Kuldip Nayar's last advice to Modi government

Just hours before his death, veteran journalist Kuldip Nayar had penned an article, in which he asked the Narendra Modi government to focus on development and good governance in the North East rather than imposing its 'Hindutva philosophies'.

The 95-year-old, who breathed his last around 12.30 am in a Delhi hospital on Thursday, also wrote that illegal migration will remain a security challenge for India if no adequate measures
are taken including checking and deporting illegal migrants.

His article titled 'Immigrants or vote banks?' was published in the Nagpur edition of Lokmat Times on Thursday morning, hours after his death.

Nayar wrote that the central government should initiate steps to address the pending inter-state issues in the North East, especially the boundary dispute of Assam with Nagaland, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya.

Manipur also has a boundary problem with Mizoram and Nagaland, yet the region is united on many important issues like harassment of people from North East particularly the student community in some parts of the country, especially the national capital, the prolific journalist, columnist and author wrote.

He said the Bharatiya Janata Party is well entrenched in six of the seven states in the North East and that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party know well that political loyalities in the region can change very fast.

Nayar said the central BJP government has introduced several measures for the development in the North East, trying to connect with the people of the region emotionally.

'The ruling BJP must remember that the North East is a plural society devoid of much communal violence unlike the Hindi heartland. It is paramount that the Centre should concentrate more on development and good governance rather than impose its Hindutva philosophies,' the article read.

• READ: Kuldip Nayar on REDIFF

With the general elections due next year, the BJP cannot afford to ignore the problems North East is facing, he said.

Of the 25 Lok Sabha seats from the region, Assam has the highest 14 members and winning every seat will be important for Modi, Nayar wrote.

Dinkar Raikar, group editor of Lokmat newspaper, told PTI that the article will be published on Friday in the Lokmat newspaper, the Marathi daily of the group.

Nayar, who had headed the Lokmat bureau in Delhi for some years, was a regular contributor to the group of newspapers, Raikar said.

"Some of his articles would be translated in Marathi as well," he added.

While recalling Nayar's close association with Lokmat, Raikar said he was the guest at the paper's launch in Aurangabad.

Nayar leaves behind unpublished piece on Vajpayee

Nayar had written a tribute piece on Atal Bihari Vajpayee after the former prime minister's death, but as fate would have it, Nayar's obituary has overtaken his unpublished article on the poet-politician.

"He was in 90s and yet working till his last day. His loss is irreplaceable, but, at least he died peacefully," his son Rajiv Nayar said.

"After Vajpayee's death, he (Nayar) was working on a piece on him. He had finished the article and it was to be sent to all the syndicated publishers, but the inevitable happened. Irony is, his obituary has been written even before his planned piece could be published. Such is life," Rajiv Nayar told PTI.

"He was a deeply determined man. And so, even in his old age he was writing. Last Friday, we took him to the hospital, not knowing we were going to lose him. But, he was spirited till the end," said Ratish Nanda, who is married to Kuldip Nayar's granddaughter Mandira.

"He wrote the piece on Vajpayee, but it still lies on his desk," Nanda said.

Vajpayee, 93, died at the AIIMS hospital in Delhi on August 16 following a prolonged illness.

As Nayar's mortal remains were consigned to flames, amid a mournful gathering, many described his departure as an 'end of an era' in journalism.

Delhi University professor Ajit Jha, who also attended the funeral, said, "I had worked with him as part of his various initiatives, including the civil society ones."

"His personal relationship with Vajpayee was warm but as a journalist he was also critical of him as a politician," he said.

Vajpayee and Nayar, both born in 1920s, died one week apart, and leave a wealth of legacy behind for the posterity.

With inputs from Kunal Dutt/PTI