Vinod Mehta (31 May 1941 – 8 March 2015) was an Indian journalist, editor and political commentator. He was also the founder editor-in-chief of ''
Outlook
Outlook or The Outlook may refer to:
Computing
* Microsoft Outlook, also referred to as ''the classic Outlook'' an e-mail client and personal information management software product from Microsoft
* Outlook for Windows, also referred to as ''the ...
'' from 1995 to 2012 and had been editor of publications such as ''
The Pioneer'', ''The Sunday Observer'', ''
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
'' and ''The Indian Post''. He was also the author of several books.
Life
On 31 May 1941, Mehta was born
in
Rawalpindi
Rawalpindi is the List of cities in Punjab, Pakistan by population, third-largest city in the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is a commercial and industrial hub, being the list of cities in P ...
, in
Punjab
Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...
,
British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...
. His family became refugees in 1945.
He grew up as an army boy in
Lucknow
Lucknow () is the List of state and union territory capitals in India, capital and the largest city of the List of state and union territory capitals in India, Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is the administrative headquarters of the epon ...
, an experience that turned him into a determined secularist. He attended
La Martinere school and
the university there.
Mehta lived in
New Delhi
New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...
. He was married to Sumita Paul, a journalist who has worked for ''The Pioneer'' and the Sunday edition of ''
The Times of India
''The Times of India'' (''TOI'') is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by the Times Group. It is the List of newspapers in India by circulation, third-largest newspaper in India by circulation an ...
''. He had a daughter from a prior relationship, the existence of whom he revealed in a memoir after encouragement from his wife.
Mehta died of
multi-organ failure in New Delhi on 8 March 2015, after a prolonged illness.
Career
Leaving home with a third-class BA degree, Mehta experimented with a string of jobs, including that of a factory-hand in suburban Britain, before accepting an offer to edit ''
Debonair'' in 1974, a
men's magazine
This is a list of men's magazines from around the world. These are magazines (periodical print publications) that have been published primarily for a readership of men.
The list has been split into subcategories according to the target audienc ...
.
Mehta became one of India's most influential editors by launching a number of successful publications such as the ''Sunday Observer'' in 1981, ''The Indian Post'' in 1987, ''The Independent'' in 1989, ''The Pioneer'' (Delhi edition) in 1990 and, finally, ''Outlook'' in 1995. He was editorial chairman of the Outlook Group.
Mehta was forced to resign from the editorship of ''The Independent'' newspaper in 1989, 29 days after launching it, because of a story based on a dubious
RAW report, calling the
Maharashtrian politician
Y. B. Chavan a spy, which Mehta ran with an eight-column banner headline.
Vinod Mehta has authored a biography of
Meena Kumari and
Sanjay Gandhi
Sanjay Gandhi (14 December 1946 – 23 June 1980) was an Indian politician. He was a member of the Lok Sabha and was the younger son of Indira Gandhi and Feroze Gandhi.
During his lifetime, he was widely expected to succeed his mother as head ...
, and published (in 2001) a collection of his articles under the title ''Mr Editor, How Close Are You to the PM?'' His memoir, ''Lucknow Boy'', was published in 2011.
[ Mehta is infamous for his comment praising Pakistan's military dictator ]Pervez Musharraf
Pervez Musharraf (11 August 1943 – 5 February 2023) was a Pakistani general and politician who served as the tenth president of Pakistan from 2001 to 2008.
Prior to his career in politics, he was a four-star general and appointed as ...
at Agra Summit held in 2001 where he said to Musharraf that "I support you so much that in India, they call me your man."
Mehta was a TV panellist and frequently appeared on TV shows like ''Newshour'' on Times Now and ''India at 9'' at CNN-IBN
CNN News18 is an Indian English-language news television channel founded by Raghav Bahl based in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India. It is currently co-owned by Network18 Group and Warner Bros. Discovery. CNN provides international coverage for the c ...
. He was called upon by news anchors as a senior journalist and was sought after for his analysis of major issues and scenarios. He remained editor-in-chief of ''Outlook'' till February 2012.
He was president of the Editors Guild of India and was, briefly, the writer and presenter of "Letter from India" on the BBC World Service
The BBC World Service is a British Public broadcasting, public service broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception area, language selection and audience reach. It broadcas ...
and BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...
.
On 9 February 2015 he was awarded the Yash Bharti Award by the Government of Uttar Pradesh
The Government of Uttar Pradesh (International Organization for Standardization, ISO: ''Uttara Pradēśa Sarakāra''; often abbreviated as GoUP) is the subnational government of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh with the governor as its appoin ...
for his work in the field of journalism.
Lawsuit
In 2012 the ''Indian Express'' attempted to sue Mehta for defamation after he had hinted that a story it had run was planted.
Praise
In her column in ''The Indian Express
''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932 by P. Varadarajulu Naidu. It is headquartered in Noida, owned by the ''Indian Express Group''. It was later taken over by Ramnath Goenka. In 1999, eight y ...
'', Coomi Kapoor, who worked under Mehta for many years, said
Major works
* ''Bombay: A Private View'' (1971)
* '' Meena Kumari'' (1972) e-launched in May 2013
* ''Mr Editor, how close are you to the PM?'' (1999),
* ''Lucknow Boy: A Memoir'' (2010),
* ''The Sanjay Story'' (2012),
* ''Editor Unplugged'' (2014)
References
External links
A review of Lucknow Boy
A review of Editor Unplugged
Transcripts : The Radia Tapes
contains all the leaked audio transcripts between Nira Radia and other high-profile people
Arnab Goswami's Tribute to Mr Mehta - The Editor I never had
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mehta, Vinod
1941 births
2015 deaths
20th-century Indian journalists
Indian newspaper editors
Indian magazine editors
Writers from Lucknow
Indian male journalists
La Martinière College, Lucknow alumni
University of Lucknow alumni
20th-century Indian biographers
Deaths from multiple organ failure
Journalists from Uttar Pradesh
20th-century Indian male writers
People from Rawalpindi
Indian male biographers