Belonging to UP cadre, I came across a number of journalists who indulged in politics but never formally joined it. Many such journalists indulged in power games and some as “middle-men” enjoying the fruits of their labour. However, there were indeed a large number of professional journalists though their number is fast dwindling.
To club the three journalists I knew and who took to active politics would be unfair. Late Chandan Mitra, Swapan Das Gupta and Rajeev Shukla were all different though each one of them joined politics at some stage of their careers. Rajiv Shukla came from Kanpur, an industrial town in central Uttar Pradesh but perhaps harboured political ambitions pretty early in his career. Same can’t be said of Chandan and Swapan both whom were/are journalists par excellence. I had the occasion to meet with all of them when I was posted as Director Information and Public Relations, Government of Uttar Pradesh. Kalyan Singh was then the Chief Minister during 1991-1992. Those were tumultuous times. Chandan was a journalist with Hindustan Times and Swapan wrote for Indian Express. I don’t specifically recall which paper Rajiv wrote for but he was already amongst movers and shakers. Chandan and Swapan had no such pretensions, being thorough professionals. Chandan was fond of driving and details. Swapan was articulate and incisive. Both of them were keen political observers but not into politics by any stretch of imagination. I recall having long conversations with them when they visited Lucknow as they were based out of Delhi. Given the political temperature in UP, they did come over on a few occasions and even interacted with Kalyan Singh who was attempting to change the face of UP.
I kept in touch with Chandana and Swapan even after my tenure as Director, Information. In fact, I had a chance meeting with Swapan in London where he was resident reporter for Indian Express. I was accompanying a delegation led by Mulayam Singh Yadav who had succeeded Kalyan Singh as the Chief Minister of the state. Swapan was his usual friendly self. I am not sure when he decided to join politics though I was a trifle surprised when he did so because, as mentioned earlier, he was a journalist par excellence with a sharp mind. He looked at issues dispassionately and objectively despite his rightist leanings. I had an accidental meeting with him after a couple of decades on a flight to Kolkata. What a pleasure it was to connect with him again. Later, when “Encounters with Politicians” was to be launched in January this year, he readily acceded to my request for being a panelist to discuss the book. During the course of the discussion, despite having joined politics, he was his usual forthright self.
Chandan is no more now with us but he was one of the few journalists who I admired for adventure, grit and objectivity. His efforts to sustain the Pioneer newspaper were truly commendable. Unlike Swapan, Chandan never betrayed any leaning when I interacted with him during 1990s but perhaps that changed as he joined BJP and became an MP well before Swapan. However, there was hardly any change in his behaviour. I wasn’t very surprised when he quit BJP. Chandan was not cut out for politics.
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Rajiv Shukla was perhaps into politics long before he joined politics. He continued to write though the rumour was that he hardly wrote. Not very surprising because he went on to become a cricket administrator without having played cricket even at the state level. But why blame Rajiv. There are many who became and are still becoming cricket administrators in Board of Cricket Control of India (BCCI) without having held a bat. There were a couple of occasions when he did attempt to impart some of his art of management to me but I was incorrigible. He became distant as he climbed up the political ladder. He used his connections to become a Minister in the government but I wonder whether he would ever return to become a journalist if he ever was one.
