Mark Tully and his residence in Nizamuddin West. File photo courtesy- Jagran
Jagran correspondent, New Delhi. Former BBC India bureau chief and veteran journalist Sir Mark Tully has died at the age of 90. He lived in Nizamuddin West in Delhi.
Tully, who knew the pulse of the country, was known as the 'Indian voice of the BBC'. He was ill for the last few days and was undergoing treatment at Max in Saket. His colleague Madhukar Upadhyay has described Tali's demise as an irreparable loss to the journalism world.
Mark Tully was born in the year 1935 in Calcutta (now Kolkata). He studied history and theology from Cambridge, Britain. He was one of the few people in the world of foreign journalists in Delhi who spoke Hindi fluently, due to which people fondly called him 'Tali Saheb'.
In his decades-long career, he covered many era-changing events in South Asia, including Operation Blue Star of 1984, the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, the India-Pakistan War and the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi.
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Similarly, he was also present during the demolition of the controversial structure in 1992. He was locked in a room amid the mob attack from where he was rescued by local officials.
During the Emergency, Indira Gandhi expelled him from India with 24 hours' notice, but he returned as soon as the Emergency was lifted.
Awarded with Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan
The Government of India honored him with the Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan. In the year 2002, Britain gave him the title of "Sir" (knighthood) for journalism. Although he was a British citizen, he later acquired the status of "Overseas Citizen of India" (OCI). He always said that he was a citizen of the two countries to which he felt closest.
Madhukar Upadhyay, his longtime associate, expressed grief over his demise and said that he was such a teacher of journalism, whom journalism could be learned only by watching. He never told his colleagues to do this or not to do this.
Wrote many famous books
He established high standards of journalism. Once told him how people write books of hundreds of pages. He starts thinking only after writing 200 words of news. He was basically a radio journalist.
But he changed himself and wrote many historical and popular books like No Fool Stop in India. People close to him said that the last rites will be held on Monday.
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