Veteran journalist Mark Tully passes away at 90 | India News

Veteran journalist, broadcaster and author Sir William Mark Tully, commonly known as Mark Tully, passed away on Sunday, aged 90. His voice became deeply familiar to Indian audiences as he covered some of the country’s most pivotal political moments in the second half of the 20th century, news agency IANS reported.

A former BBC correspondent, Tully has spent much of his career covering India and South Asia and has been recognized with honors by both the Indian and British governments. He was unwell for some time and was admitted to a hospital in South Delhi where he died.

Tully was born on 24 October 1935 in Tollygunge, Kolkata (now Kolkata) into a wealthy British business family. He completed his primary education in India, including time spent at a boarding school in Darjeeling, before moving to the United Kingdom at the age of nine. He later studied theology at Cambridge University with the intention of joining the clergy, but abandoned that path and turned to journalism, joining the BBC in 1964.

Tully returned to India in 1965 as the BBC’s India Correspondent and soon became the organisation’s New Delhi bureau chief. During his 22-year tenure, he covered almost every major event in South Asia, including the India-Pakistan conflicts, Operation Blue Star, the assassination of Indira Gandhi and subsequent anti-Sikh riots, the Bhopal gas disaster, the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi and the destruction of the Babri Masjid.

He left the BBC in July 1994 following a dispute with the BBC’s then Director General, and subsequently worked as a freelance journalist and broadcaster in New Delhi. Despite his departure, he continued to contribute to BBC programs until 2019.

Tully also wrote several books. Beginning with “Amritsar: Mrs Gandhi’s Last Battle” (1985), which he co-wrote with his BBC colleague Satish Jacob, he later co-wrote “From Raj to Rajiv: 40 Years of India’s Independence” (1988) with Zareer Masani, “No Full Stop in India” (1988), “India in Slow Motion” (2002) and “India’s Unending” with Gillian Wright. Journey” (2008) and “India: The Road Ahead” (2011).

“Heart of India” (1995) and “Tales from Out of Country: Once Upon a Time in the Heart of India” (2017), which cover stories of Indian life, were his fictional works.

He later became an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1985. He was knighted in 2002 and was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India in 2005.