Kanchan Gupta
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| Kanchan Gupta | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born | West Bengal, India |
| Education |
Loyola School, Jamshedpur; St Michael's High School, Patna; St Xavier's College, Kolkata. |
| Occupation | Journalist |
| Title | Associate Editor The Pioneer |
| Spouse(s) | Nandini Gupta |
Kanchan Gupta is an Indian journalist, political analyst, and activist.
[edit] Journalist and columnist
Born to East Bengali refugee parents, Kanchan Gupta was raised in Jamshedpur and Patna where he attended missionary schools. He later moved to Kolkata where he studied English literature, political science and economics at St Xavier’s College, University of Calcutta.
In 1982, he joined The Telegraph as a sub-editor on the news desk, where he learned editing from M.J. Akbar. In 1987, he was invited to join The Statesman by the paper's then-editor, Sunanda K. Datta-Ray. He became the youngest Assistant Editor in The Statesman’s history.
In 1991, he moved to Delhi with a new assignment as Assistant Editor of The Pioneer, then edited by Vinod Mehta. He was promoted to Deputy Editor in 1994.
A year later, in December 1995, he gave up full-time journalism to concentrate on a public career and began to assist L.K. Advani and Atal Bihari Vajpayee in their parliamentary work. As an official in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) when the NDA came to power, he worked in close association with National Security Advisor Brajesh Mishra on foreign affairs and security issues. He was the PMO’s representative on the National Security Advisory Board.
As part of the Government’s public diplomacy initiative in Arab countries, and to engage and influence opinion-makers and the intelligentsia in the Middle East, Kanchan Gupta was sent to Egypt as director of the Maulana Azad Centre for Indian Culture in Cairo. He held this post till the summer of 2004, when he returned to India and to journalism, and accepted a position as Associate Editor of The Pioneer, now edited by Chandan Mitra.
Kanchan Gupta writes on national and regional politics, international affairs and security issues. He is among the few Right-wing journalists in India who are not squeamish about writing on Hindu issues and exploring the potential of Hindu nationalism as a unifying force. His popular weekly column, Coffee Break, appears in The Pioneer every Sunday. He occasionally writes for The Jerusalem Post [1] and does occasional commentary for Australian radio [2]. He participates in Indian television programs on political and national security issues. [3] [4] [5].
His articles have been used as primary source material by authors of books on Indian current affairs and politics. He writes occasional columns for India’s foremost news portal, rediff.com. Most of his articles and columns can be found at www.dailypioneer.com and on his popular blog, Agent Provocateur, at kanchangupta.blogspot.com.
An ardent and vocal advocate of free speech and a staunch opponent of censorship, Kanchan Gupta has written extensively in support of, and campaigned for, exiled Bangladeshi poet Daud Haider, who now lives in Berlin, and exiled Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen.
A number of Kanchan Gupta's articles have been quoted in Wikipedia articles on various topics:
Haqeeqat (book), Rizwanur Rahman
Widely travelled, Kanchan Gupta is the recipient of several fellowships, grants and lecture invitations from public institutions in Canada, the United States, Germany, Israel, Taiwan and China (where he addressed the first China-India Development Forum in 2010). He is among the few Indian journalists to have visited Tibet. He was selected by the American Jewish Committee for a Project Interchange seminar in Israel. He has addressed seminars at a host of universities and think tanks. He has visited countries in the Maghreb and Mashrek; Africa; and the Caribbean. He has visited Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka on professional assignments. As an aide to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, he attended the UN's historic Millennium Summit.
Kanchan Gupta, guided by the principles and philosophy of the Brahmo Samaj in his personal life,is partial towards Hindustani classical music, Rabindra Sangeet, Jazz and Blues. He lives in India’s National Capital Region with his wife and two daughters.
