This week, my last column for Mint will appear. I have been writing for Mint ever since Lounge, its Weekend magazine, was first launched. But my conscience will not allow me to write for Mint any longer…

   I agreed to do the column because of my respect and regard for Raju Narisetti, the founder editor of Mint. But I quickly began to enjoy it because Lounge is such an excellent product and Priya Ramani is one of the finest editors I have ever written for. The quality of the subbing and the attention to detail at Lounge should serve as examples to other publications.

   So why am I stopping the column?

   It's quite simple. I will not write for a publication that censors its columnists and denies them the right to free speech while writing long, impassioned pieces about the freedom to criticize others from the Prime Minister downwards. All of us exhibit double standards to some degree. But Mint's hypocrisy takes my breath away.

   The dispute is over a column I wrote on business journalism in the aftermath of the Satyam scandal. I wrote about business journalism in general and made specific references to my one brush with business journalists during my brief, ill-fated time with News X.

   While I praised some organizations (Business Standard, Exchange4Media etc.) I was critical of Mint, which had easily the worst coverage of that episode and of INX TV in general.

   Newspapers have different ways of handling criticism. When I was editor of the HT we had a simple policy. If the criticism came from a credible source we carried it prominently. Even after I left, that tradition has continued. All kinds of people have been given space and prominence to criticize both the paper and myself. When I attacked Yashwant Sinha, he responded with an angry piece, which we ran in full on the edit page. When Ram Guha tore apart my tribute to Rajiv Gandhi we carried his piece in exactly the same space where mine had appeared.

   I believe that the ability to carry criticism of yourself is the mark of a competent editor and a confident publication.

   Sadly, the new editor of Mint – after Raju's departure – does not appear to share this view. He refused to carry the article.

   This is entirely his prerogative and I respect that.

   But I have to say that his attitude puzzles me. Almost from the time it was launched, Mint has taken pride in its ability to write what it likes about anybody including the HT and its owners. Barely a month has gone by without the paper taking some kind of dig at the HT (most recently, it said that the campaign for the HT Leadership Summit was the turkey of the month, a rather cruel swipe at my friend Rajiv Verma who had committed crores of the HT's money to this turkey).

   Nor has Mint hesitated to run all kinds of media stories, at least some of which have been no more than rumour and gossip given bogus legitimacy by appearing in a publication owned by HT Media.

   Obviously, there has been some astonishment in the world at large about Mint's attitudes. But as an admirer of the paper, I have always stuck up for Mint, defending it against the common allegation that it is HT Media's spoilt child that revels in biting the hand that feeds it.

   I believe in Mint. And I know that one day it will break even and confound its critics. I also have enormous respect for Rajiv Verma, whose baby it is.

   But sadly, there it is. No columnist can write for a paper that believes in censorship. And so, Pursuits will soon cease to appear in Mint and will appear exclusively on my website instead.

   The loss is entirely mine. I will miss writing for Lounge. And I will miss Priya's editing.

   And despite everything, I wish Mint all the luck it needs.
 

(Read the full column that Mint refused to carry)

(Image attributed to doortoriver's photostream under the Creative Commons licence)