HK Dua : Master of man management

From Indian Express to Parliament via HT and The Tribune :  Nobody would question the nomination of veteran journalist HK Dua to the upper house of the Parliament given his long and shining career spanning of over four decades. What a chance that he has filled the vacancy in Rajya Sabha created after the retirement of his junior in HT, Chandan Mitra. In that sense, it can be said with a pinch of salt that Dua saheb got his due little late. Anyway, as they say, it is better late than never. That HK Dua is a formidable journalist is an understatement. Those who know him close enough would vouch that Dua saheb deserves the above honour for his unflinching commitment to the cause of freedom of the press and deep understanding of national as well as international matters. And above all, his fetes always remain firmly on the ground. Unfortunately his tribe is dwindling fast. Actually he is poles apart from those new breed of editors who lost their sense of proportions once they get some key position.

This deadly virus is really spreading like some kind of epidemic in Hindi media. Coming back to Dua saheb, I am really honoured to know him little bit during his almost nine long years stint in Hindustan Times as an editor, though he briefly also worked as executive editor too in HT. I remember very vividly that when my investigative story on match fixing in Cricket and other sports was published as a cover story in HT Sunday magazine way back in 1992, well before it was established that match-fixing and betting in sports are very much there, he asked about me from the then editor of HT Sunday magazine, Vijay Dutt( now London correspondent of HT) and eminent sports and film journalist late Anil Saari. Later he called me in his chamber to congratulate for writing that story. It goes without saying that it was huge thing for me as I was merely a sub-editor in Hindutan.

The best thing about Dua saheb is his rare quality of man management. That is his forte. He can extract best from his colleagues. When he had joined HT in 1987, it had a very formidable bureau. The likes of MK Dhar (bureau Chief), Samir Pal, Arbinda Ghosh,Deepak Razdan, Mukul Shukla, MK Tikko, Mahender Ved, Manmohan ( who was also part of legendary The Statesman investigative team along with Neerja Choudhary and Shahnaz Anklesaria Aiyar  in 80s before coming to HT), A.Qureshi, Avinash Singh and Kumkum Chaddha as well as D.Sen, P.Tharyan,AR Wig,Zeenat Imam, cartoonist Sudhir Dar holding other key positions.  They were all institutions in their own way. And all these greats touched dizzy heights under the leadership of Dua saheb.

You would not find many journalists like Dua saheb who had the remarkable distinction of working in three big newspapers as an editor. Before coming to HT, he was the editor of Express New service. After HT, he once again joined his alma mater, Indian Express, and finally became the editor of The Tribune. The good thing about him is that he is still going strong. Let his tribe manifold.

Vivek Shukla works for a publication house as an editor and writes at various places. He can be contacted at 09818155246.