Kuldip Nayar was at once a passionate reporter, an activist for peace between India and Pakistan and a person who believed that a meaningful democracy cannot exist without a free and fiercely independent press.
With his passing on Thursday at the age of 95, a voice that never balked at speaking about the perils of a press subjugated to the will of the ruling dispensation has fallen silent. At a time when the print and the electronic press is increasingly seen to be its master’s voice, Nayar lamented that “newspapers and television channels have themselves become so pro-establishment that the government doesn’t have to do anything to make them fall in line”.
This self-censorship is starkly different from the time of the Emergency in 1975, when Indira Gandhi used official censorship to silence criticism.
Nayar stepped into journalism directly from the Press Information Bureau (PIB) in the 1960s. At the PIB, he was, by dint of the nature of his job, a spokesperson for one minister or another. This required him to defend government policy. But after he made a career switch – launching into journalism as the head of then fledgling United News of India – he never looked back.
Born in Sialkot (now in Pakistan) in 1923, Nayar was particularly sentimental and even stubbornly optimistic about forging peace between the hostile neighbours. Passionate about India-Pakistan peace, he was part of a group that regularly held candle light vigils at the Attari-Wagah border.
Over time, Nayar acquired the distinction of being a reporter with uncompromising passion and a sharp nose for news. Throughout his life and journalistic career, he remained doggedly opposed to any government move that had the potential of undermining the independence of the press. In his mission to safeguard media autonomy and freedom, Nayar would often make common cause with other journalists. He teamed up with his colleagues during Emergency to fight censorship. He revealed the same streak of resistance later when former Congress prime minister Rajiv Gandhi sought to bring the Anti-defamation Bill in 1988, which was a direct attack on press freedom. Faced with resolute opposition to the bill, Gandhi was forced to withdraw it.
Kuldip Nayar. Credit: YouTube/RSTV
More recently, under pressure from journalists, wholeheartedly supported by Nayar, the Narendra Modi government had to withdraw a proposed order to monitor digital media, aimed at checking proliferation of fake news. The monitoring committee was tasked to bring online information under regulation, on the lines applicable to print and electronic media.
During the years he occupied the post of director at the Printers Mysore Private Ltd that publishes Deccan Herald, Nayar continued to defend press freedom even as more and more media outlets made compromises.
The first opportunity that came Nayar’s way to make a news splash was during the time he was general manager/editor of UNI. He had gone to Tashkent to report on the talks between India and Pakistan after hostilities between the two countries ended in 1965. I was then working at UNI. The memory of that day still lives with me. The Tashkent declaration was signed and sealed. Correspondents had filed their stories. It was past midnight in India and newspapers had started rolling out when a call from Nayar dictated two words in a flash – “Shastri Dead “.
As information officer, Nayar was well acquainted with Lal Bahadur Shastri even prior to his becoming prime minister. After the Tashkent declaration was signed, Nayar went to meet Shastri, hoping to get some insights into the development. It was there that he learnt of Shastri’s death. That night, newspapers had to destroy papers already printed and the front page had to be remade.
Some believed Nayar to be soft on some pro-Khalistani elements within the Akali Dal. He may have met some of these elements when he was India’s high commissioner in the United Kingdom. He perhaps even naively believed that lack of proper understanding of the resentment and anger in Punjab had led to the terrible turn of events that came to be associated with the Khalistan movement.
Nayar was also close to several prime ministers – Lal Bahadur Shastri, later V.P. Singh and Inder Kumar Gujral. He was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 1997.
Work was the passion of his life. Nayar remained engaged in public conversations and writing till just a few weeks before he died.
Neena Vyas covered the Bharatiya Janata Party for years for The Hindu.