Thaindian News

New Delhi, Oct 19 (IANS) A bygone era of Indian journalism, politics and social life diligently chronicled by K.P. Srivastava, a veteran journalist and media adviser to former prime minister Chandrasekhar, has come alive with the release here Wednesday of a new book “Pages from the Past - A Journalist Looks Back”.

The book, released by another veteran journalist and author Inder Malhotra at Press Club of India, captures the essence of political developments and the intricacies of manoeuvrings that took place in the corridors of power since the times of India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, his successor Lal Bahadur Shastri to Nehru’s daughter Indira Gandhi.

Brought out by Madurai-based Daya Publications, the book is a collection of articles by Srivastava or K.P., as his colleagues and friends called him. Srivastava, 86, retired as editor of The Press Trust of India in 1987.

“The book provides a ringside view of the political history of the country since independence and throws light on the kind of objective journalism practised by simple men of high calibre and integrity in the first few decades since 1947,” said former MP and poet Ratnakar Pandey at the book release, attended by many senior journalists of the capital.

Malhotra said it was the first time he had been invited to release a book though he had attended many a book release function either as a member of the audience or a panelist for a discussion on the book.

He said the book is a reflection of an era that brought back nostalgia to many a veteran journalists, but that the next generation of journalists will never understand.

“Though Srivastava was close to many a politician of the day, he was objective in his reporting. The book is a reflection of that era of objective reporting,” he said.

Daya Publications’ Nandini Murali said she had “stumbled” upon the manuscript of the book a few years ago and decided that “here is a book crying to be published”.

The book offers anecdotes and experiences of the author with politicians and the dilemmas of governance they faced in a culturally, linguistically and politically complex India.

Some important names of Indian politics mentioned in the book may be mere footnotes in Indian history for today’s youth. But to know about these politicians is important if one wants to get a proper perspective of how Indian politics panned out soon after independence from foreign rule, Murali added.