Former KT editor Nihal Singh dead

dubai — S. Nihal Singh was one of the stalwarts of the old guard that kept constant vigil on the standards of the fourth estate. Just this morning in the KT special issue I was reading another

KT editor Rahul Singh’s comments on the man and the writer. As a former Chief Editor of The

Statesman and Indian Express, he brought with him a certain gravitas and experience when he took over Khaleej Times in 1994. During his tenure in the UAE, he gave the paper a certain dignity and grace and was acknowledged globally as an expert on foreign affairs. Socially adept and a great raconteur of stories he had a good sense of the absurd and a very subtle sense of humour.

Few people know that Nihal Singh fought the good fight against Indira Gandhi’s Emergency and control on the media and was invited to New York and awarded the prestigious International Editor of the Year Award for his stance. The Express under his stewardship fought while many capitulated. He never set it to music or sought any accolades, he just believed you cannot muzzle the media. A world renowned figure, he was a foreign correspondent in four cities — London, New York, Moscow and Jakarta.

A very well spoken man and a gentleman to boot, Nihal was one of those who believed in the right of the media to search for the truth and in his illustrious career was marked by some very illuminating stories and insights into the working of the Indian government. Those were the days when editors were not hands on but phantom figures in cabins who dined with kings and presidents and occasionally entered the editorial floor to be greeted with a certain awe and respect. Besides The Statesman and the

Express, he had a close association with The Tribune and was also the founding editor of the

The Indian Post paper. On a personal note, our paths crossed dramatically but always like ships in the night, all too brief. I was a young and brash resident editor of one of the editions against his editor-in-chief of the

Express empire and too exalted a person to meet on a regular basis. We used to read him and that was enough gratification. He took over from me as editor of Khaleej Times but I left a day earlier and we did not meet till he was well entrenched in the city and one evening we did spend at the Indian Consul General’s house.

After he moved on, he was an infrequent visitor to Dubai and I was back in Khaleej Times when he arrived in office one day as dapper as only he could be in an impeccable suit and tie, one of those sartorially elegant men. I was going down the stairs and he was coming up and he greeted me with profound warmth and courtesy and we spent the better part of an hour together. About seven years ago we met again and if memory serves me right he agreed to do a column for the paper he loved.

He must have loved it very much to usher in the day and then let go of the rope on the 40th anniversary of the last paper he edited.

Few people know that Nihal Singh fought the good fight against Indira Gandhi’s Emergency and control on the media.”