On June 5, journalist Malini Parthasarathy announced that she has stepped down from the board of The Hindu Group Publishing Private Limited. She said that while her term as Chairperson of the board is over, she has also resigned from the board. In a statement on Twitter, she hinted at having a disagreement with the board.
My term as Chairperson of The Hindu Group Publishing ends. However, I have also resigned from the Board of the THGPPL as I find the space and scope for my editorial views shrinking. My entire endeavour as Chairperson and Director, Editorial Strategy was to ensure that The Hindu…
— Malini Parthasarathy (@MaliniP) June 5, 2023
In a tweet, Malini wrote, “My term as Chairperson of The Hindu Group Publishing ends. However, I have also resigned from the Board of the THGPPL as I find the space and scope for my editorial views shrinking. My entire endeavour as Chairperson and Director, of Editorial Strategy was to ensure that The Hindu Group revives its legacy of fair and unbiased reporting. Also, my efforts were to free our narrative from entrenched ideological bias. Since I find the scope of my efforts has narrowed, I have decided to move on. I thank all my well-wishers and friends who have supported this challenging journey.”
According to The News Minute citing sources, Malini Parthasarathy had proposed the role of Editorial Director after her term as board chairperson ended, but the board rejected this proposal.
‘Sengol’ and other controversies
In recent times, Malini got into a debate with RSS ideologue S Gurumurthy regarding The Hindu fact-checking the ‘Sengol’ controversy. The Hindu claimed in a report that the Union Government’s remarks about ‘Sengol’ being presented to the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru as a sign of transfer of power by Lord Mountbatten was false. The newspaper claimed that it was just an ordinary gift by saints to the first PM, and was not seen as a symbol of the transfer of power by Nehru and others. Gurumurthy rebutted The Hindu’s claims to which Malini replied if his claims were found to be true, required amendments would be made to the report by The Hindu.
Her response was criticised and left-liberals accused her of appeasing the BJP-ruled central government. At that time, N Ran came out in support of the reporter who did the alleged “fact-check” for The Hindu over Sengol during a press conference in Chennai that was organised to allegedly “debunk” the Government of India’s story about Sengol.
In the past, differences between Malini and others in the publishing group were exposed in public several times. She has often aired her differences with others over ideological issues, and had several disagreements with N Ram, her cousin and the former Editor-in-Chief.
In January 2023, Malini Parthasarathy rebuffed their journalist S Anandan who took a dig at Hindu god Lord Hanuman while trying to mock External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar. Parthasarathy was reacting to Hindu journalist S. Anandan’s tweet where he was mocking Dr Jaishankar’s statement on how he draws foreign policy lessons from Mahabharata, the Hindu epic. To mock this statement by Dr Jaishankar, S. Anandanm asked which batch of IFS were the Hindu gods from. Parthasarathy then said how the disrespectful tweet does not represent the position of The Hindu.
In January 2021, she was slammed by N Ram for meeting PM Modi. N Ram was responding to a Twitter user who had asked why “Hindu’s hard-earned legacy is being squandered away”, referring to the tweet of Malini Parthasarathy. She had posted a photograph of her meeting with PM Modi, informing that she had an “illuminating conversation in which he (the PM) shared his perspective on issues of current public interest.” N Ram said, “What I can assure you is that we will do our very best to prevent The Hindu’s “hard-earned” reputation and legacy of 142+ years “being squandered away”.
Malini did not remain silent over this grave allegation made against her by the former editor-in-chief of the Hindu newspaper. She tweeted that the 142+ years of hard-earned reputation of the publication does not get destroyed by meeting the prime minister, as N Ram thinks. She tweeted, “Our 142+ years of hard-earned reputation was built by reporting that was factual & not driven by political prejudice or bias.”
Malini joined The Hindu as a newsroom leader in 1996. She continued her position till 2004 after which she held the position of Executive Editor. Her most recent tenure as Executive Editor at the publishing house was from 2015 to 2016. In July 2020, she assumed the role of Chairperson of the Board after N Ram stepped down.
