A View From Below
Sudipto Mundle
FOR REASONS OF STATE: DELHI UNDER EMERGENCY by John Dayal and Ajoy Bose ESS Publications, Delhi, 1977, 239 pp., 35.00
July-August 1977, volume 2, No 4

‘Are you Woodward or Bernstein?’

‘Neither, they are both in America’, replied John, thus killing, once and for all, an altogether inappropriate compa­rison between the Watergate reporters and the authors of Delhi Under Emer­gency.

It was perhaps inevitable that this superb piece of investigative journalism, a rare specimen in India, by two young and relatively unknown journalists, would be compared to the Watergate story. But there the comparison should end. For all their courage, tenacity and commitment to unveiling the truth, the Woodward and Bernstein report remain­ed essentially a story of intrigues in high places.

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