The Hindu : Front Page : R.K. Mishra passes away

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jan 10, 2009
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Front Page

Front Page

R.K. Mishra passes away

Special Correspondent

The veteran journalist was a key player in Track-II diplomacy

R.K. Mishra

New Delhi: Veteran journalist and chairman of the Observer Research Foundation, R.K. Mishra, who was a key player in India’s Track-II diplomacy before the concept became fashionable, passed away in Bangalore on Friday night after a prolonged illness. He was 76. He is survived by his wife, a son and a daughter.

Born in 1932, Mishra began his career in journalism from Kolkata, working with a number of Hindi dailies like Navbharat Times and Lokamaya, before moving to Delhi to join the progressive English daily, Patriot. Rising through the ranks, he eventually became the editor-in-chief and managing editor of the newspaper and its sister magazine, Link. Both publications were very influential in the political milieu of the 1960s and 1970s and established Mishra as a key player in the left-leaning politics of the times. In 1990, he left the Patriot to start and edit the now defunct Business and Political Observer.

Associated with the left-leaning ‘young turks’ within the Congress, Mishra’s importance as an intermediary between various progressive voices inside and outside the party led to him becoming a member of the Rajya Sabha, where he served as MP from 1974 to 1980. He worked closely with Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi when they were Prime Minister, accompanying them on several important foreign tours. As a member of the National Integration Council, he was often deployed as a mediator by successive governments to resolve contentious political issues.

His most important role as mediator, however, came in the 1990s when Atal Bihari Vajpayee, as Prime Minister, used him to establish a back-channel of communication with Islamabad. During the 1999 Kargil war, he was sent on a secret mission to meet with Nawaz Sharif, who was Prime Minister of Pakistan at the time, to explore ways of ending the high-altitude conflict.

Mishra’s last innings in public service also proved to be his most enduring with the establishment in New Delhi of a policy think-tank, the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), with financial backing from the late Dhirubhai Ambani.

Under his stewardship, the ORF emerged as an influential and respected platform for debate and discussion as well as research in a wide variety of areas of foreign and security policy. Among the leading policy analysts associated with the ORF are the former National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra, General (retd.) V.P. Malik, the former foreign secretary M.K. Rasgotra, Prof. S.D. Muni and former head of the Research & Analysis Wing, Vikram Sood.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page