N. Ravi says nuclear deal is the best any government could negotiate

N.RAVI
N.RAM

While The Hindu under its Editor-in-Chief, N. Ram, toes the Communist Party of India (Marxist) line on the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal, the paper’s Editor and Ram’s brother, N. Ravi, has come out in support of the deal.

In an edit page article, titled “Missing the wood for the trees”, published today, Ravi commends the deal in these words: “On balance, it becomes clear that the advantages overwhelmingly outweigh any threat or flaw and it is as good a deal as any government can negotiate. Were the country to miss this chance, it will be an uphill task for any future government to resurrect the deal with a new administration in Washington.”

Ram was widely tipped to succeed his uncle, G. Kasturi, who was the paper's Editor from 1965, but was bypassed in the wake of his publicly aired differences with him over coverage of the Bofors scandal. While Ram remained the Editor all other publications of the Hindu group, Ravi was appointed Editor of the flagship daily in 1991 and headed its editorial operations for 12 years.

In 2003, Ram took over as Editor-in-Chief under an arrangement, which was reportedly worked out at the instance of Kasturi himself, to prepare the paper for competition with the Times of India which was known to plans to launch a Chennai edition. Ravi still carries the title of Editor. The ToI Chennai edition appeared this year.