On Monday, June 5, Malini Parthasarathy, announced her decision to leave The Hindu Group Publishing Private Ltd’s board. She hinted at a conflict with the board in a statement by saying that she decided to leave since the scope of her efforts “has narrowed”.
She announced her decision to quit as the chairperson on Twitter, “I have also resigned from the Board of the THGPPL as I find the space and scope for my editorial views shrinking.”
Malini served as the Executive Editor of The Hindu spanning 2015-16. She later succeeded her cousin N. Ram as the Chairperson of the Board in 2020.
She was known for her outspoken opposition to the Modi government. Being an alumni of JNU she supported students when Kanhaiya Kumar and others were arrested by the police in 2016.
But later her apologetic sentiments about the Hindu’s coverage of Modi became known. This change occurred after she met Narendra Modi in person after she took charge as the Chairperson of the Hindu’s board.
She even went on to praise Modi at an event, where she said that Modi is handling traditionally difficult issues and is evolving into a statesman from a politician. She even attended a launch of a book based on Modi’s life.
Malini and N Ram, who are cousins, have had longstanding ideological disagreements, particularly concerning the newspaper’s Editorial and Editorial Board. Recently, Malini, in her role as Chairperson, found herself in conflicts with the editorial team.
One of these disputes involved a discussion with S Gurumurthy, an RSS ideologue, regarding The Hindu’s fact-checking of the ‘sengol’ controversy. The newspaper contradicted the government’s claim that the ‘sengol’ was presented to Jawaharlal Nehru by Lord Mountbatten. Gurumurthy disagreed with the fact-checking article, and Malini responded on Twitter, promising corrections if any inaccuracies were found. Some criticized her for allegedly appeasing the government. Meanwhile, N Ram supported the reporter and participated in a press conference in Chennai to debunk the government’s claims.
Source: The Free Press Journal