That was indeed a historic day: Bhaskar's Response

There was a technical error. Yesterday's post reached only some of you. But Mr BRP Bhaskar responded to my article as follows (including mine)

Historic Day for India and Me

Thirtieth January 1971 is a historic day for India, and for me. I had joined United News of India barely a fortnight earlier as its trainee sub-editor in Delhi. It was early in the day and only our news editor BRP Bhaskar and I were in the office. My job was to collect the papers Bhaskar would type on his baby typewriter, read, edit, write a serial number and pass them on to the teleprinter operator. Computers and internet for word processing and dissemination were unheard of then.

He signalled me to collect a piece of paper. Without reading and editing the text, I marked a serial number and passed the paper to the operator. In an instant, the operator typed a three-word message. All the teleprinters in the office had begun transmitting a clutter that indicated that it was a ‘flash.’ At that silent morning hour, it was a big noise. I rushed to the printer to now read the news. The flash had said ‘Indian Plane Hijacked.’  I froze for a moment and looked at BRP who was taking down the story over the phone and typing it over his typewriter. His second and subsequent parts of the story began rolling out of his typewriter. I entered the serial numbers and pushed the papers to the operator for the next fifteen minutes. Our airport reporter had passed on the subsequent details to Bhaskar to continue the story. A little later when we had had a breather, he broke the silence. ‘Did you edit the story, Kiran?’ he asked me casually. ‘How can I edit your story, sir?, I asked him in disbelief, implying that he was the news editor and I, a mere trainee sub-editor. ‘That is not correct. Every story must be edited, even if it is written by the Editor.’ Thus, he had taught me the first lesson face to face. The second was indirect, a subtle, and everlasting.

Before I tell you what the second lesson was, let me tell you what the story was. It was the first hijack of an Indian flight as I was to know later that day. It was an Indian Airlines Fokker F27 Friendship aircraft named  Ganga, flying from Srinagar to Jammu. Two Kashmiri terrorist belonging to the National Liberation Front were the hijackers. They had flown the aircraft to Lahore where the passengers and crew were released.  The aircraft was burnt on 1 February 1971. Thus, it was the first earth-shaking story that had hit the headlines across the world . Within a year, India-Pakistan conflict led to the liberation of Bangladesh after the surrender of Pakistan’s army. That morning of 30^th January, I was a witness to the newsroom operation led by Bhaskar. He had taught me how a journalist should remain cool, calm and controlled, and should write stories without panic and excitement: the lesson I would remember all my journalistic career of four decades.

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Kiran Thakur

Adjunct Faculty. FLAME University

drkiranthakur@gmail.com

03, Indrayani, Patrakaarnagar, Pune 411016

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Mr Bhaskar’s response:

 Thanks, Kiran, for rekindling fading memories of a bygone era.

That was indeed a historic day. As you have noted, the hijack was the first of a chain of events that led to the India-Pakistan War of December 1971 and the birth of Bangladesh.

I would say, for us, in UNI, it was not just a historic day, but a historic period. Mirchandani had made arrangements for monitoring of Radio Pakistan’s main bulletins. We circulated every day a Pakistan Nighter which presented the day’s developments in that country with adequate background information. There was no Google search engine those days. So we depended on our memories to supply the background.

One day the monitor informed me that Dhaka radio did not relay Radio Pakistan’s main bulletin. This was after Mujibur Rehman, realizing that he would not be made Pakistan’s Prime Minister in spite of the majority he had in the newly elected National Assembly. From that day we started distributing the night story as Bangladesh Nighter, instead of Pakistan Nighter.

Coming back to the hijack, one night the monitored Radio Pakistan report said ZulfiqarAli Bhutto, who had flown back from a meeting with Mujib in Dhaka, had gone to the plane parked at Lahore airport and spoken to the hijackers. After we had moved the Pakistan Nighter with this information, the monitor called me and said the 10.30 p.m. Radio Pakistan bulletin had reported that the hijackers had blown up the plane. This necessitated a Night Intro. So we had a late night story which said the hijackers “blew up the aircraft in full view of army personnel” The reference to the presence of army personnel was based on an earlier report which had said the hijacked plane had been moved to a remote part of the airport and army personnel were standing guard.

India’s protest note to Pakistan the next day on the blasting of the plane lifted words straight from UNI’s night story.

Forty-eight long years have passed, and memory can play tricks. I think the report of the hijack came from N.S.Malik, head of the Srinagar bureau, not the airport reporter.  

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