Optimist, defender of civil liberties, dies
source of trust for his readers. He edited the Statesman and the Indian Express newspapers. With political values that were left-leaning and liberal, Nayar knew the corridors of power rather well and eventually took on public roles in an era when India itself was stitching the loose ends of its national fabric. He served as the information officer to Govind Ballabh Pant, the Union home minister from 1955 to 1961, under whose watch the country reorganised the boundaries of some major states along linguistic lines. Getting publicity for Pant was his main task. In his autobiography, Beyond the Lines, he recalls badgering the Press Trust of India, the news agency, to “disseminate as complete a version” of Pant’s speeches as possible.
Nayar’s role gave him access to details of decisionmaking during one of the most turbulent periods of India’s early decades, when many statehood demands based on language cropped up. Telugu-speaking areas were part of Madras. Assam was a museum of many races, ethnicities and languages. Assamese was not the language spoken by the majority of undivided Assam. Nayar described the challenge of redrawing the country’s internal map thus: “India had not faced a crisis on this scale since Partition.”
After his stint with Pant, Nayar was back as the editor of United News of India. Upon Nehru’s death, the big question was, who among the Congress’s leaders would take office next? He put out a story in the UNI that said Morarji Desai, former finance minister, was the “first one to throw his hat in the ring”. The story spoiled, rather than helped, Desai’s chances and Lal Bahadur Shastri became prime minister.