August 31, 1998
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BOOKS Memories of Another Day Memoirs which hold a mirror to the 20th century By Romesh Bhandari A LIFE OF OUR TIMES Rajeshwar Dayal's experiences as an ICS officer and after retirement were as varied as the changes that have taken place in this century. A Life of Our Times, while not a classic autobiography, gives a vivid picture of life in the districts in colonial times and the formative period of the foreign service. Some portions stick out rather pointedly. There is a great deal of comment today regarding the RSS. This is not a recent phenomenon. In 1947, the RSS masterminded communal disturbances. Dayal was home secretary of the United Provinces at the time. RSS plans were brought to him locked in two large steel trunks: "When the trunks were opened, they revealed incontrovertible evidence of a dastardly conspiracy to create a communal holocaust throughout the western districts of the province. The trunks were crammed with blueprints of great accuracy and professionalism of every town and village in that vast area, prominently marking out the Muslim localities and habitations." "The whole plot," Dayal adds, "had been concerted under the direction and supervision of the supremo of the organisation himself." The author pressed for the arrest of the prime mover, M.S. Golwalkar. However, no immediate preventive action was taken. This Dayal attributes to rss sympathisers among politicians. Dayal's days as high commissioner in Pakistan reveal how close our two peoples are. This aspect, however, cannot be over-stretched. Relations will not improve as long as Pakistan's leaders believe its unity, in fact survival, depends upon antagonism with India. This was the position when Dayal was high commissioner and remains the same even today. Moving to personalities, Dayal has made several references to the late V.K. Krishna Menon, for whom he obviously has little regard. He has been a bit too harsh. Much as the West, in particular the US, hated Menon as an individual, it was really an independent and non-aligned India asserting itself that they couldn't tolerate. It was a period when the Americans could only see black or white. Grey was not a colour they recognised. I am also not in consonance with the assessment that Menon was a Pakistan baiter. Having assisted Menon in the preparation of his marathon speech on Kashmir at the Security Council, I know how he felt about the blatant distortion and even fabrication of facts by Pakistan. He lamented the inadequacies of the past presentations made by our representatives. India the accuser had become the accused. It was Menon who put the record straight.
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