Russi Karanjia ... ANAND K. SAHAY recalls his former editor's panache and journalistic acumen

[Frederick [FN] Noronha * फ्रेडरिक नोरोंया]

http://www.tehelka.com/story_main37.asp?filename=hub160208Russi_Karanjia.asp

From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 5, Issue 6, Dated Feb 16, 2008

CULTURE & SOCIETY   appraisal

Russi Karanjia

ANAND K. SAHAY recalls his former editor's panache and journalistic acumen

 RK KARANJIA, India's journalist A-bomb of his day, who passed away at
96 last week, hired me for the Delhi bureau of the Mumbai-based daily
he had just started. He was 70. Who could doubt Russi was at the
height of his powers? The Daily hit the stands a full 40 years after
Russi had stormed journalistic barn-doors with his first newspaper,
the weekly Blitz (with editions in Hindi and Urdu, besides English),
which delighted, muck-raked, raised the ideological standard of its
founder, and sent bullshitters cowering. Blitz naturally had an
enormous circulation. It also had a huge fan-following.

At an age when most men are bent on their staff, Russi was busy
setting a trend with a daily tabloid which had a bulldog on its
masthead to symbolise the watchdog role the paper aspired to. Unlike
Blitz, which pioneered investigative journalism in the country, The
Daily was a mellow affair, but only by the standards of its famous
weekly predecessor. The paper's quick success was chiefly the
consequence of its founder's energy, charisma, influence and outright
charm, though the vibrancy of its journalists may have played a part.
Russi Karanjia was debonair. He kept the society of men and women of
influence, affluence and glamour, but the causes he espoused weren't
those of the rich and powerful.

Karanjia's detractors falsely suggested that he was a communist. In
respect of the last stage of his journalistic life — he had been
seriously ill for about a decade before he died, suffering an almost
complete loss of memory — it has been claimed that he had gone over to
the RSS. This sounds extraordinary. On a personal plane, Karanjia held
no dogmas. He may have had numerous friendships among Leftists or
communists but these would typically be people of his own class, such
as the
late Rajni Patel, a onetime communist charmer and political
intellectual who became a leading Bombay Congressman. The only clear
line that one can see in his politics is support for Nonalignment.
Since Dulles called Nonalignment "immoral", America's Indian followers
in that period hated Karanjia's guts and called him names. Russi
admired Nehru; he was friends with Krishna Menon, Nehru's trusted
lieutenant for years who travelled the world canvassing the
nonalignment cause; and he knew the Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser
well.Russi never reminisced boastfully but occasionally these names
cropped up in his conversations. Later, he would come to know Indira
Gandhi well.

THE LAST prime minister Russi knew was Rajiv Gandhi. For this young
leader he had great personal affection. This was partly on account of
his own connections with the Nehru-Gandhi line, and partly because in
Rajiv Russi saw a dasher. But a generation gap was visible, and he did
not get much traction in the Rajiv Gandhi period. However, Rajiv once
gave me a great interview (just before he would become PM in tragic
circumstances) because I represented Karanjia's paper. Russi Karanjia
had extraordinary journalistic sense. Not long after Rajiv assumed
office, he asked us in the Delhi bureau to keep an eye on VP Singh's
political moves. "This man is the only one in the cabinet who could
try to upstage the prime minister", he said with clairvoyance. Scoops
were my editor's lifeblood.

On the eve of Partition, when he and the Blitz were young, Karanjia
smuggled himself into a crucial meeting of the Chamber of Princes —
dressed in full regalia as a prince of a minor state! — being held to
decide what line the so-called native rulers might adopt on joining
India or Pakistan or remaining independent. This was one journalistic
coup he talked about for years, laughing good-naturedly. But when I
sought his permission to get into the Palk Straits aboard a flimsy
dinghy (I had had tentative discussions with the intelligence chaps)
to report on the LTTE situation, he said, "I don't want you getting
shot up on the water." Although a Parsi, Russi was a Sai Baba devotee.
He was also fanatical about his yoga, never failing to rise at four to
practise it. Though he lived flamboyantly, he ate simply, rarely more
than a couple of chapattis and yoghurt. And he was full of courtesy.
If the humblest of men came to see him, he would escort them to the
door after the meeting.


From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 5, Issue 6S, Dated Feb 16, 2008

--
Frederick Noronha http://fn.goa-india.org Ph +91-832-2409490
The Goa books blog: http://goabooks.wordpress.com
Goa1556 (alt.publishing.goa): http://goa1556.goa-india.org