(S.Ravi Seshu)
One of the most respected editors Dr.Dilip Padgaonkar passed away in Pune on Friday. He is 72.
A former Editor of The Times of India, Dilip breathed his last at a private hospital where he was brought in a critical condition on November 18. He was on dialysis and ventilator since then.
Born in Pune in 1944, Dilip did his schooling and college in the same city. After receiving a doctorate in Humanities in 1968, he joined the Times of India as its Paris correspondent. After working for ToI for a decade, he worked with UNESCO in Bangkok and Paris between 1978 to 1986. He was appointed as its Editor in 1988. He was a part of the three-member interlocutors for Jammu & Kashmir in 2008, Rajdeep Sardesai, who was mentored by Dilip since 1988 at ToI, said: “News excited him and made him less of an ivory tower editor than many of his predecessors. He was the classic liberal, a believer in the values of free speech and individual freedoms, someone who allowed contrary views to be expressed on the editorial page without demur.”
Former Editor of The Hindu and founder editor of the online website The Wire, Sidharth Varadarajan, praised Dilip’s contribution to journalism and termed his demise as a terrible loss.
Politicians, senior editors and journalists sent condolence messages to the bereaved family.