In lieu of tribute to Pritish Nandy, said to be instrumental in collapse of Reliance-controlled daily

By Rajiv Shah 

It is widely reported that Pritish Nandy, journalist, author, animal activist, and politician, has passed away. While it is customary to pay tributes to a departing soul—and I, too, have joined those who have posted heartfelt condolences on social media—I cannot forget the way he treated me when he was editor of the Reliance-controlled Business and Political Observer (BPO), for which I had been working informally in Moscow.

This was around 1990, a time when Moscow was in turmoil, and the Soviet Union was falling apart before my very eyes. At the time, I was the special correspondent for the daily Patriot and the weekly Link, meticulously reporting every event. I returned to Delhi for a few days during this period. RK Mishra, the editor of Patriot and Link, had left the Link House, from where the two periodicals were published, to assist Reliance—then chaired by the late Dhirubhai Ambani—in establishing BPO, initially called Observer of Business and Politics.

Earlier, Mishra, whom I knew closely, had tried to "sell" Patriot and Link to Reliance but failed. The then-chairperson of the two periodicals, prominent freedom fighter Aruna Asaf Ali, firmly opposed the deal, leading to its collapse and Mishra's resignation. I was told that both Patriot and Link were in financial trouble. Mishra had attempted to make Patriot the first Indian daily to use computers in the early 1980s, presumably incurring significant debt in the process.

Mishra appointed me as part-time BPO correspondent in Moscow in the late 1980s. I was even given an appointment letter but was advised not to resign from Patriot and Link immediately, as my position would be regularized in due course. Since my salary from Patriot and Link was often delayed by two or three months, I began writing for BPO, though not under my name. BPO, owned by Reliance, paid well.

Seeking regularization, I arranged for a flat in BPO's name, as Mishra had suggested, and sent a message asking if I should sign an agreement. I was asked to wait. Meanwhile, my Russian friends discovered that BPO was owned by Reliance. One of them, whom I addressed as Slava, took me to a senior trade ministry official, introducing me as a Reliance representative. I was embarrassed and had to clarify my position.

My repeated messages to Mishra about regularizing my position as BPO's Moscow correspondent went unanswered. Later, I learned from Indian embassy officials that Mishra had been "kicked up" to a more "senior" position without any power, perhaps as chairman, while Pritish Nandy, whom I did not know, had become the editor.

During this time, my wife, a Gujarati translator for a Russian publishing house, was offered tickets to visit India with family. We decided to travel. In Delhi, I visited the BPO office for the first time. The journalists there received me warmly, and we discussed Moscow politics. Eventually, I decided to meet Mishra.

Mishra called me in, and I asked why my situation had not been resolved. He suggested I speak to Nandy. I went to Nandy's office, informed his assistant that I wanted to meet him, and waited for around an hour, but there was no response. I don't know if this was because he considered me a Mishra man. I don't rule it out: a typical media stereotype.

Suddenly, I saw BN Uniyal, previously the chief of bureau at Patriot and who had become executive editor at BPO, arrived. Known to me, I approached him and expressed my wish to meet Nandy. Uniyal, somewhat curtly, told me that while I had done good stories from Moscow for BPO, they were "not as good as" those by Chidanand Rajghatta, BPO's Washington correspondent. I was taken aback, especially since I had not yet started working for BPO full-time.

Realizing that my association with BPO was coming to an end, I returned home. A few days later, journalist friends informed me that ever since Pritish Nandy had taken over, the paper was struggling. It had decided to drop all foreign correspondents. Critics alleged that BPO had become a Reliance mouthpiece under Nandy, excessively projecting the Ambani family. After limping for a few more years, the paper folded.

I did not follow Nandy's career thereafter. Mishra, however, continued to thrive, eventually becoming the chairperson of the Reliance-backed think tank, the Observer Research Foundation. Today, it is a prominent institution, organizing seminars and publishing articles on topics ranging from foreign affairs to ecology, business, health, and education.