Praful Bidwai

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Praful Bidwai (born 1949) is an Indian journalist, political analyst, and activist.

Contents

[edit] Journalist and columnist

After dropping out of Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay , Bidwai's first notable work in journalism was as a columnist for Economic and Political Weekly of Bombay, beginning in 1972. He was later an editor of Business India and a special correspondent for Financial Express of Bombay. He served as editor of The Times of India between 1981 and 1993, eventually becoming its Senior Editor. During this time he was The Times' most published journalist. Bidwai is currently a columnist whose stories are published regularly in the Hindustan Times, The Tribune, Rediff.com, Frontline, the Kashmir Times, and more than twenty other newspapers. He frequently writes for the international news agency IPS, and has also contributed to Pakistani publications including The Nation. Bidwai authors a regular column, "From the World's Most Dangerous Place", on the website Antiwar.com.

[edit] Peace activism

Bidwai is also a veteran peace activist with anti-Imperialist moorings. He helped found the Movement in India for Nuclear Disarmament (MIND), based in New Delhi, is a member of the International Network of Engineers and Scientists against Proliferation, and is one of the leaders of the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace, India. Along with Achin Vanaik, Bidwai is the author of New Nukes: India, Pakistan and Global Nuclear Disarmament (Interlink, 1999). In 2000, Bidwai and Vanaik were awarded the Sean McBride International Peace Prize by the International Peace Bureau in recognition of their work opposing nuclear weapons development in South Asia.[1] Praful Bidwai is a fellow of the Transnational Institute.

[edit] Criticism and Controversies

Bidwai criticised the BJP's nomination of Abdul Kalam for the President's post as an opportunist move to cover up its communalism, writing "Kalam may be too much of the RSS’ 'poster-boy Muslim' to serve even as a figleaf".[2] Yvette Rosser characterized the "poster-boy" comment as a double standard, comparing Kalam's appreciation of Hindu culture with the embrace of indigenous tradition by Akbar, who she said the left lauds.[3]

Yatindra Bhatnagar, chief editor of the periodical "International Opinion", list Bidwai as part of a coalition of extreme leftists who spread misinformation and propaganda against Hindus regarding the Gujarat riots of 2002 with an expressed intention of encouraging anti-Hindu discrimination.[4]

[edit] Books

  • "South Asia on a Short Fuse. Nuclear Politics and the Future of Global Disarmament" (Co-author with Achin Vanaik) Oxford University Press, India, 1999

In the US, the book has been published as: "New Nukes. India, Pakistan and Global Nuclear Disarmament" (Slightly different from the OUP volume in editing style and number of appendices) Interlink Publishing, USA, 1999

  • "Testing Times. The Global Stake in a Nuclear Test Ban" (Co-author with Achin Vanaik) Dag Hammerskjöld Foundation, Uppsala, Sweden 1996
  • "Religion, Religiosity and Communalism" (Co-editor with Harbans Mukhia and Achin Vanaik) South Asia Books, October 1996
  • "India Under Siege. Challenges Within and Without" (With Muchkund Dubey, Anuradha Chenoy and Arun Ghosh) South Asia Books, November 1995
  • "Atoms for Peace: A Failed Promise" In: Survey of the Environment '99, The Hindu, 1999
  • "India's Nuclear Daze. The Domestic Politics of Nuclearization" (With Achin Vanaik) In: Testing the Limits, TNI/IPS Amsterdam/Washington, August 1998
  • "Nuclear India: A Short History" In: Out of Nuclear Darkness. The Indian Case for Disarmament, MIND (Movement in India for Nuclear Disarmament), New Delhi, 1998
  • "Communalism and the Democratic Process in India" (With Achin Vanaik) In: Jochen Hippler (eds). The Democratisation of Disempowerment TNI/Pluto Press, 1995
  • "India and Pakistan" (With Achin Vanaik) In: Security with Nuclear Weapons New York, Oxford University Press, 1991

[edit] References

  1. ^ IPB press communique
  2. ^ Praful Bidwai. "Lessons from the Almost-war", The Hindustan Times, 15 June 2002. [1]
  3. ^ 03-C&I.doc
  4. ^ International Opinion

[edit] External links