Editor N Ravi, along with executive editor Malini Parthasarathy and joint editor Nirmala Lakshman put in their papers.
N Ravi, the editor of English daily The Hindu, today stepped down, along with two other top-level editors. The resignations were in protest against the appointment of Siddharth Varadarajan as the editor.
Executive Editor Malini Parthasarathy and Joint Editor Nirmala Lakshman, along with Ravi, gave their resignation at the board meeting of Kasturi & Sons Ltd (KSL), which runs the publication. However, all of them will continue to be whole-time directors of KSL.
Early this year, Ravi, Parthasarathy and KSL’s senior managing director N Murali, had opposed several proposals, including the appointment of Varadarajan by editor-in-chief N Ram. This led to a bitter succession battle since the proposals required all family members of KSL to step down from the editorial board.
In May, the family members moved the Company Law Board (CLB) against Ram in this regard. However, the latter got a Madras High Court reprieve on an interim order by the CLB, but was challenged before the Supreme Court.
The apex court abstained from intervening and on Tuesday directed the CLB to hear the warring family members “expeditiously” from August 8 daily, “as the working of the newspaper was likely to be affected by the dispute”. It added that the CLB could take an impartial decision without getting influenced by the observations of the SC and the Madras High Court.
Today, the KSL board appointed Varadarajan as the editor of The Hindu by a majority of seven to five.
Ravi wrote in his resignation letter, a copy of which is available with Business Standard, that the “recent events have shown that deceit, lack of probity and bad faith have come into the dealings among family members on the board with a clique being formed through exchange of unmerited favours.
The turn of events since September 2009, and, particularly since February 2010, has been marked by reneging on commitments made and agreements reached, benefiting from favours but not honouring reciprocal obligations and the vindictive removal of responsibilities from some and handing them to inexperienced and unsuitable family members to humour them and shore up support for a clique.
The whole exercise of removal from posts on the editorial side is sought to be carried out in the guise of professionalization, as if the family shareholders holding positions on the editorial side are not in themselves qualified professionals.”
