BALLOON MAN VISHWA BANDHU GUPTA DIES

Veteran journalist and balloon man Vishwa Bandhu Gupta passed away Sunday night. He was 94.

Also a former Congress member of the Rajya Sabha and one of the founder members of the Press Club of India (PCI), Gupta was better known as a balloon man in later part of his age as he moved from place to place with his hot air balloon shows. He was the honorary secretary of the Balloon Club of India who set up the balloon clubs at many places, including Delhi, Jaipur, Goa, Uttarakhand, Guwahati and Bengaluru. He was cremated at the Lodhi Road crematorium, Delhi on Monday in presence of family members and friends. A wreath was laid on behalf of PCI by its secretarygeneral Anant Bagaitkar.

Gupta was President of the All India Newspaper Editors Conference and the head of the Tej Group of Newspapers publishing Hindi and Urdu newspapers from Delhi. He was vocal on the rights of the small and language newspapers. He remained a senior functionary of the Congress in Delhi for a number of years. He was a permanent fixture at the Congress media group planning daily press briefings. He was a permanent fixture of the Central Hall, not missing a day from regularly visiting during the Parliament session. He was suffering from the age-related issues for the past two years, with difficulty in walking and yet he would come to the Central Hall with help and interact with journalists and leaders of all parties.