Rajdeep Sardesai

August , 2009

Friday , August 21, 2009

Jaswant's book: Reading between the lines


82IBNLive Google Buzz

This independence day weekend, as the tricolor fluttered in the rain, I chose to sit at home and read Jaswant Singh's book on Mohammed Ali Jinnah. It might seem odd to read a book on the father of the Pakistani nation on August 15th, but then the great joy of books is that they know of no boundaries. The book itself was a fine read, well written and extensively researched. I must confess to have finished reading it with a sneaking admiration for the former minister's scholarship. Unfortunately, the comforting world of books is far removed from the harsh reality of politics as Mr Singh has now despairingly found out. Had Jaswant Singh been a professional historian, he could well have engaged in endless debates in seminar rooms over whether Jinnah was an 'ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity' or whether he was the 'villain of partition' as is generally considered.....


Friday , August 07, 2009

George: From Giant Killer to lonely Bhishma


51IBNLive Google Buzz

In the din of Parliament, it was a despairing sight that could only evoke pity and sadness: the once mighty George Fernandes struggling to take his oath as a Rajya Sabha member. He couldn't speak, could barely walk, this was a lion in the winter of life being almost pushed to perform one last time on the big stage. He was obviously ill, needed to be cared for, but instead was being asked to defy age and poor health. The only question that many of us who had tracked the controversial, but always charismatic politician could ask was: is this how a senior public figure must fade away? George Fernandes, after all, is a life story that few Bollywood scripts would be able to match. The teenager who was sent to a seminary to train as a priest, but then rebelled and became a trade....


IBN7IBN7
IBN7IBN7

More about Rajdeep Sardesai

Rajdeep Sardesai is the Editor-in-Chief, IBN18 Network, that includes CNN-IBN, IBN 7 and IBN Lokmat. He comes with 22 years of journalistic experience during which he has covered some of the biggest stories in India and the world. Prior to setting up the IBN network, he was the Managing Editor of both NDTV 24X7 and NDTV India and was responsible for overseeing the news policy for both the channels. He has also worked with The Times of India for six years and was the city editor of its Mumbai edition at the age of 26. During the last 22 years, he has covered major national and international stories, specialising in national politics. He has won numerous other awards for journalistic excellence, including the prestigious Padma Shri for journalism in 2008, the International Broadcasters Award for coverage of the 2002 Gujarat riots and the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award for 2007. He has won the Asian Television Award for best talk show for the Big Fight on two occasions and his current flagship show on CNN-IBN, India at 9, has been awarded the best news show at the Asian awards for the last two years. He has been News Anchor of the year at the Indian Television Academy for seven of the last eight years and won more than 50 awards in this period. He has also been the President of the Editors Guild of India, the only television journalist to hold the post and was chosen a Global leader for tomorrow by the world economic forum in 2000. An alumni of St Xavier's College, Mumbai, he has done his Masters and LLB from Oxford University and has also played first class cricket for the Oxford University team. He has contributed to several books and writes a fortnightly column that appears in seven newspapers.
IBN7IBN7

IBN7IBN7

Recent Posts

Archives

IBNLiveIBNLive