About Me

Former political editor of the Times of India, as representative of the paper in Gandhinagar, Gujarat’s capital, I have covered the state government between late 1997 and early 2013. In formal journalism since 1979, I believe in what George Orwell said, "Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed: everything else is public relations." 
Before I joined TOI in 1993, I was in Moscow, covering Mikhail Gorbachev's rise and fall between 1986 and 1993 for Patriot, Delhi's semi-Left paper, and weekly newsmagazine Link. Though ideologies have fascinated me, I feel, in the changed scenario, they are losing ground. And when someone asks me, what's replaced ideologies, I just have one answer: "I am a newsperson, How do I know?"
I have been associated with the Times of India's online site blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com, and my column was called True Lies, which I have tried to continued in Counterview, and have been republished in RajivSpeak. My write-ups have been a modest attempt to bring forth impressions of the life around and efforts of the establishment to influence it.
Many of my byline stories published in the Times of India between 2001 and 2013, when I covered the Gujarat government under Narendra Modi as chief minister, can be accessed here. 
Currently, I edit www.counterview.net, a current affairs blogs, which sources information from alternative quarters. I am also associated as consultant with counterview.org, an interactive blogging site owned by rights-based NGOs (Janvkias, Centre for Social Justice, Dalit Shakti Kendra and Navsarjan Trust) in Ahmedabad.  
Please contact me on counterview.editor@gmail.com