I was a frequent visitor to New Delhi from the year 1961 onwards. At the end of that year or at the beginning of 1962 I landed in Delhi from Oxford through a circuitous route travelling through the then Soviett Russia, via Sweden and Finland and from Moscow to Taskant, then flying over the Hindu Kush to Kabul and travelling view the Khyber Pass to Pakistan and then to New Delhi.
My immediate purpose in Delhi was to call on Pandit Nehru. I visted Teen Murti and found that Panditji was out of town. So, my original purpose of visiting Delhi from Oxford to meet Panditji and offer myself full time to work under him was not immediately realised. However, I kept coming to New Delhi often.
In 1962 and then again next year Atulya Gosh, the then Treasyrer of the party and K.Kamaraj, the then President thought of boosting Nehru’s morale as the Chinese debacle had greatly upset Panditji. So,Gosh thought of launching a new magazine by the AICC to write on the party’s ideology etc. My name was suggested by Prof.Bose of Delhi University and that was how I got to know Ghosh and the project was proposed many times and even the name of the magazine, Vision, was suggested by Ghosh and agreed upon by the committee.
But then Nehru died in 1964and there was a lull in the activities of the AICC.
When the General Elections came in 1967, Indira Gandhi was the Prime Minister and in the Youth Congress my Oxford friend, Rudolf DeMello and me brought out a special young Congress magazine featuring Indira Gandhi on the cover.
For the General Eelection that was coming in 1967, I was asked by Ghosh and as desired by Sadiq Ali and others I wrote some of the pamphlets on economy, politics and rural development, social development etc.
It was during this period I came in close contact with Kamaraj and also many other great leaders like Morariji Desai,Gulzarilal Nanda and S.N.Mishra whom I became known as a member of the Ginger Group of which Mrs.Indira Gandhi was amember. I also became a freind of Chndra Shekhar whose Young Indian magazine I almost singlehandedly written every week.
I also became a member of the Nanda promoted Congress Forum for Socialist Action. I was an ardent Fabian Socialist and therefore I was very active in articulating my ideas.
When Chandra Shekhar brought out a Special Number of the Young Indian in 1969 to reconcile the differences between Jaya Prakash Narayan and Indira Gandhi it was my article Chandra Shekhar used as the opening article of the special number. Other contributors to the number were all eminent leaders like Babu Jagajivan Ram and Y.B.Chavan and many others.
My months at the AICC were the best months for me in active party poltiics and policy formulations.
During this time I was staying first at the YMCA Guest House on Jai Singh Road and later at the Western Court. There also I came into contact with eminent leader like Prof.N.G. Ranga and others.