Hindustan Times
How we got Kobad Gandhy right
We got lucky with Kobad Gandhy and that’s how we had with the best story in town. Or was it more?
The excitement began early in the day.
Our Jamshedpur correspondent who has been in Delhi for a refresher course heard from a source: someone big has been picked up in Delhi.
Vijay got down to it right away. But being an outsider in Delhi, he wasn’t getting anywhere. That’s when Karan, our crime reporter, jumped in. The top Maoist, the source had told us, was arrested in Delhi.
And the Delhi police had to know. They did. But they were in one of their moods. No officer of the Special Branch would talk.
It looked like a story ready to slip out of ours hands. And, at that stage, no one would have cried much for we did not know how big was the catch.
But both Vijay and Karan kept at it. I am sure they felt like giving up at some stage, “To hell with the cops”.
It was a little after dark that they got the name: Kobad Gandhy.
No one gave it much importance then. Who is Kobad Gandhy? As a story, it was still up in the air.
We started talking about it. And by now the two reporters had managed a little more. Gandhy, we were told, was a member of politburo of the Communist Party of India (Maoist).
So, is the politburo the top-most decision making body? “No, the Central Committee is,” said Vijay patiently.
So, why is Gandhy such a big deal? “Because,” said Vijay, “he is also a member of the Central Committee.”
And what did he do as a Central Committee member? “He was in charge of publications.”
But that’s hardly a dangerous Maoist to be feared. Vijay was now close to losing his patience. He is in the thick of the Maoists problem, and expects everyone to know it all as well as he does.
He retained his cool though: “Gandhy was also a recruiter.” Now, that made him somewhat more dangerous.
Debashish, our Page One editor, walked by around this time. “Did you say Kobad Gandhy?” he asked. Everyone nodded.
Debashish, it turned out, knew him very well many years ago, going back to his college days in Mumbai. He knew Kobad and his wife Anuradha Shanbag, who died a year ago of cerebral malaria. This is where our luck kicked in.
Now we knew a lot more about Kobad – how he came from a wealthy Mumbai family, and went to the Doon school and St Xavier’s College. And, studied chartered accountancy in London. Kobad Gandhy suddenly looked big.
“But why should our readers care?” asked one of our senior editors.
There was another story in the queue with a better reader connect. Ah ok, send Gandhy to the briefs column.
But it was not a choice that went down well in the newsroom. You could tell people were not comfortable – they wanted more acreage for it.
I wasn’t happy putting him among the briefs either. What a fascinating story.
In the end, it was Kobad Gandhy who won himself a bigger slot on the page.
(2 votes, average: 3.5 out of 5)
Loading ...Posted by Yashwant Raj on Thursday, September 24, 2009 at 7:21 pm
Filed under Media · Tagged CPI(M), Hindustan Times, Kobad Gandhy, Maoist, Page One
Fascinating stories behind the stories.
Please keep this coming.
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So this is how great stories come up, they have great convinsing power behind them….just a pinch of familiarities
Great job!!
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awesome story sir. i think the secret of the communists is that they prey on the passive romanticism of living austere all your life (which is really commendable) and the stubborn adherence to impractical ideals. Combine that with excellent orators and youth movement and you get a deadly potion. its very easy to attract the youth by showing disillusionment with corruption, poverty etc and turn them into protectors of the masses. Not to suggest that these problems don’t exist. This along with their stringent regulation norms in every sphere of life (particularly media) that makes them an impractical solution in today’s world. They prefer perfection and total equality - which ironically has never existed since mankind began.
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How can some one like kobad gandhy who come from an affluent parsi family has been found involved in Maoist insurgency. Or it confirms the Naxal-Parsi(TATA) connection.
Are Tata’s involved in funding money to Naxalites.
Surname Gandhy also raises the level of curiosity. Another name which comes into my mind is Firoz Gandhi. He was also Parsi. Was it a norm those days in Parsi families to keep surname Gandhi as a sign of respect. If it is so,then why? Was Mahatma Gandhi playing the game of Parsi’s.I know that all indian freedom movement leaders used to visit Tata’s home in bombay.If Indian national movement was all about indian nationalism,how could Tata support the movement and still enjoy the freindship with British? They needed this friendship because they were industrialists .Was indian freedom movement just a politics to capture power because by then,firangs had already left the nation.
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Dear shmart ,
what exactly is passive roamanticism ? . One cant be roamantic knowing fully aware that he will be thrown in to jail or be killed (Kabod hails from a rich family studied in doon school and is a Cchartered accountant from england).The system makes a persons life miserable that his only dignified way is to fight against it . Even though there is no perfection possible in the whole world (there has been no time in the history of mankind where there had been no wars )mere submission to artrocity s shameful as death .DurIng the period of slavery or british rule if every one thought
that the syhstem is ok because pertfaction is not possiblethere would have been no change possible . society need progress and it can be earned only through sacrifices .
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