Rahul Pandita's resignation letter to The Hindu's Malini Parthasarthy goes viral

Trouble continues in the Hindu. The Chennai-based newspaper which saw two high-profile exits as two senior editors Praveen Swami and P Sainath left the paper last year, is back in the spotlight due to Rahul Pandita, the paper’s Opinion & Special Stories Editor, who has resigned from citing differences with the paper’s editor Malini Parthasarthy. Pandita’s resignation letter was shared online by Caravan magazine’s political editor Hartosh Singh Bal, who tweeted

Here is the full text of that letter: I think I made my point quite clear in my email to the editor-in-chief. In the current situation what the Op-ed page really needs is a bunch of interns who can seek instructions from you on an hourly basis and then get in touch with the authors on your behalf. An Op-ed editor, the way I see it, has to be given some broad guidelines in the beginning and then left free to run the page. But there is absolutely no freedom for the current editors to do so. Every article that comes to us or has to be commissioned has to go through your approval. And it really depends on what you think at that point.To tell you the truth, it is just a waste of talent, as far as I am concerned.I came to The Hindu to steer some top-notch reportage and to strengthen the edit pages - by making it more accessible and more nuanced. But I am bogged down with this hourly need to consult you, and with the practice of selecting articles on the basis of whether you’ve been addressed as “Malini” or “Ma’am” in the covering letters.I am also sick of this constant play of yours: to pitch one person against another for one week, and then reverse it in the next. One is also tired of your changing goalposts. The Sunday Anchor has to be reportage-driven, and then suddenly it becomes policy-driven, and then suddenly, depending on what you hear or get impressed with, it has to be made reportage-driven again.I am a hardcore journalist and I came to journalism with a certain anger, with a certain cockiness. I have seen people dying in front of my eyes, their entrails in their hands. I have had guns pointed to my temple. Getting my blood pressure high in a conflict zone is a part of my life. But I do not like to get my blood pressure high while sitting in a cabin, waiting for a phone call from yours, of which I’ll not understand a word.I have resigned with immediate effect. And that is what I have conveyed to the editor-in-chief. Warmly, r [caption id=“attachment_2026633” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Screenshot of the letter.[/caption] Previously when Swami and Sainath had quit, Best Info Media had reported that both had blamed the unpleasant conditions at work. In a letter to his team, Swami had written , “The last few months have not been pleasant, for reasons all of you are aware of, and I decided it was best to use my energies doing journalism, not fighting battles that serve no purpose for anyone. I owe an apology to the fine young reporters as well as eminent senior colleagues who I could not protect from shabby treatment. Though none of the decisions were mine, they happened on my watch, and for that I owe you an apology.” Swami had also told the website, “It began to feel a little bit like working for Pol Pot, and I didn’t want to hang around until I was executed or sent off for re-education.”