Former Tribune columnist Harihar Swarup dies at 90

Veteran journalist Harihar Swarup, who for years authored the much-loved “Profile” column for The Tribune Sunday pages, breathed his last here on Thursday. He was 90.

Known for incisive political reporting that spanned six decades, Swarup recorded several milestone events in the history of India, having covered late prime ministers Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, PV Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh.

Swarup, who passed away peacefully at his home here, was former chief of the Press Trust of India’s Delhi News Bureau. He worked for National Herald in early years of journalism and joined PTI, Bombay, in 1961 before coming to Delhi a decade later.

As a journalist, Swarup’s primary segment for coverage was the Congress.

But he diversified and authored the column “Profile” for The Tribune for several years.

Ninety-five profiles that he wrote in The Tribune were later compiled into a book entitled “Power Profiles”.

Among the many pieces Swarup penned, one on Bibi Jagir Kaur when she became the president of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee was particularly well received.

Swarup framed Kaur’s profile - “She raised women’s status among Sikhs” - in the light of Sikh religion’s tenet of equality and the fact that Sikhism does not distinguish between men and women.

Swarup quoted the verse — “Asa ka Var” — from the Adi Granth to laud the virtues of gender equality and wrote, “The election of 45-year-old Bibi Jagir Kaur as the president of the SGPC was in keeping with Sikh tenets and a landmark in the chequered history of the SGPC. She achieved three firsts to her credit — the first woman to head the powerful body, the first Dalit to have risen to that exalted position and the first to dislodge the mighty Gurcharan Singh Tohra, who had established a record having been elected 25 times.”

The profile lauded Bibi Jagir Kaur recalling SGPC’s past when women could rarely make it to the Sikh body’s 15-member executive. Swarup recorded the turning point and how things changed after the SGPC introduced reservation for women ensuring at least 30 seats in the 180 member SGPC house.

Another of Swarup’s much-remembered profiles for The Tribune was titled “A victim of Nawaz Sharif’s wrath”.

It was about Najam Sethi, the then Chief Editor of The Friday Times, a weekly tabloid published from Lahore, who was arrested after being labelled “the RAW agent” and was accused of “endangering the security of Pakistan”. “Give the dog a bad name and kill it. So goes the popular saying...Both in Pakistan and India if you want to defame someone, call him “an Indian agent” or, conversely, “Pakistani agent”,” Swarup wrote.

The profile of AK Antony which Harihar Swarup authored described the former defence minister aptly.

Called “A simpleton who refuses to compromise”, the article said of Antony: “The most important aspect of the AK Antony Committee report was not the dispassionate analysis of the causes of the Congress reverses in the Lok Sabha elections but his reported refusal to dilute the findings.”

Swarup is survived by two sons Manish and Ashish Swarup, their wives and grandchildren.