By Matters India Reporter
New Delhi: Media persons and social activists joined Prime Minister Narendra Modi to mourn the death of Kuldip Nayar, an eminent writer and journalist who sympathized with the persecuted Christians of Kandhamal, Odisha.
Nayar died in New Delhi on August 23 following a brief illness. He was 95.
“Kuldip Nayar was an intellectual giant of our times. Frank and fearless in his views, his work spanned across many decades. His strong stand against the Emergency, public service and commitment to a better India will always be remembered. Saddened by his demise. My condolences,” the prime minister tweeted.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh too expressed sadness at the demise of senior journalist, columnist and former Member of Parliament. “As a columnist he candidly expressed his views in his widely read column ‘Between the Lines’. His contribution to journalism will be remembered. My thoughts are with his bereaved family,” Singh tweeted.
Journalists remembered the legendary Nayar for his “fearless” reportage and how he fought for liberal values. He was among the first few journalists to be jailed during the Emergency in 1975.
It was coincidental that the nonagenarian journalist died on the tenth anniversary of Kandhamal that witnessed the worst anti-Christian violence in modern Indian history.
Nayar supported the campaign for the release of seven people who now serve jail term for the murder of Hindu religious leader Swami Laxmanananda.
He wrote the foreword for a book “Who Killed Swami Laxmanananda?” written by veteran journalist Anto Akkara.
“But for his fatherly-like support, my campaign for Kandhamal’s voiceless folks would have never made the impact and attention it has drawn,” Anto said condoling Nayar’s death. “I bow my head before the godfather of Kandhamal. I feel sad that he died on this day.”
Born in 1924, in Sialkot province of Pakistan, Nayar wore several hats in his career spanning over six decades. After getting a degree in law from the famous Forman Christian College in Lahore, he went to the US on scholarship to study in the Medill School of Journalism.
Nayar started as a reporter in an Urdu newspaper called Anjam. Later he worked with several leading newspaper houses in the country, including the Indian Express and The Statesman. He was the resident editor of The Statesman in Delhi during the Emergency and was jailed under Maintenance of Internal Security Act for opposing it.
“I was arrested without prior notice – it stupefied me…Emergency was a curse. People were killed, but their families were not given any recognition. Riot victims got some claim, but what about widows and children who were left orphan, nobody even talk about their grievances,” Nayar said in an interview to The Statesman in 2015.
Nayar has authored 15 books. In his book ‘Beyond the Lines: An Autobiography’, he vividly spoke about the partition and the riots that followed, during India’s struggle for Independence. He wrote about his best works as a journalist including the 1971 war and interviews with Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Mujibur Rahman. He also talked about his candid conversation with Dr AQ Khan, often called the father of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb.
Nayar also served as the High Commissioner to the UK in 1990 and was a Rajya Sabha member between 1997 and 2001.
Nayar was deeply interested in peaceful relations between India and Pakistan. In his autobiography Beyond The Lines, he wrote about his interview with Pakistan’s nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, during which the latter revealed that Pakistan had a nuclear device well before it was thought to have had it.
As a journalist, he had documented in detail, human rights violations by the State.