When Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, the founding father of Bangladesh, along with several of his family members were assassinated after an army coup in 1975, the nation went into a complete lockdown. But a young reporter, then working with the UNI, managed to smuggle out two reports, one with his wife and another with a passenger who was flying to Kolkata. And that’s how the world came to know about one of the grimmest moments of political history in the sub-continent.
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The old world charm of journalism recently came to life during the launch of Mahendra Ved’s @75 As I Saw It: A Reporter Recounts (India Netbooks Ltd) on a nippy afternoon at the India International Centre in the capital.
During the panel discussion, Ambassador TCA Raghavan, former Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan, recalled his long association with Ved, saying his varied interests — from international affairs to national politics to cinema to celebrities — and the ability to connect the dots are rare in an age of social media and breaking news.
Commodore (retired) Ranjit Rai, former Director, Naval Intelligence, and Director, Naval Operations of the Indian Navy, recounted Ved’s eagerness to go to the depth of a story in a specialised subject line defence reporting. He said Ved was never aggressive, yet was always very firm on what he believed.
Veteran journalist Ramsharan Joshi went down memory lane saying his hours of adda at UNI, discussions on politics, politicians, prime ministers, issues concerning society are hard to forget.
Dr Sanjeev Kumar, a corporate affairs lawyer and publisher of the book, said it was difficult to restrict the mesmerising accounts to 401 pages. “After much persuasion, Ved sa’ab started writing the book. And finally, it was a 1,50,000-page draft, and then the dilemma was what to keep and what not,” said Dr Kumar.
Ved said he was lucky to have witnessed some of the major events that the country has witnessed. He said the book is a chronicle of his journey as a reporter and his memories.