Praful Bidwai. Photo: S. Gopakumar.
New Delhi: Veteran journalist, author and anti-nuclear activist Praful Bidwai has died at the age of 64 during a visit to the Netherlands.
Bidwai died in Amsterdam on Tuesday evening due to a cardiac arrest, family friend Pamela Philipose told media.
Bidwai was a fellow at Transnational Institute at Amsterdam, an organisation of international scholar-activists.
He was a regular contributor to magazines and newspapers, besides being a leading anti-nuclear activist.
He also wrote a number of books, including the 1999 New Nukes: India, Pakistan and Global Nuclear Disarmament.
His latest book on the crisis in the Indian Left was due to be released later this year.
After working as a senior editor for the Times of India for a number of years, Bidwai became a freelance commentator, writing for publications in India and abroad.
He was a staunch critic of the Narendra Modi-led ruling NDA government and in an article in UK-based The Guardian earlier this year he wrote that Modi’s “grandiose schemes – including large-scale urban sanitation, cleaning up the Ganges, interlinking rivers or creating ‘smart cities’ – smacks of gimmickry and empty sloganeering”.
Bidwai had been a Professorial Fellow at the Centre for Social Development, New Delhi, and also a Senior Fellow at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library. He had also served as a member of the Indian Council for Social Science Research, the Central Advisory Board on Education, and the National Book Trust.
He was a long-time Fellow of the Transnational Institute, the Amsterdam-based organisation of international scholar-activists including Susan George and Walden Bello.
A bachelor, he is survived by two sisters.
(Agencies)
