consider my dear friend Man Mohan, whom I have known since 1972, as one of the best investigative journalists India has produced. Around 72, he was still active and possessed valuable behind-the-scene information (for friends, he is Google Master) that he acquired, especially related to powerful politicians, defence, shady arms lobby, domestic and foreign spying community, wheelers-dealers, Naxalites, and big crocodiles in the media world, while working for the country’s top newspapers… Currently, he is writing a weekly column—On My Radar—for The Sunday Guardian.
Man Mohan was the head of investigative units in all the newspapers where he worked—a rare feat—at one time or the other. At The Statesman, he was a founder member of the prestigious investigative team called INSIGHT. When he moved to The Hindustan Times in October 1986, he launched its investigative unit—Tracking Down…and started Special Stories Unit in The Times of India when he shifted there in January 1998. Recognizing his investigating and research skills, The TOI designated him as Roving Editor—the first such post in Indian media. In the major Hindi daily, Navbharat Times, he continued as Roving Editor while performing his duties as Chief of Bureau of Political and Business sections. In 2008, The Tribune invited him to work as head of investigative and research unit, with Roving Editor designation.
Since the beginning of his career with The Statesman, New Delhi, as a crime and courts reporter, he showed a flair for doing out-of-box stories. It was the challenging crime beat that laid the foundation for his interest in investigative journalism.
During his active career, he broke numerous scoops and exclusive stories related to foreign spy scandals, murky defence deals, intriguing cut-throat cloak-and-dagger games inside Indian espionage agencies, operations of Pakistan’s ISI in the country, Naxalities, corporate lobby wars and religious fundamentalist style of operations, and much more.
In my opinion, Mohan’s success as a good investigative reporter is also somehow linked to his adventurous nature. He is always curious about things happening around. In his young career days, as a professional mountaineer, he climbed many high altitude peaks in the Garhwal Himalayas (up to about 23,000 ft.), went up to the base of Mount Everest, and became the first journalist to participate in the Republic Day Parade as a member of the Army-National Cadet Corps mountaineering expedition to Trishul (23,360 ft) in the Nanda Devi sanctuary.
Man Mohan’s real talent as an investigative reporter surfaced when INSIGHT was launched by The Statesman in the early eighties. It was the first, and, perhaps, the last interesting experiment that Indian media witnessed in the field of investigative journalism. The team was not to file a story daily or in a week, as is the practice today. Under the guidance of S. Sahay, the then great Editor of The Statesman, INSIGHT broke numerous memorable big stories, rocking the Establishment and Parliament. Members of the team used to work on a story for a month and file the report after much research and scrutiny.
No INSIGHT report was ever denied. The team’s all three members were also free to pursue their own stories, not known to even the colleagues.
The Statesman was the first paper to sanction ‘bribe money’ to its investigative members of INSIGHT to buy information and documents. The paper had given money to get banned walkie-talkies and small secret tape-recording devices from Singapore for sting operations. INSIGHT was far ahead of the times. The first sensational INSIGHT story was on noted Yoga Guru, Swamy Dhirendra Brahmchari, who had become an ‘extra-constitutional authority’ during Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s regime. INSIGHT report revealed how Brahmchari had joined hands with another a businessman to export ‘parmal rice’ as Basmati to the USSR, purchased a spinning mill in Bhatinda (Punjab) and was running a gun factory in Jammu. The Hisar businessman later grew too big; he became a big media baron and a member of the Rajya Sabha.
The second talked about INSIGHT story was on Maneka Gandhi, widow of Sanjay Gandhi, who was pushed out of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s house.
Man Mohan recalls an incident that happened during their investigation on the Maneka Gandhi story. “We had gone to meet a source in Maneka Gandhi’s kothi in Maharani Marg in her absence,” says Man Mohan.
“When we were talking to the servant, he heard a car entering the house. He panicked to see Maneka Gandhi return, forced us to move to an outhouse and locked it from outside. We panicked. We wondered whether it was a trap that was laid for us. As we waited, we looked around. We noticed sacks full of registers, documents and cheques that threw valuable light of Maneka Gandhi’s Sanjay Gandhi Vichar Manch venture and trucks that the organization ran. We had hit the jackpot. After an hour, a domestic worker came to let us out and asked us to run away fast. We asked him what had happened. He said “Madam had returned with Akbar Ahmed ‘Dumpy’ for interaction on a confidential matter”.’
Missing Russian is hiding in US
Embassy
This was Man Mohan’s career’s first sensational international exclusive story about the defection of an old Russian scientist taking asylum in the American Embassy in New Delhi on arrival from Dhaka in an Aeroflot night flight.
The American Embassy and the British High Commission had denied any knowledge of him. But Man Mohan revealed that the missing Russian had been traced hiding inside the U.S. Embassy. The Americans were furious with The Statesman Page 1 report. In his second report, he reported how the Americans later ‘smuggled out’ the Russian in an ambulance to ‘friendly’ British High Commission, which on the same day informed the police that they had ‘caught’ this Russian while running around on their second floor and that he sustained ‘injuries’ while jumping down. He was handed over the police. The Americans were more upset as in my next day’s report I mentioned that this reporter had seen an ambulance parked inside the U.S. Embassy compound the previous night.
This has been extracted from the book, Power Press and Politics, written by Alok Mehta. This is a tribute to The Sunday Guardian columnist, Man Mohan, who passed away on 7 June 2023.