"Patelites" were victims of Nehru's wrath -- Khushwant Singh

"Patelites" were victims of Nehru's wrath -- Khushwant Singh
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

NEW DELHI, JULY 9: Differences between two founding fathers of the country, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel, had come to "such a pass" that even terminologies like "Patelite" surfaced in government circles and Nehru took to task those considered close to Patel, says noted writer and journalist Khushwant Singh.

"I never realised that difference between Sardar Patel and Panditji had come to such a pass that you either belonged to one person or the other," says Singh in a free-wheeling interview to diplomat-author Pavan K Varma for a new compendium Khushwant Singh -- An Icon of Our Age.

Squarely blaming Krishna Menon for such an impasse, Singh recalls "a man senior to me, Sudhir Ghosh, was fired entirely because Krishna Menon wrote to Panditji that he is a Patelite".

The volume, edited by media consultant Kaamna Prasad, carries articles penned by a galaxy of popular personalities from a wide spectrum of life including business tycoons, senior journalists, politicians and authors both from India and Pakistan, throwing light on Singh as a man, scribe and writer.

Recalling his short stint as Public Relations Officer in the Government, Singh tells Varma about the circumstances that led to his resignation from the "good job".

"I did not know what a PRO's job was. Then I had a very difficult boss in Krishna Menon who was hard to please .... I got on very well with him in the beginning, but he could be so rude and discourteous.

"I had been a great favourite and I was replaced by greater favourities -- P N Haksar and a few others".

Dwelling at considerable length on Menon, his boss, Singh wonders, "One thing I could never understand was why Panditji would not hear anything against Menon.

"There were many reports against Menon. I recall that many deputy high commissioners had left writing angry accounts of the way they had been treated by Krishna Menon ..... I saw letters he wrote to Panditji describing people as a Patelite," notes Singh.

Commenting on what really inspired him to take to creative writing and whether he read works of great authors, Singh in his inimitable style says, "On the contrary, great authors gave me a feeling of inadequacy. I felt, why should I write ..... It was second rate writers who gave me encouragement.

The author of several celebrated works, including Train To Pakistan, also maintains that patrons did not come his way.

"The way R K Narayan got Graham Greene and Mulk Raj Anand got somebody else. I didn't have a patron".

Recalling Khushwant Singh's stint in the Rajya Sabha, deputy chairperson of the Upper House Najma Heptulla lauds his debates on the freedom of the press.

She says in 1986, when Singh was to retire from the House, he requested the Chair in the following words -- aptly befitting a person like him -- "It is one request because it is my last one to you. When comes the time for you to read my obituary, please do not keep your eyes on the watch you see when the minute is over. You can reduce the silence to ten seconds, but do it with a sigh or a tear."

In his piece, industrialist Bharat Ram recalls their younger days together adding, "One can say that we were both fond of the same girl in school, his future wife.

"He married the girl because he happened to be a Sikh and I was not a Sikh ..... I did not even have the guts to propose to her," says Ram.

In his contribution to the octagenerian writer and columnist, business tycoon Lord Swraj Paul describes Singh as a "quintessential professional".

"His decision to make writing his full-time professionwas a fateful one. It had consequences far more than personal," he says.

Pakistani journalist Nelofar Farooq in her essay Delhi's most famous living monument', maintains, "Getting away with just about anything has become Khushwant Singh's hallmark. Despite being a proclaimed agnostic, in April this year he was awarded the Nishan-e-Khalsa, the highest honour to be given by the Sikh community".

The volume, to be released on July 15 by External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh, also has artciles on Singh written by eminent personalities, including journalists M J Akbar and H K Dua, author Namita Gokhale and filmmaker Pamela Rooks.