Ahmedabad, 22 October 2013

Siddharth Varadrajan, Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu, who announced his resignation from the newspaper had given instruction to news desk not to take any stories of Narendra Modi on page one.

This has been revealed by N.Ravi, the new editor-in-chief.

In this article in Mint, Ravi is quoted as saying, “news desk was given standing instructions not to take any stories on Narendra Modi on page one. The Hindu has always been anti-Hindutva, but it was always kept out of our news judgement”.

Varadarajan was the first editor of the newspaper in nearly five decades who didn’t belong to Kasturi and Sons, the family that runs the newspaper.

Varadrajan had to step down after the board meeting of Kasturi and Sons Ltd (KSL), publisher of The Hindu voted to effect a change in top management with majority.

N.Ram, Chairman of Kusturi and Sons who voted against Varadrajan is quoted as saying that (under Varadrajan) no difference was maintained between news stories and editorial pieces.

BJP leader Dr. Subramanian Swamy had filed case on Varadarajan’s ineligibility to be editor of the news paper because he is a US citizen. The case is scheduled for hearing before the Delhi high court on Wednesday.

Arun Anant is no longer the chief executive of the company and Siddharth Varadarajan, who was re-designated contributing editor and senior columnist, has resigned, The Hindu said in an announcement on its website.