Prem Prakash

#WATCH | Speaking at the launch event of the book - 'The Scam That Shook a Nation: The Nagarwala Scandal', Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar says, "Ved Prakash Malhotra was a refugee from West Pakistan and he was fired with this patriotic zeal which was largely expressed, as it is being expressed today, by being anti-Muslim and anti-Pakistan, particularly anti Pakistan, because it was not fashionable in 1970, as it is now, to be anti-Muslim. He, therefore, was desperate to somehow make his contribution at this great national crisis that had come to our country... There's a wonderful incident recounted here where they decided to go on strike in the State Bank of India and they called on the finance minister and the finance minister said, I dont want you in the national interest to go on strike at this stage when the country is in such crisis, and the trade union insisted on going on strike. Ved Prakash Malhotra, who was the vice president of the trade union, preferred losing his post to disobeying the government. So the man was a creature of his times and he therefore wanted to do something and got his great opportunity when he got a call from PN Haksar. Now, it was a time when everybody was full of conspiracy theories and it was perfectly possible that secret operations were being undertaken..." (15/07)