Dear Madhu,

I was  astonished to see  Siddharth Varadarajan’s interview on Newslaundry and his assertion that my column was not carried because the editor did not have time to read it and vet it. I have written for the paper for twenty years and did not want to make a fuss about why I stopped writing but I have to set the record straight. I was told quite clearly that the paper was not carrying my column that week. When I pressed for a reason I was told that the editor-in-chief who used to vet my column  had said it was gossipy. There was no communication gap. When I sent them a mail the next day to say I had decided  not to continue writing because the  arbitrary censorship of my column has become more frequent and I no longer knew what the Hindu would carry and what it would not, I also forwarded that mail to Siddharth.  His only response was “pity!” He did not say at that point that the chief editor had not read it or that there was a communciation gap, or that no censorship was intended. If he is saying now that there was nothing objectionable in the piece it only confirms my point about arbitrary censorship.  May I add that my column on the Radia Tapes was also dropped by the Hindu, so there is a recent history to the censorship which influenced my decision.

Best

Sevanti