Hyderabad: Fake news on Nizam VII gave Nehru government the jitters

HYDERABAD: Seven decades ago, when fake news was not the daily norm, a “speculative” report in a newspaper published from Nagpur gave the Nizam VII, Mir Osman Ali Khan, and the Nehru government the jitters. The fake news in August 1952 was that the Nizam, who was the Raj Pramukh of Hyderabad state then, was planning to leave India and as a prelude had invested huge amounts in foreign banks and companies.
The Nehru government made discreet inquiries with the Hyderabad branch of Ministry of States and heaved a sigh of relief when it became clear that the report “was purely speculative and perhaps false”. The Nizam had to submit a long list of his investments in various companies in India, including in the Tata and the Birla groups to prove that all his money was invested within the country. He also made it clear that not a rupee was invested outside India.

On the eve of the 53rd death anniversary of the last ruler of princely Hyderabad state on Monday (February 24), a perusal of the official correspondence between the Government of India (GOI) and the Nizam and among various officials of the GOI between 1948 and 1952, reveals how at least two instances of fake news had kept the Nehru administration on its toes.
The letters exchanged are available with the National Archives of India (NAI).
The charge that the Nizam had invested heavy sums of money in the Bank of England and a prominent bank in the USA and planned to leave India to settle down in a foreign country is often repeated during election campaigns. The most recent being in 2018 Telangana assembly polls. However, NAI records prove that secret investigation by GOI revealed that the charge against the Nizam was baseless. Nevertheless, the correspondence showed that both the Nizam and the Nehru administration were on tenterhooks. The fake news was that the Nizam had invested one crore Pound each in two banks in the UK and the USA.
NAI records (File No 2 (4)-H-1952, Government of India, Ministry of States, Hyderabad branch) reveal that the Nizam had invested Rs 2.75 crore in Indian companies. “We have no information of any kind that HEH (Nizam) has at any time sent money abroad,” wrote an official to GOI after a thorough investigation.
In one of the correspondences (No. 355/52-PSS dated September 15, 1952) senior official HVR Iyengar wrote that he was briefed by AR Vyas, deputy principal information officer, that the Nizam had through a Bombay-based Parsi solicitor, Ratnagar, approached PM Kabali, a noted pilot in those days, seeking to fly out of India.
“Nizam wanted first fly to Delhi on a visit and then fly back to Hyderabad so that it would be accepted that he had taken to flying as a regular method of transport… He would announce that he was coming to Delhi but after being airborne he would proceed directly to an airport in Pakistan. He would take a number of boxes containing valuables,” Iyengar wrote. But the alleged plan, too, turned out to be a fake alert.