Pendyal Vaman Rao, who died at the age of 91 on Friday, was perhaps the last of the Titans of the fourth estate, who watched from the ringside the unfolding of history over three quarters of a century. From the fall of the Nizam’s Hyderabad to the birth of the new State of Telangana, he saw it all and recorded them during his illustrious career as a representative of The Hindu in Hyderabad and as Editor of New Swatantra Times .
Within months of baptisation into journalism in 1947, Vaman Rao found himself in the vortex of the nationalist movement demanding Hyderabad’s accession to the Indian Union, the Nizam’s refusal to heed the demand and the reign of terror unleashed by the Razakars. He earned the trust and love of K.M. Munshi, Indian Government’s agent in Hyderabad, and, in a sense, played his part in the developments that led to the eventual fall of the Nizam’s Hyderabad and its integration with the rest of India. On occasion, Munshi gave a ride to Vaman Rao in his car to enable him file his report in time. Interestingly, the Razakar leader Kasim Razvi, who spit fire during his public meetings, was a different man at press interactions, Vaman Rao used to say. Vaman Rao and S.N. Shastri of Hyderabad Bulletin had enjoyed good equation with Kasim Razvi and the Majlis leaders.
Turbulent times
Vaman Rao would recall how difficult it was to report during the turbulent times. One criticised the government at one’s risk. Newsmen who posed inconvenient questions – very few dared to do so though – were intimidated by pro-establishment journos with ‘arrey kya bolrein?’ Government would not directly involve itself in punishing errant journalists. The kotwal saab would not dirty his hands. Instead, he would outsource the job to goondas. Mir Akbar Ali, a staunch Congressman who later became Governor, was thrashed by anti-social elements for speaking against the Nizam and the Majlis.
Many were the anecdotes and tidbits this writer, a regular tea-time visitor to Vaman Rao’s residence, listened at his feet. At the height of the separate Telangana agitation, Chief Minister Kasu Brahmananda Reddy roped in Vaman Rao as Director of Information and Public Relations, he being the first and the only non-official person to hold the position. Within hours of resigning from The Hindu and taking over as the Director came the information that Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was arriving at night on a secret mission that even the Chief Minister was not aware of until she left the Delhi airport. The capital city was under curfew and Vaman Rao was to receive her and arrange a press conference. He rose to the challenge on his day one.
He continued to serve the governments led P.V. Narasimha Rao, his senior at college in Warangal, Jalagam Vengala Rao and Harish Chandra Sarin, ICS officer who was Adviser to the Governor during a brief spell of President’s rule in the State in 1973. Not many know that Vaman Rao, as a representative of the Birlas, was instrumental in the construction of Birla temple atop the Naubat Pahad in Hyderabad. ‘We proved to the satisfaction of the government and the court that there was no mosque on the pahad. Otherwise, it could have become another Babri masjid-type issue,’ he once told me.
He single-handedly ran New Swatantra Times to perpetuate the memory of his father-in-law and stalwart editor Khasa Subba Rau till months before his demise. It was, however, another renowned journalist, Kunduru Iswar Dutta, who encouraged Vaman Rao to join journalism and The Hindu in 1947.
Vaman Rao had razor-sharp memory despite some health issues toward the evening of his life. Days after he underwent a by-pass surgery, I met him at the hospital. He could barely open his eyes, and he whispered ‘Kiran sangati emiti. Untaadantaava?’ The reference was to the fate of the then Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy. Such was his insatiable hunger for news. He was a great music lover. M.S. Subbulakshmi and her husband were his family friends.
At personal level, I was fortunate to enjoy his unbounded love, support and guidance. ‘Kesava Rao, will you take over NST ( New Swatantra Times ). I am getting old,’ he had asked me and I struggled to answer him as tears welled up. Such was his love. I am not tired of describing him as the architect of my post-retirement career as I owe most of the assignments I did – biographies, translations, coffee table books – to him.
He belonged to a generation of journalists for whom integrity, objectivity and devotion to the profession were articles of faith.
[The writer is a former Deputy Editor/Chief of Bureau of The Hindu , Hyderabad]
