Siddharth Varadarajan
| Siddharth Varadarajan | |
|---|---|
Siddharth Varadarajan at Times Litfest 2016
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| Born | 1965 |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater |
Columbia University London School of Economics |
| Occupation | Founding editor of The Wire |
| Spouse(s) | Nandini Sundar |
| Awards |
Bernardo O'Higgins Order, Elizabeth Neuffer Memorial Prize |
| Website | svaradarajan |
Siddharth Varadarajan (born 1965) is an Indian American journalist, editor, and academic. He is the former editor of The Hindu, one of India's leading English language newspapers. He has reported on the NATO war against Yugoslavia, the destruction of the Bamyan Buddhas by the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, the war in Iraq and the crisis in Kashmir.Varadarajan has edited a book titled Gujarat:The Making of a Tragedy which is about the 2002 Gujarat riots.
After studying economics at the London School of Economics and Columbia University, Varadarajan taught at New York University for several years before joining The Times of India as an editorial writer in 1995. In 2004, he joined The Hindu, India's English-language newspaper, as deputy editor. He worked as the Hindu's Chief of National Bureau, succeeding Harish Khare, who was named as then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's media adviser, in June 2009.
In May 2011, the shareholders of Kasturi and Sons Ltd. held an extraordinary general meeting and voted to appoint Varadarajan as The Hindu's editor on the recommendation of the company's board, thus making Varadarajan the first editor of the newspaper not drawn from the family of shareholders in its 150-year history. Prior to his appointment, The Hindu's editors were drawn from the family of the company's owners. On Oct 21, 2013, Siddharth Varadarajan publicly announced via Twitter, his resignation from The Hindu, citing a change in policy by the owners of the newspaper to go back to being a family run and edited newspaper.
Subramanian Swamy filed a case in Delhi High Court to challenge his appointment as editor since Varadarajan is a US citizen. On June 2012, Dr Swamy also made a written complaint to Press Registrar and Asst Press Registrar of News Papers of India under Ministry of IB, Govt of India.N Ram denied Varadharajan's resignation in any way related to Dr Swamy's case but admitted that it “was hanging like a sword over our heads”. Swamy's petition was dismissed by the Delhi High Court as according to the court the issue had become infructuous “because during the pendency of the writ petition the respondent no. 3 [Mr. Varadarajan] resigned from the post of Editor of The Hindu …’’. Varadarajan has said in an interview that Swamy had demanded more coverage in The Hindu of his statements through an intermediary. Barbs and warnings were then given by Swamy to Varadarajan, and when Varadarajan kept refusing to oblige, Swamy filed his case in court.
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