Ram Nath Goenka Remembered

The evening began with a rendition of devotional songs by music icon Vani Jairam. Then guests spoke of the many facets of Goenka’s personality and stressed the importance of carrying on his legacy. ‘‘The disappearance of one man has dwarfed the media,’’ said S. Gurumurthy, a long-time associate of Goenka, who helped fight the prosecutions launched against the paper by the government.

Veteran journalist and former editor of The Indian Express Kuldip Nayar recalled how Goenka fought against the Emergency. ‘‘I was fortunate,’’ he said, ‘‘to have worked with the great man. He knew all about politics and, when the Emergency was imposed, said how the country was taken over by the darkness of dictatorship and how we all had to fight it.’’ Industrialist Venu Srinivasan, whom Goenka considered his own grandson, almost choked as he reminisced the close relationship his family had enjoyed with Goenka.

‘‘Ram Nath Goenka could verily be called the single largest contributor to the existence of a free press in India,’’ Union Law Minister Arun Jaitley said. ‘‘During the Emergency, despite the paper being threatened financially, and at a time when other newspapers began to look like government leaflets, we (Jaitley was in jail then) would read The Indian Express line by line to look for hidden messages to the people.’’ Ram Nathji was a ‘‘no-holds-barred fighter’’ who loved a fight. ‘‘He knew how to fight and which ace card was to be kept up his sleeve for the crucial moment,’’ Jaitley added.

At the function, a short slide show projected in graphic detail some highlights of Goenka’s life — from the time he became a sadhu (‘‘fortunately, his life of renunciation lasted only two days’’ was what the commentary said) to his days as a newspaper crusader.