His meticulous writing and inoffensive, yet incisive, wit is what friends and colleagues recalled at a memorial service held for veteran journalist K.K. Katyal here on Saturday.
Mr. Katyal, who worked with The Hindu for nearly three decades, passed away on Wednesday at the age of 88. He had joined the newspaper in 1976 and saw it through an expansion across the country, as well as the setting up of the Delhi edition. He retired in 2004, after serving as The Hindu ’s Chief of Bureau in New Delhi for many years.
It was at a packed hall in the Capital’s India International Centre, where Mr. Katyal was a member and regular visitor, that family, friends and colleagues remembered “K.K” or “Katyal sahib ”, as he was known.
Noted journalist and former Rajya Sabha member H.K. Dua, who knew Mr. Katyal for over 50 years, reminisced about the time they had spent on foreign assignments as well as lunches at the IIC.
“He was a journalist of considerable substance. He was never hyperbolic. Understatement was his forte, even in relationships with friends. There was no malice in his humour,” said Mr. Dua.
Mr. Katyal, who had been displaced by the Partition, was a frequent visitor to Pakistan. In fact, he loved it, said Mr. Dua.
Apart from writing about foreign affairs and India-Pakistan relations, Mr. Katyal founded the India chapter of the South Asia Free Media Association (SAFMA).
‘Professional to the core’
His colleague from The Statesman , where he worked prior to joining The Hindu , S. Nihal Singh called Mr. Katyal ‘a professional to the core’.
“I admired his persistence to go after stories,” said Mr. Singh, a former Editor of The Statesman .
Mr. Katyal was not only respected by fellow journalists, but also by those in the corridors of power he reported about.
“There was a Cabinet Minister who refused to talk directly to him, citing the oath of secrecy he had taken. But, he never revealed sources. The Minister ended up calling in his steno to dictate some information, with Mr. Katyal in the room. This was for his benefit,” said Mr. Dua.
Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley also spoke at the service, recalling how he had grown up reading Mr. Katyal’s reports.
“He was one of the tallest names in political reporting in Delhi. Every sentence, every word had to be measured. He was known for his credibility and accuracy,” said Mr. Jaitley.
Mr. Jaitley also mentioned that Mr. Katyal had retired from active reporting by the time he got to know him.
“But, the political analyst in him was still present in the last few years. He belonged to a generation where the greatest measure of a journalist was credibility. He has left a vacuum,” said the Union Minister.
Mr. Katyal is survived by his wife, Darshan, and daughters, Anita and Sugita.
The veteran journalist, who retired in 2004, had passed away
on Wednesday at
the age of 88
