By Our Staff
For a newspaper as sedate and propah as The Hindu, there is some heavyduty boardroom activity that forever keeps happening at the Mount Road (now Anna Salai), Chennai-headquartered media giant. Mount Road Mahavishnu is what The Hindu was called by old-timers. Perhaps it’s not politically/ideologically correct to call it that today.
So the news is known: Malini Parthasarathy, stepped down as Chairperson at the Board’s meeting on Monday (June 5) upon nearing the completion of her three-year term. But she did so via a Tweet. People close to the powers that be in The Hindu were of course aware that a change was set to be announced.
Soon enough, the The Hindu announced the appointment of Nirmala Lakshman as Chairperson of the Board of Directors of The Hindu Group Publishing Private Limited (THGPPL) for a term of three years. The decision the report notes, was unanimous. The announcement is also frontpaged in papers on Tuesday (June 6).
Nirmala Lakshman is a doctorate in post-modern literature and brings with her more than four decades of experience as an editor, writer, and strategist for The Hindu’s various publications. In her years as Joint Editor of The Hindu, she led the re-launch of several feature sections and the creation of new ones, such as ‘The Hindu Literary Review’, ‘Young World’, and ‘The Hindu in School’. She is the founder and curator of Lit for Life, The Hindu’s literary festival. Ms. Lakshman served as the Chairperson of Kasturi Media Limited (KML), publishers of The Hindu Tamil Thisai.”
The challenge for Lakshman though is not going to be in the features department that she is doubtless a pro at. It’s the news department where there is a challenge. The Hindu editorial thinktank (N Ram essentially) is not known to be positively disposed towards the BJP regime, and although Tamil Nadu has always seen a unique blend of regional politics, it’s key for the powers that be in Delhi to not have a print major like Hindu oppose it.
Back to the report, which added: “The Board of Directors of THGPPL placed on record its appreciation of Ms Malini Parthasarathy’s contributions to the Group and its publications as well as the efficient way in which she led the deliberations and proceedings at the Board level. The Board expressed confidence that Ms Lakshman, with her qualifications and experience, would succeed in fulfilling the responsibility that comes with her new position.”
Earlier, a statement by Parthasarathy, went viral: “My term as Chairperson of The Hindu Group Publishing ends. However, I have also resigned from the Board of the THGPPL as I find the space and scope for my editorial views shrinking. My entire endeavour as Chairperson and Director, Editorial Strategy was to ensure that The Hindu Group revives its legacy of fair and unbiased reporting. Also my efforts were to free our narrative from entrenched ideological bias. Since I find the scope for my efforts has narrowed, I have decided to move on. I thank all my well-wishers and friends who have supported this challenging journey.”
According to the grapevine, and also reported in some media, Parthasarathy wanted the position of Editorial Director, but that wasn’t found in favour of the Board. There is another view that Parthasarathy has been seen to be not dramatically opposed to the Narendra Modi regime. She posted a picture with him, something that came as a surprise to given that she is the editor of a left-of-centre publication like The Hindu. More recently, she consoled former Indian Express strongman and RSS ideologue S Gurmurthy’s lambast of a Hindu story on the sengol controversy. N Ram, who is the editorial face of the paper, aggressively backed the report.
But, then, The Hindu-watchers know that the current developments don’t mean anything much. Parthasarathy could well be back in the saddle after three years, or nine-and-a-half.