M. V. Kamath

Madhav Vittal Kamath (7 September 1921 – 9 October 2014)[2] was an Indian journalist and broadcasting executive, and the chairman of Prasar Bharati.[3] He worked as the editor of The Sunday Times for two years from 1967 to 1969, as Washington correspondent for The Times of India[4] from 1969 to 1978 and also as editor of The Illustrated Weekly of India.[5] He had also written numerous books[6][7][8][9] and was conferred with the Padma Bhushan award in 2004.[10][11]

In 2009, Mr. Kamath co-authored a biographical sketch of Narendra Modi book titled Narendra Modi: The Architect of a Modern State, at a time when Modi's reputation was considerably affected as a result of the 2002 Gujarat riots; post his ascent into national politics, a newer version of the book was published as The Man of the Moment: Narendra Modi.[12][13] Kamath was a board-member of Manipal Academy of Higher Education and was also the Honorary Director of the School of Communication, since its inception in 1997.[14]

He died on the morning of October 9 2014, from a cardiac arrest at Kasturba Hospital;[12] he was hospitalized since a few days back due to geriatric ailments.[2][15]

Malini Parthasarathy notes him to have longstanding sympathies with Hindutva -- one of his columns following the murder of Graham Staines by Hindutva extremists sought to justify the incident as a spontaneous repercussion against conversions, if the government were not willing to step in -- in what she deems that as a blatant incitement of hate crimes.[16] Others have shared similar views[17] and he has also extensively written in the official mouthpiece of RSS - Organiser.[18][19] Kamath has been noted to be an astute journalist, whose opinions swayed with the tune of the majority; his stance on the Babri Masjid demolition was quite negative in the immediate aftermath but after about a decade, he deemed that as an act of valiance that restored the self-respect of Hindus and rejoiced about how the state, of Hindu India being under continual siege since the first Islamic invasions, was reversed for the first time.[20][21][17] In the immediate aftermaths of the enactment of Mandal Commission recommendations, when RSS increasingly leaned towards a hardcore Brahmanical approach, Kamath had written of the need to maintain Hindu unity and negate the fall-outs of an impending Shudra revolution.[22] Alexander Evans had noted his efforts in racist communalisation of the Kashmir conflict; Kamath deemed the region to belong solely to the Pandits and not to the Muslims, who were allegedly alone-responsible for the decline of their culture.[23] Rajmohan Gandhi notes him to be a staunch Hindu.[24]