, the difficult nature of relations with Pakistan, leading to the Kargil War at the turn of the century and onwards, the author has been in the thick of action. The reviewer can relate to these for being a contemporary traveller in the profession and having been, intermittently, at some of these hotspots.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution that can be taught in J-schools yet, but in these episodes, the author makes the reader live through experiences. The underlying message is how neutrality of the profession becomes a shield, and of course, providence at times comes to the rescue.

Inherent in the book are two central lessons for any aspiring journalist, currently distracted by easy and open access to social media. One, there can be no substitute for being on the ground. The ‘on-the-spot’ experience cannot be replicated by watching it from faraway newsrooms on mobile screens. The second, and more important, is the careful accumulation of trusted sources, who are the lifeline for journalists.

For every other reader, the book offers a concise rendition of events over these decades with appropriate reproduction of interviews with politicians and personalities associated with these. Journalists, as the author mentioned, are students of history, or also known as those writing its first draft; the book takes a holistic view and commentary on it through a rear-view. As for the title, it is for the reader to figure out where it is buried. No denouement here.

(The reviewer is a senior journalist based in Delhi)