Delhi: Senior journalist Vinod Dua has passed away after a long time of illness from a Covid infection. Mallika Dua, his elder daughter confirm the news on social media. In the last week, on the advice of doctors the 67 years old journalist was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of Delhi Apollo Hospital.
Vinod Dua is survived by two daughters. Mallika Dua is a comic actor and Bakul Dua, her younger sister is a clinical psychologist. On Saturday Mallika posted on her Instagram story, “Our irreverent, fearless and extraordinary father, Vinod Dua has passed away…” and also added that tomorrow the cremation will be held at Capital in Lodhi crematorium at noon.
Mr. Dua was the pioneer of Hindi journalism. He has worked with NDTV and Doordarshan. Recently, he was well known for his political commentary in The Wire and HW News, the digital media platforms.
As the first electronic media journalist, he won the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award in 1996. In 2008 he was honored with the Padma Shri by the Indian Government. He was also awarded Redlnk Award for his lifetime achievement in the Journalism field from Mumbai Press Club.
Mr. Dua considered himself always a broadcaster, not a journalist. He was famous as a political journalist. He had hosted a program like ‘Janwani’. In this program, he showed the art of asking straight questions and how the spoken truth becomes a power.
‘Parakh’, a weekly current affairs show of Doordarshan was a big milestone of his early career.
Vinod Dua was an integral part of NDTV’s journey and he played a vital role in popular the channel. ‘Khabardar India’ and ‘Vinod Dua Live’ were hosted by him. Besides that, he was also a regular programmer of election broadcasting. Moreover, he also hosted a food show named ‘Zaika India Ka’.
He was one of the courageous journalists and never afraid to ask any uncomfortable question directly in a polite manner. Prannoy Roy worked closely with Vinod Dua in NDTV said, “Vinod is not just one of the greatest. He is the greatest of his era.”
Earlier this year during the second wave of Covid-19 Vinod Dua was hospitalized with his wife radiologist Padmavati Dua due to a Covid infection. But Mrs. was passed away in June and Mr. Dua struggled with his health till the last breath.