Veteran journalist S Nihal Singh passes away at 88

New Delhi: Veteran journalist S Nihal Singh passed away in New Delhi on Monday following illness, his family members said.

Singh breathed his last at the National Heart Institute. He was suffering from kidney-related ailments. He would have been 89 later this month.

"He was ill for quite some time. But he turned critically ill for the past one week," Indu Nihal Singh, his sister-in-law said.

He will be cremated in New Delhi on Tuesday, she added.

The journalist is survived by four sisters.

S Nihal Singh had worked with several leading newspapers including The Indian Express as its editor-in-chief, The Statesman as chief editor and Khaleej Times as editor. He was the founding editor of The Indian Post in 1987.

He was awarded the prestigious International Editor of the Year Award in New York for opposing the Emergency imposed by former prime minister Indira Gandhi.

He worked as foreign correspondent in Moscow, London, the United States and Indonesia.

Singh was the first correspondent allowed to represent an Indian newspaper in Pakistan after the 1965 war, the veteran editor recalled in an interview in 2013.

He met Indira Gandhi before leaving for Pakistan and felt she was "rather pessimistic about the likelihood of better relations" between the two countries. "I brought up Kashmir for instance and she said, "What solution can there be on Kashmir considering the Pakistani attitudes?"

Singh wrote extensively on both domestic and foreign affairs in his columns after his last stint as an editor with Khaleej Times.

His books include "The Rocky Road to Indian Democracy: Nehru to Narasimha Rao", "The Yogi and the Bear: Story of Indo-Soviet Relations" and "The Gang and 900 million: A China Diary".

He cast a critical eye on his own profession in "Your Slip is Showing: Indian Press Today" and recalled his life in journalism in "Ink in My Veins".

Vice President Venkaiah Naidu expressed his condolences to the members of S Nihal Singh.

Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala recalled the title of this autobiographical work in his tribute.

"In a career spanning several decades, his impeccable integrity and journalistic ethics is a benchmark in today's times. My prayers are with his family & friends," he tweeted.