A man and his Times

One is quite taken by surprise by the diction that accompanies B G Verghese – seasoned journalist,former information advisor to Mrs G and now an erudite chronicler of history. A distinct professor-like refined sharpness in accent stands in contradiction to his flaccid,lanky physique. He holds the microphone gingerly and speaks with the effortless ease of a man who has seen enough,not to be surprised at anything anymore. In the city to launch his latest book First Draft,he officiously went about explaining his motivations,often by reading out from the tome. “The book is an account of what I saw. It’s not a historian looking back,but rather a journalist’s view of landmark events,” Verghese states.

His intellectual career spans editorship of top Indian newspapers. But his foray into the political brain-storming pack is what spices up the expectations of the book. Advisor to Indira Gandhi from 1966-68,during her reign as Prime Minister and Information Consultant to the Defence Minister in 2001,Verghese was a member of the National Security Advisory Board from 1998 to 2000 and of the Kargil Review Committee in 1999. Naturally,his association with Gandhi is what elicits maximum curiosity. And he is happy to oblige. “People often ask me about Indira Gandhi. I find it interesting,the curiosity to find out why and how her move towards the Emergency came about. I took over at the time when Gandhi was faced with one of the most critical problems of her initial days in office – that of the devaluation. The circumstances and personalities that surrounded this decision,I feel,left a deep impact on her character. She turned inwards. From then on,she trusted just a small coterie of friends and her ‘inner voice’. She was inexperienced then,but was,without doubt,very savvy,” Verghese explains,rather matter-of-factly.

Excerpts from his book throw up an old world charm and humour in the writing. Incidents of his boyhood in the famed Doon school and the back-door innuendos of politicians and police officials during the Prohibition present a jocular pointer at the motley of idealism and hypocrisy that India is. “I am not saying that I am right or wrong. What I feel is that what these personalities did and what shaped their decisions need to be recorded. There needs to be a record as to why they did what they did,” says he.

A certain aura surrounds any experienced journalist. They are assumed to rest their fingers on the popular pulse of the nation. But Verghese would have none of it. “A journalist,because he works so closely with politicians and is witness to them with their hair down,thinks that he knows them. That he knows about politics. They don’t! When I got close to politics I realised that it is pure madness!”