Netaji: Living Dangerously

Kingshuk Nag is resident editor of the Times of India in Hyderabad, a position he has held from July 2005. The ToI attained the position of largest circulated English daily in Hyderabad during his tenure. A recipient of the prestigious Prem Bhatia Award for Excellence in Political Reporting and Analyses for his publication's coverage of the 2002 communal riots in Gujarat while he was stationed in Ahmedabad, Nag is a hard-nosed 24X7 journalist, ever ready to receive the proverbial tip-off on a story even if it means a colleague calling him at midnight to inform him of a news break. Probably his finest hour as a journalist and editor, the reports carried by the ToI on the unprecedented Gujarat riots in 2002­− in the face of confrontation with the authorities and despite personal threats− went a long way in curbing the conflagration. Of the three decades he has spent as a journalist, Nag has served with the ToI for twenty-two years and held positions such as that of resident editor at Ahmedabad (May 2000 – June 2005), business editor (south) based out of Bengaluru (January 1998 – April 2000) and chief of business bureau at New Delhi (June 1993 – December 1997). Nag is also a recipient of the state-level Rajiv Gandhi Sadbhavana Award – 2010 given by the Rajiv Gandhi Forum of Odisha.

Nag is an alumnus of the 1980 batch of the Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi. Before he entered journalism, he learnt about market economics during a two-year stint with the Tata Economic Consultancy Services in Mumbai. He returned to Delhi, the city that he had grown up in, to work with the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham). Thereafter, he entered journalism full-time, starting his career with Business India magazine.

Nag has written a book titled Saffron Tide that traces the growth of the Bharatiya Janata Party. In 2013, in the run-up to the national elections he penned NaMo Story, a biography of Narendra Modi. The book received rave reviews for providing an objective view of the politician and is by far the highest selling book on India’s current Prime Minister. Nag’s second book named Battleground Telangana, released in mid-2011, charts out the fifty-year-old history of the conflict for a new state that came into being in June 2014. His first book, also written during his tenure in Hyderabad, is called Double Life of Ramalinga Raju: The Story of India’s Largest Corporate Scam. The book, which won critical acclaim and became a bestseller, explored the motivations that turned the information technology czar into a scamster in the process running to the ground a global computer software company.

Nag is currently researching the idea of whether economic reforms without political reforms have been disastrous for India. A public interest litigation (PIL) petition filed by him in the Hyderabad High Court is seeking far-reaching political reforms.

The motto of the school where he studied, the Frank Anthony Public School in New Delhi, ‘Courage is Destiny’ is his credo and continues to influence him.