An Irritant Foreign Body

The book is a thinly disguised career graph of Tully,who appears as Andrew Luyt (an anagram of Tully,as it has been duly noted),a radio journalist who comes to India,covers Kashmir to Tawang,writes a book called No Commas in South Asia (Tully’s book is No Fullstops in India ) and is a Hindutva sympathiser. To make matters worse,Luyt has an affair with an Indian female journalist Imla,who finds herself pregnant after a bout of “tantric sex”.

The first finger was pointed at Francois Gautier,French journalist and editor-in-chief of La Revue de l’Inde (The Journal of India). “I have never hidden behind a pseudonym to say what I think,” says an angry Gautier,“I have been one of the rare western journalists to defend Hindus. I have done it openly,in my own name,with dedication and courage and that has cost me a lot.” Gautier,in turn,suggested that Swiss journalist Bernard Imhasly; David Housego,former South Asia correspondent with The Financial Times ; John Elliott,a former president of the Foreign Correspondents Club; or Tully himself could have written the book. Housego laughs at the notion: “I certainly did not write it. I read three quarters of the book and gave up. It does read like it is about Tully but does him a major disservice. As for Gautier,he could have called up the people he thinks could have written the book and given them a chance to respond.”

Elliott is indignant,“It is an outrageous misrepresentation of a distinguished foreign correspondent in a book which should have never been considered for publication. Pramod Kapoor of Roli probably saw it as a joke and on some level,it could be. But it is no joke to malign a professional in this way.”

On being asked to reveal the identity of the author,Kapoor declined. “It is a two-way agreement between the author and us to keep it confidential. If the story wasn’t good,we would not have thought it worth publishing,” says Kapoor. What about the book being based on Tully? “I did not think it was about Tully. In fact,it seemed like a combination of four or five foreign correspondents,” adds Kapoo who had initially planned a book launch on April 1,but,perhaps not surprisingly,could not find a suitable panel.

The man at the centre of the storm is stumped. Tully is amazed that Roli Books has published such a book and allowed the author to hide in such a “cowardly manner”. “I have twice attempted to get some clarification from Mr Kapoor and he has not bothered to get back to me. The book is clearly modelled on my career,even down to the name of the character. But it is a gross misrepresentation,the character’s journalism is abysmal and his views of Hindutva and Hinduism do not in any way reflect mine. In fact,I disagree profoundly,” says Tully. The veteran broadcaster also said the publisher disclosed to him that he had not actually read the book.

Whoever John MacLithon is,he must be chuckling aloud.