Patna: Rajya Sabha's new vice chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh, popular as Harivansh, is remembered as an academic and journalist in Patna.
"He'd always insist on data in our stories," recalled a senior journalist who has worked with him. "He didn't encourage gossip or small talk." Some recalled that Prabhat Khabar, the paper he was editor-in-chief of, broke the fodder scam story long before the accountant-general (AG) of Bihar noticed it. "He's a no-nonsense man. Soft-spoken, but firm in his commitment and beliefs," the journalist said.
ADRI member secretary Shaibal Gupta, with whom Harivansh had a long association, recalled Harivansh "as being among the few Hindi journalists who reviewed English books" and one who deeply believed in spirituality.
In Patna, Harivansh would revert to the role of a reporter when it came to covering subjects of his interest. Once the Bihar government was holding a meeting on poverty eradication in which Lord Meghnad Desai was chief guest. Chief minister Nitish Kumar was surprised to see the editor-in-chief sitting among the reporters and taking notes.
Harivansh hails from Sitabdiara village in Ballia district of Uttar Pradesh - the village between Bihar and Uttar Pradesh that was home to Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan.
A post-graduate in economics from BHU, Harivansh almost gave up journalism when he joined a bank as a probationary officer in 1981 - after working for a popular Hindi daily. He says he did that to please his father and soon he quit it to join Raviwar - a Hindi daily published by the ABP group - in 1984. His editorial skills came to test when he took over Prabhat Khabar in Ranchi in 1989. Within 10 years, he turned it around to make it the most widely-read Hindi daily.
He was inspired by the JP movement and was close to late Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar; he was his public relations officer. "It is his long standing with socialists that enabled him to get more votes than expected for the vice-chairman's election," said a JDU leader.
In Bihar, Harivansh strongly advocated special status for Bihar. He ran a virtual campaign for it which took him closer to chief minister Nitish Kumar. He did not hide his admiration for Nitish for turning around Bihar's fate after coming to power in 2005.
