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Simple, not
simplistic No, My Lord: A Window
on India’s Realpolitik
No, My Lord, released by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at his residence on April 29, presents a sample of Jaisingh’s writings over the past two decades and is a narrative of the drama that has been going on in the world of politics. It certainly was not possible to go over the entire panorama of his writings, yet the collection contains a fair sample of his writings in The Tribune during the nine years of his editorship, and also in some other publications, after this period. How best to deal with Pakistan has been a difficult subject to write on as things have depended largely on the political temperature in Islamabad. Jaisingh has urged India’s policy-makers to adopt a pragmatic approach in dealing with Pakistan and the Western world as far as Indo-Pakistan relations are concerned. The collection contains some of his writings during different phases of India-Pakistan relations. The collection includes Hari Jai Singh’s perception on several international issues such as our relations with Pakistan, power equations in South Asia, nuclear proliferation, India’s role in world affairs, global terrorism etc. At home, his areas of concern have been the problems of Jammu and Kashmir and the North-East, constitutional reforms, criminals in politics, the status of women, the Fourth Estate, the game of disinformation, political permutations and combinations, the role of religion in politics, and a host of other issues that have come in for comment in the course of his daily routine. One message that runs
through all his writings, whether they relate to terrorism, or
corruption, or nuclear threat, or empowerment of women, or
criminalisation of the polity, or misuse of power, is that all these
challenges have to be met by the people themselves. Some of his
perceptions may not be to the liking of his peers but his sensitivities
do make a difference with his well-focused and honest approach. |
For nine years Hari
Jaisingh was editor of The Tribune. All these years he brought
under scrutiny the goings on in the world and explained to his readers
what those happenings meant to the man in the street. This has not been
an easy task, to say the least. But his writings have made a profound
effect on the process of opinion-making in the north-western region of
the country.