General Ershad was not unlike Rajiv Gandhi

Both men were political innocents. In a sense, they were softies

General Ershad, who died the other day, is unforgettable for me for a reason he would never have guessed. For all the vilification, he was an innocent, not unlike Rajiv Gandhi. That was confirmed when some time in 1988 or 1989 the Bangladesh deputy high commissioner in Calcutta called on me to say he had been transferred to Sydney. Chatting over coffee, he let slip his President had wanted him to invite me to Dhaka but he had ignored the instruction. Hosting the editor of a national Indian daily might have meant additional publicity for Ershad. 

I guessed his sympathies lay