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B.G. Verghese, acclaimed editor, respected columnist and a leading intellectual, died Dec. 30 at his son’s home in nearby Gurgaon, a family friend said.
Verghese was 87. He is survived by his wife Jamila and two sons.
Born in 1927 in Burma, now Myanmar, Verghese began his career as a journalist with the Times of India in 1949.
He rose to become the editor of the Hindustan Times and the Indian Express in a career spanning six decades during which he also was information adviser to prime minister Indira Gandhi during 1966-68.
He was removed as the Hindustan Times editor during the Emergency era of Indira Gandhi.
Verghese was information consultant to the defence minister (2001), a member of the National Security Advisory Board and of the Kargil Review Committee.
He was an authority on India’s troubled northeast and water resources and was a member of several NGOs and educational institutions.
Verghese was a founder member of the Editors Guild of India and received the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism in 1975. He was also on a fact finding mission on the Gujarat riots of 2002.
He is a author of of over a dozen books, the last one being a history of India as told through its postage stamps.
He was a visiting professor at the Centre for Policy Research. In his memoirs titled “First Draft” that he published in 2010, he wrote: “Age is an attitude, least of all a biological attribute.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi Tuesday condoled the death of senior journalist B.G. Verghese, describing him an insightful thinker.
“In B.G. Verghese, we lost an accomplished writer and an insightful thinker. May his soul rest in peace,” the prime minister said in his condolence message.
Verghese, an acclaimed editor, respected columnist and a leading intellectual, died this evening at his son’s home in nearby Gurgaon. He was 87
