*** The Mumbai edition of The Hindu, launched with much fanfare five years ago, has run into serious turbulence with over two dozen staffers being asked to leave the 142-year-old organisation at less than a fortnight’s notice. The indicated last date is June 30. Almost all those whose resignations have been sought, orally, had been…
Tag Archives: Malini Parthasarathy
With phones, mobiles and internet switched off, it’s a psychological “war without witness” in Kashmir. And it’s hell for reporters, photographers and cameramen in paradise.
The “lockdown” of Kashmir—mild jargon for a brutal, undemocratic suppression of civil liberties in the Valley—in the run up to and following the bifurcation of the State has cast a dark shadow over journalism with phone lines cut and internet shut. The Telegraph (above) reports in its issue today that it has not been able…
56 years later, the last TV interview of India’s first prime minister offers a stark and sobering contrast to the first press “appearance” of the 14th PM
After 1,817 days—in his final week in office at the end of his five year term—prime minister Narendra Modi presented himself in a press conference at the BJP headquarters in Delhi—and took no questions. This extraordinary and advertised disdain for the freedom of the press to question a prime minister—freely and openly, without a script…
‘The Hindu’ sets up anti-harassment panels
Following the Tarun J. Tejpal meltdown at Tehelka, media organisations are scrambling to put in place in-house mechanisms as mandated by law to deal with potentially similar incidents. As of today, 1 December 2013, The Hindu, which has a woman Editor at its helm in Malini Parthasarathy, has constituted internal complaints commissions in its offices…
”The Hindu’ situation had become irremediable’
The “professional” editor may have been eased out by redesignating him; the services of the “professional” CEO may have been summarily terminated; and the front page of the paper may have returned to its past. But The Hindu saga is not over yet. After six board members on the 11-member board of Kasturi & Sons…
Hindu’s longest serving editor G. Kasturi: RIP
sans serif records the demise of Gopalan Kasturi aka G. Kasturi, the longest-serving editor of The Hindu in Madras, early today. He was 87. Although he was the helmsman of a supposedly “orthodox, conservative” newspaper, Kasturi was renowned in the industry as a torchbearer, showing the way with his knowledge of fonts, photography and printing…
Kuldip Nayar on Shekhar Gupta, N. Ram & Co
Kuldip Nayar, 89, the grand old lion of Indian journalism—former editor of the Statesman in Delhi, former managing editor of the United News of India news agency, former correspondent of the London Times, former media advisor to the late prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, former high commissioner of India to the United Kingdom, and above…
N. Ram to resign as The Hindu editor-in-chief
After a long and bitter battle with his brothers and cousins, Narasimhan Ram, the editor-in-chief of The Hindu, has finally called it a day. In a letter to the directors of Kasturi & Sons Limited (KSL), the holding company of the paper at 12.19 pm today, N. Ram, 66, has indicated that the time has…
N. Murali: ‘Hindu’ is run like a ‘banana republic’
N. Murali, the managing director of The Hindu, has retired after a 40-year career in the Madras-based, family owned newspaper. Below is the full text of his farewell letter to employees of the paper, in which he minces no words in describing the current phase of the paper, under the current editor-in-chief N. Ram, as…
Why N. Ravi quit as Hindu’s editor after 20 years
This is the full text of N. Ravi‘s July 20 letter to the board of directors of Kasturi & Sons, the holding company of The Hindu, on why he can no longer continue as the editor of the paper, following the elevation of Delhi bureau chief Siddharth Varadarajan as the next editor of the paper.…
Malini Parthasarathy: Why I quit ‘The Hindu’
This is the full text of Malini Parthasarathy‘s July 20 letter to the board of directors of Kasturi & Sons, the holding company of The Hindu, on why she can no longer continue as executive editor of the paper, following the elevation of Delhi bureau chief Siddharth Varadarajan as the next editor of the paper.…
Malini Parthasarathy quits as Hindu exec editor
The Hindu boardroom strife—over the appointment of a non-family professional as editor—has claimed its first victim in the newsroom. Malini Parthasarathy, who would have become the first woman editor of a broadsheet English newspaper had the traditional succession plan been implemented, has resigned as executive editor of the paper. This, a day after the Supreme…
The curious case of N.Ram, DMK and Jayalalitha
ARVIND SWAMINATHAN writes from Madras: If a picture conveys a thousand words, the picture above should convey a couple of them, and then some more. At left is N. Ram, the editor-in-chief of The Hindu, currently embroiled in a major row with his brothers N.Murali and N. Ravi (and their cousins Malini Parthasarathy, Nirmala Lakshman…
The four great wars of N. Ram on ‘Hindu’ soil
ARVIND SWAMINATHAN writes from Madras: As if to prove the old adage that blood is thicker than water, there have been four rounds of internecine strife in the last 22 years in the undivided Hindu family that owns and runs India’s “most respected” newspaper. To no one’s surprise, Narasimhan Ram aka N. Ram, the card-carrying…
The Hindu adopts a ‘Code of Editorial Values’
Amid all the internecine strife over who in the family will (or won’t) get to occupy the editorial gaddi, the 12-member board of directors of The Hindu have managed to adopt a code of editorial values, although Mail Today reports that the new nine-point code has not been unanimously adopted by the board. *** 1.…
When it’s all in the family, it is all in the family
The latest issue of the Indian edition of Forbes, “the capitalist tool“, has a four-page story on the war of the brothers in the boardroom of The Hindu over the proposed retirement norms for directors. The article reveals that “for several weeks now,” two of the brothers in The Hindu triumvirate—editor N. Ravi and senior…
‘N. Ram is stalling Malini Parthasarathy’s ascent’
The veteran journalist, author, civil rights activist, and former Indian high commissioner to London, Kuldip Nayar, weighs in on the tussle within the boardroom of The Hindu, in the latest issue of M.J. Akbar‘s weekly newspaper, The Sunday Guardian: “I wonder why N. Ram, 65, is so reluctant to retire. People may have differed with…
Express declares ceasefire; brothers declare war
The tussle between The Indian Express and The Hindu following the former’s reports (Part I and Part II) on the boardroom happenings in the latter has predictably and understandably gone cold after N. Ram‘s belligerent announcement of “criminal and civil defamation proceedings”. Express bossman Shekhar Gupta is said to have instructed staff to go easy…
Now, it’s Malini Parthasarathy vs ‘The Stalinists’
In the great undivided Hindu family, the fiery former executive editor Malini Parthasarathy, is the odd woman out after the reassignment of familial duties. And she lets it hang all out on her Twitter account. The board of directors of Kasturi & Sons comprises the descendants of four cousins G. Narasimhan, S. Parthasarathy, S. Rangarajan,…
Not just about the brothers, it’s the children too
Far from being cowed down by N. Ram‘s threat to sue for the “demonstrable falsehoods and defamatory assertions” in its report on “Ram’s role and actions in developments within the newspaper group and the company“, the Indian Express continues its coverage of the goings-on in the board room of the “Mount Road Mahavishnu” for the…
IJR 