I Haven't Compromised": Interviewofthefortnight

I N T E R V I E W OF THE FORTNIGHT
KHUSHWANT SINGH
I Haven't Compromised"
AT 68, Khushwant Singh, ebullient, earthy and a man with an impish sense of fun,
is acknowledged to be a household name.
At the end of January, Singh, who has
delighted readers with his acid and barbed
weekly column in The Hindustan Times, is
stepping down as editor after less than three
years in the seat. The bespectacled and slightly stooping "gentleman sardarji" has
been the subject of much acid debate, but
has rarely let that affect his image. Frank
and forthright, Singh has changed jobs amidst raging controversy. He was ousted from
The Illustrated Weekly of India in 1977 by
the Janata regime, primarily because of his
blatant and unabashed show of loyalty to
Mrs Gandhi and the late Sanjay Gandhi,
winning himself the epithet of "Khushamad
Singh" from an indignant reader.
The high point of Singh's career in
journalism, which started in 1969, was his
stewardship of The Illustrated Weekly; He
left his indelible mark on the magazine by
injecting into its somewhat dull format, pictures of nudes and his iconoclastic views.
The circulation of the magazine shot up
dramatically and, with it, his market value.
All along his varied career as lawyer,
London-based diplomat, author of the
best-selling Train To Pakistan and History
Of The Sikhs, and editor of such diverse
publications as the Planning Commission's
Yojana magazine, National Herald, New
Delhi magazine and of course The
Hindustan Times, Singh has been many a
time charged with inconsistency in his
political leanings. Claiming to have no regrets, his analogy of Maneka Gandhi as
'"Durga astride a tiger", however made a
dent in his relations with Mrs Gandhi. But
he was able to establish himself in her favour
again and was rewarded with a seat in the
Rajya Sabha.
Sympathetic to the cause of women's
liberation, Singh is unable to comprehend
the readers' objection to his
"playfully
lewd" references to women in his columns.
After leaving The Hindustan Times Singh
has every intention of remaining in the limelight. He will continue his widely read
column 'With Malice Towards One And
All' in The Hindustan Times apart from
writing for the Ananda Bazar group of publications. He also has another project on
handa novel, with Delhi as its backdrop,
which has been lying incomplete on his desk
for the last 12 years. INDIA TODAY
Correspondent COOMI KAPOOR met and interviewed Singh in his -first floor Hindustan
84
Times Building office in

Extracts from the interview:
New
Delhi.
Q. / understand the Birlas have asked

you to relinquish charge even before your
contract expires in May.
A. I have not been asked to leave
early. I am taking the leave accumulated
during my nearly three years in The
Hindustan Times. Let me add that the relationship between the Birlas and me is
most cordial.
"My suspicion is that it

was Sanjay Gandhi who
got me the job in The
Hindustan Times.'1'1
Q. Was there political pressure on the
Birlas not to renew your contract?
A. That is my conjecture. At the same
time I have been quite obviously blacklisted from radio and TV, since around
the time of the last Cabinet reshuffle. Even
advertised programmes and totally nonpolitical programmes like the "World Of
Nature" series, which I have been told
had the largest viewing, were cancelled

suddenly and without any explanation.
You know nothing remains secret in
India. My own friends in AIR and
Doordarshan told me that instructions had
come not to give me so much exposure.
Or none at all.
Q. Where have these instructions come
from ?
A. That I wouldn't know. But quite
obviously they came from somebody close
to her (Indira Gandhi) or to the set-up.
They found my views unpalatable for reasons best known to themselves and they
took the step. Even a programme like the
Akali summit where without a doubt I
would be one of the persons normally called, I was not. Small-minded people have
done it. But I can't pin-point the individuals. It would be unfair.
Q. Can you pin-point which of your
views was unpalatable ? Some feel your fall
from grace is because of the conservative
Birla's disapproval of your constant use of
titillating references.
A. Absolute rubbish. Birla has never
been annoyed with me. One of the contradictions of this is that he is asking me
to continue writing my column, which
they admit is the most widely read column
and reproduced in about a dozen other
newspapers.
Q. Then was it your selection of
Maneka as Sanjay's successor which was
unpalatable ?
A. I have been totally misquoted. The
column you are referring to was written
immediately after Sanjay's death. I made a
conjecture and the interpretation has been
wrongly put. I did not say she was
Sanjay's successor. I said she may carry
on Sanjay's mantle. At that time Rajiv
had clearly shown that he had no inclination for politics. Maneka was not taken
seriously. I only said she's not as nambypamby as most people imagine. There was
a lot to her and when driven to it she can
be like Durga on a tiger. But that this
should be interpreted that I was supporting Maneka against Rajiv or Rajiv against
Maneka is an absolute fallacy. It is a tragic state of affairs when, in a country of
700 million, people are being asked to
choose between Maneka and Rajiv. The
impression has been created that this is all
we have to choose from.
Q. Then was the impression that you
were soft on Maneka a major reason for
your removal?
INDIA TODAY, J A N U A R Y } [ , l y S j
>
A. Don't put words into my mouth. I

have no doubt that there was a certain
amount of unhappiness amongst the powers that be. And ! suspect that this is
what the}' believe to be my stand, which is
not correct. And I am sorry for them that
they should be such small-minded people.
Q. With hindsight do you regret you
wrote that piece'!
A. I don't regret writing it. But it cost
me dearly.
Q. Can an editor of a major national
daily in this country survive without
compromising ?
A. I haven't compromised and I
haven't survived. And it is my distinction
that I have fallen foul of successive
governments. And at least three to four
ministers of information and broadcasting,
having the misfortune to run the statecontrolled media, have had to blacklist
me. An editor of an Indian national daily
can survive for long only if he has the
support of his boss and the boss has the
i
nerve. One has to make exceptions. For
example, in the Ananda Bazar group there
is a much closer relationship between the
editor and the proprietor. Those who own
their own papers don't have that particular problem.
Q. How would you describe your relationship with the various newspaper owners you have worked with ?
A. The relations between the Birlas
and me have been the most cordial. The
relations with the Sarkars of the Ananda
Bazar group have also been very cordial.
As for the Jains of the Bennett, Coleman
group, the relationship became foul only
at the last stage. I have not the slightest
\t that the Jains were pressurised by
Morarji Desai or his son to dispense with
my services and I got it as much in words
from Ashok Jain. The Jains paid the price
for bowing to political pressure. The
Illustrated Weekly is back to where it was
before T took over. And I don't think the
editors are as much to blame as the proprietors. If you go on being mealy mouthed in everything you do that is the result. You have to take a very distinct line
and you really have to have a passion. 1
don't think my successors had any
passion.
Q. How would you rate your innings in
The Hindustan Times? You haven't left
your individual stamp on the newspaper the
way you did in The Illustrated Weekly.
A. No editor can leave his stamp on a
daily. I can name my distinguished predecessors who left no stamp on the paper. In
fact I left more stamp because I added
more items.
f
Q. To what extent was your appointment as editor of The Hindustan Times due
INDIA TODAY, J A N U A R Y 3 1 , 1983
to your journalistic credentials and to what

degree was it to your impeccable political
connections ?
A. A combination of both. Attempts
were made at one time, which were entirely political to foist me on the Indian
Express. It wasn't as if I had not made a
certain amount of name for myself...my
suspicion is that it was Sanjay Gandhi
who got me the job in The Hindustan
Times.
Q. Some feel that your 'Malice
Towards One And All' column should at
least spare the dead. Your remarks on
Baburao Patel, Rajni Patel and Lala Shri
Ram were thought to be in bad taste.
A. I have no respect for the dead just
"An editor of an
Indian national daily
can survive for long
only if he has the
support of his boss
and the boss has
the nerve."
because they are dead. I don't see how
just because a person has died he has acquired some kind of sanctity. If a fellow is
a dubious type then the best time to take
him on is after he is dead. He can't take
you to court. It's completely untrue that
the Shri Ram family was offended with
my observations. Charat Ram roared with
laughter when he met me and said: 'I'm
glad to know the old man had a glad eye'.
44
They don't know how

to carry pornography.
I did it with finesse.
And never a complaint
from the court or the
Press Council."
Q. Aren't you somewhat iindiscriminating in the way you accept free trips from all
and sundry ?
A. I agree. If I get a free ticket to go
abroad I take it. I believe I never travelled
at the expense of either the Jains or the
Sarkars and only once at the expense of
the Birlas.
Q. Presumably you consider yourself a
male chauvinist considering you never mention a woman in your column without describing her physical attributes ?
A. Why does that make me a chauvinist? I am very pro women's lib. If I
find a woman attractive I say so. I don't
make passes at them. I don't see men as
sex objects certainly.
Q. What was your most rewarding experience in journalism ?
A. My stay in The Illustrated Weekly.
The Weekly became a household word
during my tenure.
Q. But The Illustrated Weekly flourished at a time when there was no real
competition. Today's magazines are far
more professional and competitive. Could
you repeat your success ?
A. I could beat the hell out of them.
They haven't a clue.
Q. A clue to what?
A. They don't know how to carry
pornography. I did it with finesse. And
never a complaint from the .court or the
Press Council. I didn't go for hammy
things. My captions carried more information than their pictures.
Q. Was the controversial Hindustan
Times Sunday Weekly on Pakistan last
November withdrawn for circulation after
you had cleared it ?
A. I did not clear it as I was away in
Paris. But I did find it objectionable. The
introductory caption was unfortunate. It
said that while the linguistic and religious
minorities are always airing their grievances here, in Pakistan the minorities are
happy. The comparison was odious.
Q. What is the role of the newspaper
in India?
A. The role of the newspapers in this
country is very limited. It is strictly a metropolitan phenomenon and even there it
has a very restricted impact. Except that
the ruling class comes from the newspaper
reading section and therefore gives it
much greater importance than it deserves.
Q. Do you think that newspapers in
India "should play the role of the
Opposition ?
A. I think it should play the role of
the Opposition. The Government controls
the news agencies, the entire mass media
and all that. And if the press doesn't present the Opposition point of view, which it
doesn't, with the exception of the Indian
Express and some others, who will?
Q. How susceptible are Indian journalists to pressures ?
A. Enormously susceptible. It is my
personal experience and of my own colleagues that bribery and corruption are
there. One gets to know about it only
when the report is slanted. There is damn
all you can do about it.
85

I Haven't Compromised": Interviewofthefortnight

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I N T E R V I E W OF THE FORTNIGHT

Times Building office in

Q. / understand the Birlas have asked

"My suspicion is that it

had the largest viewing, were cancelled

A. Don't put words into my mouth. I

INDIA TODAY, J A N U A R Y 3 1 , 1983

to your journalistic credentials and to what

They don't know how

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