Inder Malhotra, who died in New Delhi on Saturday after a long illness, belonged to a rare breed, rare in the sense of being totally immersed in politics even as he distinguished himself in political
Inder Malhotra, who died in New Delhi on Saturday after a long illness, belonged to a rare breed, rare in the sense of being totally immersed in politics even as he distinguished himself in political reporting and analysis. He was in the best sense of the term a political animal, an encyclopaedia of politicians and events he could trot out in an instant.
Inder started his career with the United News of India, the junior and less affluent of the two national news agencies. So keen he was to succeed in his calling that, he once confessed to me, on an important outstation assignment he sabotaged the only communication link after filing his story to deny it to the rival agency and score a scoop. He added that he had not repeated this immoral practice.
Inder’s true worth and talent came to public attention after he was picked up by The Statesman for its political reporting team, then headed by Prem Bhatia. He distinguished himself by scoring many scoops and, in fact, was responsible for much of the leg work for his boss. His work was his life and he revelled in detailing the twists and turns of politicians’ careers, how life for Congressmen revolved ro-und the favour or disfav-our of Indira Gandhi after she had won supremacy in the wake of two splits she engineered. In a sense, it was like court politics and Inder was privy to much that was going on.
It is always a difficult decision to give up one’s real calling as a reporter to climb the professional ladder. He was tempted by the offer of a senior editorial position in The Statesman’s head office in Calcutta, then persuaded to join Sham Lal in the head office of The Times of India in Bombay. But his spells at the desk were useful in one respect. They helped him hone his skills as an analyst against the backdrop of his superb knowledge of how Indian politicians played their cards. One result of his desk work was an acclaimed political biography of Indira Gandhi he produced.
Returning to Delhi, Inder began writing regular columns for major Indian newspapers, including The Asian Age, and it was only after being persuaded by me, among others, to write his memoir that he gave up most of his columns to concentrate on his new task. With his thoroughness, he sat down at the desk day after day to add new chapters to his memoir even as he fought the consequences of cancer, which entailed a series of operations. And then he announced that to his dismay he could no longer work at the computer. At that point, he had completed some 60 per cent of the text of his memoir, he told me.
Our paths had crossed often over the decades. At one time we were colleagues on The Statesm-an’s political reporting team. Then our paths diverged as I went abroad on long foreign assignments until we both finally returned to Delhi. In Inder’s death, the country has lost one of the finest political reporters of his generation. Inder leaves behind his stepson Anil.
