: H.Y. Sharada Prasad, who died on Tuesday after prolonged illness patiently borne, was a thorough professional both as a journalist and a public servant, a perfect gentleman, a brilliant writer and a delightful raconteur, blessed with a prodigious memory. While he would be remembered the most as Indira Gandhi’s information advisor, the high point of his career, he was indeed a man of many parts. (He also served two other prime ministers in the same capacity but that was incidental.)
To the best of my knowledge, Sharada was the only one of Indira Gandhi’s senior aides to have served her during her two innings as head of government, from the first day to the last, and among the very few of them to have retained her trust and consideration all through. It is difficult to keep count of those who fell from grace at one point or the other.
I first got to know him way back in the Fifties when he was still a journalist, news editor of the Bombay edition of Indian Express, to be precise. It was at the annual session of the Indian Federation of Working Journalists at which most delegates wanted to convert the organisation into a hardline union. Sharada argued persuasively that while fighting for better working conditions journalists must never forget professional ethics and values. This remained his credo in whatever he did.
Shortly thereafter, Sharada was awarded Nieman fellowship at Harvard and he made brilliant use of it by writing a dissertation on American history . After returning, he accepted a job in the publications division of the Government where he was deputy secretary for some years. His talent, especially the flair for the English language showed. The division’s director, a good publisher but more down-to-earth than sophisticated, used to say that Sharada was “an ass. Just as an ass spots every weed in the grass, so Sharada weeds out every mistake from a manuscript”.
H.Y. SHARADA PRASAD (1924-2008)
