Srinivasa Sethuraman, better known as ‘Sethu’ to the old timers of media fraternity in Delhi, passed away in Chennai on August 20 after a brief illness. He was 99. Sethuraman is perhaps the only journalist in India who spent about 78 years in active journalism spanning a period of 1945 to 2023 first in the PTI from the beginning till his retirement in 1986 and then in IPA from 1986 to this month August. He sent his last piece on Tamil Nadu politics in the first week of this month
Sethuraman spent almost a lifetime in journalism, reporting and evaluating post-Independence developments, political and economic. He had the unique quality of judging the political developments from the economic angle. He was PTI’s Chief News Editor and Economics Editor (1978-86).
His coverage encompassed major events in the Nehru era and later in Indira Gandhi years. Writing on economics was his forte, dwelling on both domestic and global growth issues, financial trends and North-South dialogues. Widely travelled, he also reported on a series of international economic conferences in post-war decades.
With institutional commitment, Sethuraman launched an innovative PTI Economic Service in mid-1970s, as a fortnightly brief for corporates and other user-institutions. It provided overviews, industrial briefs and commodity profiles along with data updates on prices, banking and stocks. Business Houses valued the Service in times before economic newssheets made headway.
As Editor, he promoted diversification of news service with more economic and social content and made substantial additions to PTI’s international datelines. He was principally involved in the Management’s drive to recruit new talent, selecting over 100 trainee journalists in the first half of 1980s.
Sethuraman had begun his journalistic career at Nagpur in 1941, as an editorial assistant in The Hitavada newspaper before joining PTI (then API) in 1945. Based in Nagpur, he also covered significant developments in Sewagram, Wardha, the abode of Gandhiji then. After a spell at PTI’s Central News Desk in Bombay (1954-57) that gave him a greater sense of perspective, Sethuraman moved to Delhi to report on Parliament, Union Ministries and Parliamentary wings of ruling and opposition parties over a long period.
While Sethuraman was a dominant figure in eco-political journalism during his tenure in PTI, his transition to IPA as the economic commentator saw him at his best. He was prolific as an analyst assessing the ongoing developments and commenting on the issues with his wider perspective. His commentaries on annual budgets had large readership. He was a witness to India’s transition to a liberalized economy from 1991 and wrote insightful pieces on the pangs of transition.
He was at his best in his commentaries during the Narendra Modi era beginning 2014. He was highly critical of the majoritarian approach of the Modi government and all through last nine years of BJP rule, he was one of those few senior journalists of the country who fought through his writings the policies of the BJP government which polarized the nation. He was a great believer in the Constitutional ethos of India and took positions when those were attacked.
Journalism apart, Sethuraman’s other abiding passion was Karnatak classical music. Classical music, for Sethuraman, remained a “sustaining force”, given a flair for singing from boyhood. Besides being a vocalist in Karnatak music over the years with a vast repertoire, he revelled in extensive raga researches to refine his style of presentation with touches of Hindustani classicism. The Indian media will miss a high professional who fought for the emergence of an inclusive India through his writings for nearly eight decades. (IPA Service)
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