Faridoon Shahryar's Blog


Thursday, August 23, 2018

Kuldeep Nayyar: The Journalist who symbolised Truth!

Veteran journalist Kuldeep Nayyar sahab passed away last night at a Delhi hospital. He was 95. A Journalist who fought for freedom of expression and never hesitated in showing the mirror to the unscrupulous politicians. A journalist who was jailed during Emergency and resisted crumbs from the establishment all his life. 

I read his autobiography 'Beyond the Lines' with great interest. Born in Sialkot, he wrote a heartwarming account of Partition. He wrote about an unverified incident when Jinnah broke down during an aerial survey. When he saw the qatl-e-aam on the border post partition, he exclaimed with a sigh, "Yeh maine kya kar diya." 

Kuldeep sahab was critical of Indira Gandhi, Sanjay Gandhi and he was critical of Modi. He knew about Emergency better than most. Advani had famously said during Emergency, "Media was asked to bend, they crawled." Kuldeep sahab didn't bend, forget crawling. He stood erect  with pride till his last days.

 Rest in peace Sir!

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