NC, the last individualist

He looked sullen as he walked into the office on a hot day in June. We at the India Press Agency IPA were all waiting for him to get more ...

He looked sullen as he walked into the office on a hot day in June. We at the India Press Agency IPA were all waiting for him to get more news about the Emergency Indira Gandhi had imposed on the nation the previous night. We knew that the quintessential reporter that he was, he would have gathered all possible information about the cataclysmic event. We were not disappointed as he came with the chilling details of the censorship that had been imposed. That particular action settled the issue for Nikhil Chakravartty. He had turned into a bitter critic of the Emergency.

Later in the day a senior colleague of mine had a visitor a top official from All India Radio who had personally come to persuade him to do that evening8217;s Spotlight for AIR. He was in two minds, whether to take up the assignment or not. As he was in doubt, he contacted Nikhilda, who clearly told him that he personally would not do such a programme and left the matter entirely to the wisdom of the colleague. With the AIR visitor breathingdown his neck, he my colleague finally said yes. Of course, the official had not told the colleague that AIR had contacted many senior editors and commentators before approaching him.

For the colleague it was a race against time. As he finished each paragraph, a messenger would carry it to Akashvani Bhavan. No other Spotlight could ever have had so many listeners. That day people were lapping up every bit of information on the Emergency. The script so pleased the government that it got it translated into all the Indian and many foreign languages.

Millions of copies of the Spotlight were printed and distributed in the government8217;s bid to popularise the Emergency. As a reward, the writer got Rs 75, which was his rate in those days. In the process, he became a butt of ridicule among journalistic circles. He was to regret that decision forever. If only he had taken the cue from Nikhilda, he would not have faced the embarrassment of having to defend the Emergency.

Despite being a trenchant critic ofJayaprakash Narayan and his Total Revolution, Nikhilda had utter scorn for the Emergency and censorship. Soon his Mainstream became a valiant campaigner against the regime. As a mark of protest against censorship, he left the editorial column blank but when the government cracked down on even this, he used quotations from Tagore to remind the nation of its bondage. Mainstream hardly had any circulation worth the name but it was feared by the regime as NC, as Nikhilda signed himself, used sarcasm, wit, and puns in his editorial notes to poke fun at the rulers who, he believed, had gone absolutely crazy. But for his personal equation with the PM, he too would have been behind bars.

Nikhilda never allowed age to catch up with him. Despite various positions that came his way, he remained at the core a reporter who made periodic rounds of his sources, ranging from junior officials to the President of India. Those who worked as a reporter under him would fondly recall Nikhilda asking them to do stories on subjectas varied as Gandhiji8217;s basic education and genetic research. All that they had to do was to meet the gentleman he named and 8220;tell him that Nikhil has sent you8221;. He never allowed any hiatus to develop between him and his colleagues. Nor did he distinguish between a cub reporter and a senior editor.

Once Nikhilda was a card-holder of the CPI but that did not prevent him from expressing his opinion, which was often at variance with that of the party. And when he found that the two were becoming incompatible, he preferred to part company with the party. He was an individualist, who upheld liberal values. Even when he became the first chairman of Prasar Bharati, he did not give up his pen. He held it with passion till Saturday, when death snatched him away from his battleship in action.