On Saturday, the Editors Guild of India announced its new line-up. It said in a statement: “The Editors Guild of India is pleased to announce that Seema Mustafa, Editor of The Citizen, is its new President. This follows the announcement of the results of an online election held on October 16. In the same election, Sanjay Kapoor, Editor of Hardnews, was elected as General Secretary. Anant Nath, Editor of The Caravan, was elected unopposed as Treasurer.”
It added: “Ms Mustafa will succeed Shekhar Gupta, Editor-in-Chief of ThePrint, while Mr Kapoor and Mr Nath will take over from A.K. Bhattacharya, Editorial Director of Business Standard, and Sheela Bhatt, Contributing Editor of Rediff.com, respectively.”
It was the first ever election for the Guild. Seema Mustafa saw off MD Nalapat’s challenge. She received 87 votes to his 51.
ANI Editor-in-Chief Smita Prakash lost out to Sanjay Kapoor of Hard News who got 90 votes to her 50. Ananth Nath, Editor of The Caravan, won the Treasurer’s post unopposed.
Interestingly, even members who had ostensibly resigned like Navika Kumar and R Jagannathan voted in the elections, claiming their resignations hadn’t been disappointed.
Seema Mustafa
Seema Mustafa is a veteran journalist who is the editor of The Citizen. In the past, she has been associated with The Pioneer, The Patriod, The Telegraph, The Indian Express and The Asian Age. At the Asian Age, she won the ‘Prem Bhatia Award for Excellence in Political Reporting and Analysis’ in 1999 for her coverage of the Kargil War.
She would later be associated with The Convert and The Sunday Guardian. Seema Mustafa served as National Affairs Editor of News X as well, before moving to Centre for Policy Analysis and founded the Citizen in 2014.
She also contested elections to Lok Sabha in 1991 and 1996 but lost.
Sanjay Kapoor
Sanjay Kapoor of Hardnews Magazine meanwhile beat ANI editor-in-chief Smita Prakash. His Twitter bio reads: “Editor of Delhi's Hardnews magazine, exposed India’s biggest corruption scandal. Blitz, MidDay, Asiaweek. Looking for news behind news all the time.”
According to his Linkedin profile, Hardnews Magazine is a political monthly which has been ‘correct in its predictions of 2004, 2009 and 2014 elections’. He is a regular commentator on Indian and foreign TV channels.
Anant Nath
Anant Nath is the editor of The Caravan and the Executive Publisher of Delhi Press. He is an alumnus of IIM Lucknow and Columbia University, New York. Nath writes the Editor's Notebook in The Caravan. He is also on the Executive Committee of Association of Indian Magazines (AIM) and Indian Languages Newspapers Association (ILNA).
