[Letter to Mr Minoo Masani]

Summary

This is a two-page administrative letter (Ref. H-5A) from M. R. Masani to Mr. F. Vaz of Mercury Travels, Rampart Row, Bombay, dated 3 August 1977, laying out travel arrangements for participants in a forthcoming ‘Agra Seminar.’ Masani divides roughly two dozen invitees into three categories according to how their transport is to be handled. Category 1 (V. V. John from Jodhpur, B. P. Singh, M.P. from Lucknow, Narayan Desai from Banaras, and P. G. Mavlankar and K. D. Desai from Ahmedabad) will book their own train tickets and be reimbursed on arrival, so Vaz need not act. Category 2 lists Delhi participants (Piloo Mody, Balraj Madhok, Kanshi Ram, Promilla Kapur, Devaki Jain, S. J. Sorabjee, B. R. Shenoy) and Bombay participants (S. V. Raju at PPS, Khushwant Singh at the Illustrated Weekly, Prof. Ram Joshi as Vice-Chancellor of Bombay University, M. R. Masani himself, Miss S. Singh, and A. A. Deshpande at LSP) whose addresses Vaz’s Delhi and Bombay offices already hold; those tickets are to be finalised within a week, with the discretion to issue Air-Conditioned rail tickets in place of flights should any Delhi invitee prefer rail.

Category 3 covers longer-haul fliers — Achyut Patwardhan from Madras, C. Kulshrestha from Hyderabad, C. R. Irani from Calcutta, Shamim A. Shamim from Srinagar, and Col. Manohar Malgonkar from Belgaum — for whom the proposed flights have been handed over the same day, with Masani asking for confirmed tickets (‘at least Request’) back that afternoon. He carves out one exception: Col. Malgonkar’s Belgaum/Bombay and Bombay/Delhi legs are to be left open, with only the Delhi/Agra/Delhi legs booked. The letter carries no discussion of the seminar’s agenda; its interest to the archive lies wholly in the invitee roll — a cross-section of liberal politicians, journalists, jurists, academics, and social workers being pulled together under Masani’s coordinating hand in the months after the Emergency was lifted.

Key points

• Letter dated 3 August 1977 (Ref. H-5A) from M. R. Masani to Mr. F. Vaz at Mercury Travels, Rampart Row, Bombay, coordinating travel logistics for an ‘Agra Seminar.’
• Participants are sorted into three categories keyed to how their transport will be arranged and paid for.
• Category 1 — self-booked train travel, reimbursed at Agra: V. V. John (Jodhpur), B. P. Singh M.P. (Lucknow), Narayan Desai (Banaras), P. G. Mavlankar and K. D. Desai (Ahmedabad).
• Category 2 — Delhi and Bombay invitees whose addresses Vaz’s offices already hold, tickets to be finalised within a week: Piloo Mody, Balraj Madhok, Kanshi Ram, Promilla Kapur, Devaki Jain, S. J. Sorabjee, B. R. Shenoy (Delhi); S. V. Raju, Khushwant Singh, Prof. Ram Joshi, M. R. Masani, Miss S. Singh, A. A. Deshpande (Bombay).
• Delhi participants who prefer rail may be issued Air-Conditioned rail tickets in lieu of flights, at Vaz’s discretion.
• Category 3 — pre-arranged flights already handed to Vaz: Achyut Patwardhan (Madras), C. Kulshrestha (Hyderabad), C. R. Irani (Calcutta), Shamim A. Shamim (Srinagar), Col. Manohar Malgonkar (Belgaum), with confirmed tickets requested back the same afternoon.
• Special exception noted for Col. Malgonkar: his Belgaum/Bombay and Bombay/Delhi flights left open; only the Delhi/Agra/Delhi legs to be booked on ‘Request.’
• The letter is purely logistical — no discussion of the seminar’s programme, theme, or convener body appears in these two pages.