Dr R Balashankar joined Organiser as editor on February 1, 2004 and served till March 31, 2013. Prior to that he was media advisor to the Union HRD Minister Dr Murli Manohar Joshi. Previously, he worked with Probe, Onlooker, The Week, The Indian Express and The Financial Express. He shares his fullfiling experience about Organiser stint
Dr R Balashankar
It is a matter of great honour and pride to be one of the longest serving editors of Organiser. Every issue of Organiser is both a chronicle and, craft of history, as it is closely linked to an organisation and ideology that is shaping India’s destiny.
I joined Organiser as editor on February 1, 2004 and served till March 31, 2013. Senior Sangh leader Shri Madan Dasji came to Bharat Prakashan’s office at Deshbandhu Gupta Marg in the morning and introduced me to the staff and colleagues. The words he spoke on that day still ring in my memory. He said, Organiser is not just any other publication. Millions of karyakartas wait for each issue of the Weekly for understanding and forming their opinion on
national events. Under KR Malkani, VP Bhatia and Seshadri Chari, Organiser gained a reputation for being fearless, fair and, authentic in its views. It has no interest other than national, it is above party
politics, when the national interest is involved, he said.
Before coming to Organiser, I was working with the Union HRD Minister Dr Murli Manohar Joshi as adviser. It was senior Sangh leader Shri HV Seshadri who asked me to come to Organiser and persuaded Joshiji to relieve me from his assignment. I was lucky to have joined Organiser at a time, when veteran leader Shri Dattopant Thengadi, RSS Sarsanghachalak Shri Sudarshanji and the VHP leader Shri Ashok Singhal were alive. Equally, valuable was the guidance I could get from the then RSS Sarkaryavah Shri Mohan Bhagwat. One could freely approach Mohanji with any issue. He patiently listens, goes through every aspect of day to day working and his advice always was ‘Be patient. Everything will be set right’. Seshadriji would say ‘hasten slowly.’
Sudarshanji was a great help. He would always encourage me to innovate. He okayed my carrying a regular column by Dr Subramanian Swamy after Dr Swamy had been on a long gap. Organiser opened its columns to many new writers
during this period. Our idea was to develop new readership, writers and enter new areas. We tried,
successfully, to chart many new ventures and broaden the coverage to make it a family reading habit. Areas which were hitherto considered unnecessary were brought into the canvas. Kids’ Org, Women’s Page, Bookmark, Readers Forum, were for the first time added as regular features. There was a serious effort to reach out. Shri MV Kamath, Prof MD Nalapat, Dr Subramanian Swamy, Dr Kalyanaraman, Dr Vijaya Rajiva, Dr Jay Dubashi, Shyam Khosla, OP Gupta, IFS (Rtd), RK Ohri, IPS (Rtd), Radha Rajan, S Gurumurthy, MSN Menon, Kanchan Gupta, Dr Gautam Sen, TVR Shenoy, AJ Philip, Arif Mohammad Khan, Sandhya Jain, Dr Meenakshi Jain, Arabinda Ghosh, Maadhuri Sondhi, Meenakshi Leki and many others became regular contributors. During this period we started making our special issues thematic, inviting a wider spectrum of writers’ response on our selected themes. This became a big hit. Even writers opposed to our ideas expressed their opinion through Organiser. This largely enhanced our reach. Bookmark was another successful experiment. Organiser book reviews were noticed across the publishing industry. We started getting books from across the globe. Even top universities, like Princeton University Press, Harvard University Press, Oxford University Press, used to send us books and, our reviews were quoted by all international publishers. This added to the depth variety and coverage of the weekly. Daily papers like The Indian Express started a weekly column ‘View From the Right’ with a summary of articles in Organiser.
This column was so popular that senior journalist Manini Chatterjee —who was then with The Indian Express—told me, “you know [the] Prime Minister is a regular reader of Organiser. Once our column did not appear and Dr Manmohan Singh asked our editor as to what
happened to it.” The comment, though made in passing, was very satisfying to hear.
The highest badge of approval for the Organiser editor was that Advaniji was associated with it and that he used to write a column. Advaniji and his daughter Pratibha Advani contributed many columns during my time. A senior leader from Kerala told me Advaniji spoke very appreciatively about the way Organiser was being brought out.
To raise revenue and reach we started taking out State centricspecial volumes. The step was widely appreciated. The great success stories on agriculture in Gujarat first appeared in our columns. Our regular feature on Gujarat success model helped in a big way in building the Modi phenomena, which later became a craze with all Indians. We produced scintillating volumes on Rajasthan, Gujarat, Karnataka and Chhattisgarh during that period. Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje once commented: “This is a collector’s volume”; she ordered an extra 20,000 copes for distribution. Both Dr Raman Singh and Shri BS Yeddurappa highly appreciated our special volumes. The then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi was so happy with our special issue, he also ordered a reprint for distribution.
A great support for the editorial work came particularly when it concerned to sorting out the nitty gritty from RSS Sarkaryavah Shri Bhaiyaji Joshi and Sahsarkaryavah Shri Suresh Soni. But for their regular interaction and guidance, it would have been very difficult to analyse and clarify many situations arising out of fast changing political situations. After seeing one of the specials, veteran editor and a well wisher of Organiser MV Kamath sent me a message. “I am so happy seeing the Organiser copy. It is so rich in content; I wish I had edited it. Your specials are a marvel.” I still preserve that letter as a badge of honour.
During the period between 2004 and 2013, the NDA lost power, Twice UPA was voted in, the BJP underwent leadership changes thrice, the famous Pakistan visit of Shri LK Advaniji hit headlines, BJP got new presidents, first Rajnath Singhji, then Nitin Gadgariji, Shri KS Sudarshanji posing the
withdrew as Sarsanghachalak to make more young and dynamic Mohan Bhagwatji as new RSS Sarsanghachalak and the BJP made the choice of projecting Narendra Modi as the face of the Party for the 2014 poll. These were tumultuous times.
The Sangh lost two towering personalities, BMS founder Dattopant Thengadi and former Sarkaryavah HV Seshadri. The tragic and untimely death of Pramod Mahajan was a major blow for the BJP. In covering these events and exposing the
misdeeds and corruption of the UPA Organiser played a stellar role. The Organiser’s impact was felt every week as its views; interviews with senior leaders, editorials were widely quoted and discussed.
One feels like a part of destiny by being part of Organiser. For the adhikaris and swayamsevaks of Kerala it was a matter of pride that they consider one of their own occupied the chair once KR Malkani had occupied. For swayamsevaks of Kerala Malkaniji was an icon. We grew up reading him. He was the ultimate a
journalist could aspire to. Three years in my formative days: my first job, in the early 80’s, as sub editor was in Organiser under him.
For Organiser I took interviews of Advaniji. Once incident which will never go away from mind I
recounted in Mathrubhumi daily in November 2017 when they brought out a special as Advaniji turned 90. After the sweeping Congress
victory in 1984 Organiser decided to take Advaniji’s interview on the cover. I went with VP Bhatia to take the interview. We had a two hour long session, and Bhatiaji carried a tape recorder with him while I took notes. Upon returning to the office Bhatiaji noticed that the tape was blank. My notes were obviously insufficient. Bhatiaji was in a panic. How to convey this to Advaniji? He is so articulate and specific with words and construction of
expressions that we cannot
reproduce it from memory. In
distress Bhatiaji asked me to go to Advaniji and convey the matter. When I told him, with a smile he said, it happens, sometimes. He agreed to give the entire interview once again and Organiser could come out in time with Advaniji’s interview on the cover. A great
leader who never lost his common touch. By being in Organiser one learns great lessons for life, and that is the greatest asset. n
